Submission

[gibbsnsmith]

ok ive decided to give up..my last match where im gonna put in effort is gonna be on this thursday at the north kent schools cup final...

after a lil chat with my club caoch, in which he says there will be almost no chance for me to get into the big time so he says there is no point for me to put so much effort in my cricket. So, its seems obvious there is no point in me continuing to play cricket but ill still play club cricket but my passion has now almost finally gone...but ill redirect my attentions into being a parttime coach...

i have a lot ideas of how to improve budding cricketers and have theorys but before i show the world ill ask around here if they seem plausible.

theories

as im a medium pacer, ive spent hours in working good ways to use variation and make them as hard as possible to spot...

1] using your fingers to vary your pace..ie. 2 fingers on the seam to get a pacey ball, use 1 or 3 to slow it down with making it too obvious
2] while batting, young people really do overestimate yorkers, i mean its a known fact that yorkers are potent weapons but its very rare that kids at the age of u16 can deliver a proper pacey yorker...i mean ive only faced 1 good one...
so usually the attempted yorkers end up just out side the off stump and its their for the batsman to drive but kids usually premedoitiate to dig iot out


more theories later

 

[Neil Pickup]

All I can say is - do not let the "coach" win.

If you can score centuries at the age of 15 then you obviously have the talent to succeed at probably County Premier League level.

My advice there is get yourself a new club and enjoy the look on his face next season when you hit the winning runs against them.

Having said that, there's no harm in starting coaching (I believe James Hockley runs the Kent CB coaching schemes?) but IMO it is a very individual game and all-encompassing theories tend to count for little.

What makes a difference is one-to-one constructive coaching.

 

[Langeveldt]

Im thinking about moving clubs this winter in a last ditch attempt to get some recognition and improve as a cricketer, Im just waiting basically to be told the same thing, that Im not good enough.. Im not sure what I will do after that, but I sure will be gutted...

You know far better than your coach what you want from your cricket, so dont let him get in your way...

 

[gibbsnsmith]

all i can say is people have friends and people can talk to said friends so reputations can easily get ruined.....catch my drift?

 

[Langeveldt]

Yes, our present captain is currently getting undermined by everyone, so I want to get out of the ship before it sinks...

 

[Top_Cat]

Who on Earth can possibly tell whether a 15-year-old could make it into the big time? It's far too early. Mental approach is what makes the difference. It's the difference between being told by a coach you're no good and believing it or telling yourself "He's wrong and I'm going prove it."

When Glenn McGrath was playing in Narromine before he moved to Sydney, his captain wouldn't give him a bowl because he didn't rate him. He'd spend Sundays just running around the field without getting a bowl at all. Now he's one of Australia's best ever Test and ODI pace bowlers. The following sentence was in a report card that was given to the WACA after Stuart MacGill did his stint at the Australian Cricket Academy:

"The thought should not be entertained of selecting Stuart MacGill in any Australian first-class cricket team."

Every cricketer I know has been told at some stage they were no good. Some have given up and gone by the wayside, others kicked on and played Test cricket and/or FC cricket.

So it comes down to this; if you heed what this coach says, you can blame him for the rest of your life but just remember, it was your decision to give up. If you look inside you and find the confidence to disregard what he says, you'll discover it's your decision to not give up too. Either way, he does NOT decide your future, YOU do.

I guess I'm a bit sensitive about this sort of thing because I gave up at 16 too. I was on the right track having been second on the wicket-takers list for the Australia U/19's championships representing SA and was part of a winning South Australian team. When I then didn't make the Australian U/19 squad, I absolutely spat the dummy and quit. I thought I deserved to be there and made it be known far and wide what a bunch of [expletive not included] the selectors were. Since then I've just blamed it on the fact that I won my science scholarship to study at Uni etc. but in reality, I quit because I was so stung by someone not showing confidence in me, I actually believed they were right and didn't think there was any point in going on.

My point is, no-one is in a position to say how good you'll be when you're only 15 and believe it or not, that includes yourself. Don't listen to those who even may think they have your best interests at heart because you CAN prove them wrong. I'm just starting to get back into cricket having had a long lay-off and although I'm hopeful, I doubt I'll ever be the same bowler I was or even have the same desire to be.

Don't make the same mistake I made, particularly if you DO have some talent. The question now is, do you have the courage to listen to yourself or will you just rely on the diagnoses of others?

 

[anzac]

well said all....

jesus H ......no one should be giving up on anything in their early 20's let alone as a teen!!!!! if you love it once you give it away without giving it your best shot it is hard to look yourself in the mirror years later.

Believe me - one of my biggest regrets has been giving up on my sport in my early 20's without ever finding out just how good / successful I could have been.

Think of it as a test of your character - nothing worth anything is ever handed to you - you have to fight for it and believe in yourself. You don't have to be 'the best' if you have 'the best' desire & belief to succeed. This applies to most things in life - not just sport.

Challenge yourselves to 'give it a go'. I'm now 40+, married with a young family, and I'm applying to change my occupation into a career where my initial competition will be kids half my age!

 

[marc71178]

So let me get this straight Corey.

You were 16 when you gave it up.

Surely if you'd stuck it out you'd have had an U19 call at 17, 18 or even 19?

 

[Mr Mxyzptlk]

all i can say is people have friends and people can talk to said friends so reputations can easily get ruined.....catch my drift?

