Your Cricket Season

[Neil Pickup]

Yesterday's issue was definitely dodgy cheap tennis balls not bouncing like you'd expect them to. Incrediballs are much better bets when you want to find the middle of the bat.

A good couple of sessions this afternoon with the County 10s and 11s - particularly enjoyed working with the older keepers, where - for the first time in living memory - we actually have competition for places of a positive kind (as opposed to looking for the least permeable pair of gloves).

 

[Hurricane]

@Neil I can't find your post where you talked about how to get kids to bowl for the first time.
Can you recommend any drills please. It is for my 9 year old nephew.

 

[BeeGee]

You lucky bastards.

Enjoy it while you can, lads, because you'll miss it when it's over.

Like I do. Getting old sucks.

 

[uvelocity]

win. lost the toss and had to bowl first for the first time this season. bloody hot too strewth

 

[Neil Pickup]

Not sure I remember it either, but I'll see if I can dig it out!

Back in the full routine of the county "off-season" now - 9 hours' coaching over the last couple of days via three district squads and two county squads. Unbelievably satisfying to do the County U10s and U11s back to back, and see the massive step up in quality the older ones demonstrate thanks to their year's experience. We did one fielding drill of superbly high standards, midway through which (having taken a few balls that fizzed, hard, into the gloves) I have been forced to conclude that the standard of cricket I coach is far higher than that which I play.

 

[Jarquis]

First preseason club net this evening and probably my only one as I'll be back at Uni. Since my 'conversion' to bowling seam ups I can conclude a number of things (1) bowling bouncers is fun (2) I get a strange satisfaction out of hitting/scaring people (3) taking poles with yorkers is also fun.

Ordered myself a 2lb 12 Redback Paradox too which should be ready in about a fortnight. Can't wait. Will be interesting how I go with the extra weight. My other bats have been 2.8/2.9 + an extra grip.

 

[Cabinet96]

I like a reasonably heavy bat too. I always like to check my drives so it's nice for the ball to fly off without having to swing to powerfully.

 

[Neil Pickup]

Light bat fan here. Need all the help I can get to keep the ball out of cow corner.

Actually, Mr Cabinet, let me pick your brains a moment. I have been left lead-coaching an U15 squad for the first time this winter (my experience is massively based with U10/U11 where the content is basics, introduction and development). Obviously "this is what a forward defensive is" won't wash so well with older ones - you must have recent experience of good-level youth cricket etc, can you give me some pointers on effective drills or particularly areas worth focusing on?

I am intending on structuring the (1 hour 30) session broadly as: 15' warm-up; 15' fielding; 20' skill input/drill focus; 30' net. That gives 10' overspill. However I am looking at a 10-week programme right now and thinking "where do I get five hours of good drills from?"

 

[Jarquis]

Haha, I play proper shots and am pretty sick of not getting full value for them. Rather than drive to mid on and cover I want to be able to drive through them
Apparently I hit the ball pretty damn hard as it is so should be good fun.

I'll chuck some photos up when it arrives.

 

[Cabinet96]

Was just about to ask whether you teach any older lots.

Coaches for me in the last few years have only really done specific tinkering. Such as making sure I move my head forward before my front foot etc...which I prefer, as I obviously have gone though the very basics a lot, and feel like I know my basic technical problems and what not. In the last two years of my time of getting a lot of youth coaching (it's pretty much finished now ) I started to appreciate the use of tennis ball throw downs and bobble feeds, but I always found half of the people I trained with just took the piss, and were trying to show off about how hard they could hit a tennis ball dribbling towards them. In that respect, bowling machines would probably be a better way to get the kids really into the stuff they're doing, but I appreciate that can be hard if you have big numbers.

I can't say I ever got a huge amount of batting coaching though, so I can't suggest much more than just bowling machines and tennis ball bobble feeds, with really specific technical work. I was usually considered a bowler and only really got a couple of serious one to one sessions in my two year period at London Schools. I always wish I'd done more drills in my training sessions, though admittedly I wasn't like the most kids I played with in that respect. I was always a bit "keen".