Surely with your stats, someone has to take notice... no matter what is said about you... no matter how influential the person.

 

[Top_Cat]

So let me get this straight Corey.

You were 16 when you gave it up.

Surely if you'd stuck it out you'd have had an U19 call at 17, 18 or even 19?

Indeed but by the time I was 17, I was at Uni doing a science degree and had no time to play cricket. Besides, there was a bit more to it than that. When I came back from Melbourne, I was pretty damn angry at the way I percieved I was treated and when I got the State call-up the next season, I flatly refused to train, reasoning that I wasn't going to make it anyway (due to the aforementioned non-selection).

The coach sat me down and tried to tell me that I was only 16 and it was slightly unreasonable to expect me to leapfrog 17 and 18-year-olds into the Aussie squad, no matter how good a tournament I had. I was in no mood to listen and told him where to go (bloody arrogant gob shyte I was, eh?).

Gradually I was ostracised at club training to the extent where my club coach told me that unless my attitude made something of a paradigm shift, I'd lose my 1st grade spot at the club. Again, I told him where to go and bang, I was out on my ear without a club. So I gave up and went to Uni instead.

I was an angry boy. Things were rough at home for that time and that may go some way to explaining why I reacted the way I did. Over-reacted is a more apt term, really. And yes, you're right Marc; if I'd just stuck it out, I would have been in with a good chance of playing higher. As I said, I wasn't in any mood to listen, though. So I paid for it.

I'm not saying I'm permanently affected by what happened but I do think about it from time to time and wonder what may have been had I been more receptive to others' opinions and not been so bitter. Maybe, though, the reality of the situation was that I was in such an angry state for years that something like this was bound to happen anyway. Maybe I wasn't really ready to play higher etc. Who knows? Either way, I'll never know where I could have gone and I hate to see the same thing happen to others.

 

[marc71178]

Oh well, at the end of the day, I believe in fate, and if fate had dictated, you'd now be playing instead of Brett Lee, but it didn't, and so long as you're happy that's all that matters!

(Help, I think I'm turning into Yaju!)

 

[Blewy]

Yeah look Gibbsy, i had a very similar situation in Rugby league.. When i was 16 i was selected in the Western Suburbs SG Ball side, and after 4 games i was moved into the Flegg Side(U/19), In only my 3rd game for Flegg i was being watched by the Western Suburbs coach(Tom Raudonikas) who was looking at maybe moving me to 1st grade for a few games before the season ended, however in that game i stuffed my ankle very badly which left me out of football for 18 months..
When i went to make a comeback i was overlooked because the new coach didn't like me(Mainly because his son was left out the season before for me), i spat it and decided to go back and play park footy with my mates...

This is my biggest regret ever.. Before my injury i was working so hard to get to what i wanted and when i got injured i worked so hard to get back but was trashed by a certain jackass coach.. What makes it worse was that the player who i was left out for has been selected for NSW State of Origin side and also another guy who was only a fringe player has also done the same... Now im not saying that i would have made it but at that stage i was way ahead of both but because i quit when i got screwed over i lost the chance to prove it...

MY words to you, Prove him wrong, and make him sit back in 10 years and watch him brag how that player was in his side and how he taught you all you knew...

 

[gibbsnsmith]

thanks a lot people for your vote of confidence and all of your own stories..and instead of calling me gibbsy or whatever, you may as well call me Jay, or Jerome.

In case, any one wnated to know, i have just 3 hours ago at schoo, with 2 mates each receinving kent trials...


maybe i have a chance

and to Liam....77 is not amazing, my classmate SB who already plays for kent has got a average of around 400/500[ he has only got out about 4 or 5 times] and because he is TRULY gifted and i should hope for him to make it into kent seniors if he keeps working hard even though he has received more or less the same treatment as me.

anyway..Thank You All, i appreciate it :duh:

 

[age_master]

yeah, keep at it for at leats a couple more years, put more effort in keep working at your game, feilding is something which i find easy to get quite good at

with medium pace bowlinig i find the best variations involve swing
firstly however you should be able to swing the ball, both ways, if youdont swing the ball much, get a coach to help you or do wieghts to get quicker, slow straight pace is easy for batsmen to face.

Yorkers - always great to keep the runs down, bowling lots of yorkers keeps the runs down alot, especially if you can get them in the right spot and swing them both ways.

just bowling alot of outswingers outside off stump using inswinging and outswining yorkers as change up get wickets.

bouncers are funny but rarely get wickets, and at medium pace dont scare batsmen, dont generally bowl them

mixing up your pace slows the runs, deosn't get wickets unless the batsmen are slogging.


generally the best thing for medium pacers is to concentrate on is just keeping the runs down. so set your field accordingly. do not try to take wickets and cut off runs, your fields will in more cases just not work for you.

also if your captain doesn't set good enough fields, or doesn't set them how you want them, just tell the fielders to move yourself


finally, cricket is not all about flawless technique and natural ability, its about hard work, look at steve waugh, great example.

put in the work, and you will get there

 

[Craig]

Look Jay it is up to you to continue to play or not or whether or not you should push on to play big time or not, but you must be able to look in the mirror every day knowing you made the right decision. You can still coach and play and have a coaching degree on the side.

As Ian Chappell once said: "Unless the coach is very good, the player is better off without any".