 

[Cabinet96]

Haha, I play proper shots and am pretty sick of not getting full value for them. Rather than drive to mid on and cover I want to be able to drive through them
Apparently I hit the ball pretty damn hard as it is so should be good fun.

I'll chuck some photos up when it arrives.

Yeah, I'm pretty much the same. I prefer to punch the ball rather than smash the leather off it. I.e. more like Kallis than Lara. But I've always been big for my age so can still strike the ball pretty hard, especially with a weighty bat.

 

[Burgey]

Dominating.

 

[Hurricane]

Light bat fan here. Need all the help I can get to keep the ball out of cow corner.

Actually, Mr Cabinet, let me pick your brains a moment. I have been left lead-coaching an U15 squad for the first time this winter (my experience is massively based with U10/U11 where the content is basics, introduction and development). Obviously "this is what a forward defensive is" won't wash so well with older ones - you must have recent experience of good-level youth cricket etc, can you give me some pointers on effective drills or particularly areas worth focusing on?

I am intending on structuring the (1 hour 30) session broadly as: 15' warm-up; 15' fielding; 20' skill input/drill focus; 30' net. That gives 10' overspill. However I am looking at a 10-week programme right now and thinking "where do I get five hours of good drills from?"

Here's a running between the wickets drill that will last for 30 minutes. We did it at high school.

1) two batsman
2) The coach is the bowler and umpire. But he just lobs the ball slowly to the batsman and generally stands in the middle of the pitch.
3) The batsman have 3 deliveries to score a run or they are out.
4) The batsman is out if they hit it on the leg side or hard enough on the off side that it would go for a comfortable two. They should be hitting singles only.
5) The batsman after hitting the ball has to make a loud correct call immediately or he is out. The Non striker is required to call if it goes behind square.
6) The key with the umpiring is to be brutal to the batsman unless the call is immediate and loud. Most batsman last one or two balls before they are out. And then another batsman comes in. Usually all eleven players are playing with 9 fielding and 2 batsman. Once a batsman is out he becomes a fielder and waits his turn to bat again.

 

[Hurricane]

Out lbw for 4. I thought it was missing leg. The umpire said it was hitting off stump. There you go.
the batsman never thinks it out.

 

[uvelocity]

umpires are stupid, don't worry about that. where was your front foot

didnt touch the coin, it landed tails, he called tails (it never fails) yet in blistering heat still we batted first

scored par, bowled em out. had to drag myself after two ****house overs.

 

[Hurricane]

umpires are stupid, don't worry about that. where was your front foot

didnt touch the coin, it landed tails, he called tails (it never fails) yet in blistering heat still we batted first

scored par, bowled em out. had to drag myself after two ****house overs.

Every lbw I've ever had in the past five years the umpire has claimed it was hitting half way up middle.

Never once have they said it was going to take leg stump out of the ground (which is still out). It is always middle stump mate. It was going to hit middle. Yesterday was the first time I have heard middle and off or off stump or whatever he said.

 

[MrPrez]

First match of the new term today.

They got 193.

We got 16.

It's ominous.

Got 1 off 1 - got runout as the dumb idiot who had already given away about 15 extras in his bowling (and he bowled one over) didn't listen to me when I said no to the second run. Screamed no and he stopped for a moment and then said "yeah, come on." By then he was nearly half-way up the pitch. I was gutted.

Got 2/20-25ish off my 4 though which was...ok In context.

 

[Hurricane]

Out for 1. But it was a good 1 as far as 1's go. I went in with 3 wickets down and 9 overs left in the game and the 4th inning.

I blocked out everything except for the 2nd to last ball of the day and got caught at point.

A couple of other guys got out so we finished 6 down.

 

[uvelocity]

w00sh00t

 

[Neil Pickup]

Had a really good net this afternoon. Having had a long think about a few biomechanical ideas on the back of the ECB coaches conference last weekend, I focused on making my stance narrower with the aim of avoiding "planting" my left foot down middle and leg; basically I get the feeling that I was unable to push off and cover off stump properly. Consequence was just as I had hoped; balance and movement much better and I hit some really sweet off- and cover-drives before finishing my bucket with a straight on-drive that I timed the backside off.

Watching the ball helped, too.