COACHING : Conducting Nets

5. Modified Game, Nets, Scenarios (30minutes)

After skill development it is enjoyable for the players to then test these skills against their teammates.

Net sessions can often be counter productive as players become complacent without the simulation of real competition. It is therefore wise to give players particular aspects of their cricket to work on. It is also good to encourage players to be competitive in the nets. Bowlers should set imaginary fields to batsmen, making a fair judgment on the outcome of every shot.

Scenarios mimicking situations in a game will help your players develop game sense. Such as having the opening bowlers bowl at your opening batsman and number three. The batsmen need 30 runs in 5 overs to win with 2 wickets in hand. There are infinite possible scenarios. Try to be as specific as possible and resemble likely match situations.

6. Warm Down and Evaluation (10minutes)

The warm down should follow the same, procedures as the warm up. Stretching at this stage is vital. During the warming down and stretching it is a good time to speak to the players about how the session went. You may also talk about the upcoming match or any administrative matters of the team. Finally you should re-emphasize the next meeting of the team before they leave.

Planning for performance

Review of Resources

Before planning for your team it is important to review what you have available. You should make a list of the following:

􀀹 Equipment

􀀹 Competitions to compete in

􀀹 Players available

Setting Goals

Once you have reviewed the resources available to you then must plan for the upcoming season. It is important to involve the players at every stage of the goal setting. Team goals for the season should be set. Then how to achieve those goals is the formation of a game plan. Within that game plan players should have specific roles (see section 9How to manage a team). So each player should have goals that appropriate to his skills and abilities.

􀀹 Team Goals

􀀹 Game Plan (tactics)

􀀹 Individual Goals

Progression

Within this planning it is important to try and divide the year into sections. Preseason is the months just prior to the competition. During this time, fitness work should be the focus allowing athletes to develop strength in the offseason.

During the inseason it is important to build and develop not only skills but game sense and overall team performance. It is important to have a plan for a practicing all the skills in a logical sequence. Week to week it is important to monitor the mood of the players and be flexible enough to respond to the intensity of the players.

The postseason is the end of the season. This is when the finals take place. It is important that you try to gradually peak your teams performance towards the final. To try and keep them focused on the process and not the result. If you can direct their extra nervous energy when competing in final, to focusing on the job at hand, players should perform well in the big games. It is when they are focused on the result that players lose concentration and poor results follow.

2. Art of Coaching

During the entire year, the team and individuals should involve logically progression improving cricketing skills. The idea is to bring all learning through a logical progression, moving from simple to complex skills and have all the different skills covered.

􀀹 Preseason

􀀹 Inseason

􀀹 Postseason

Rituals

• Pre-game

• Within-game

• Team

• Individual

Rituals are an important part of team spirit. Team members need to have their own bonding rituals to make everyone feel part of a unique group. There should be standard team meetings before training and games. The team should have its own rituals such as applauding good play, celebrating a wicket etc. Individuals will have their own rituals; players should be encouraged to do what suits them with concentration. The players in a team also need to feel a sense of membership and trust in their teammates and coach.

Intensity

As a coach part of the art of coaching is to gauge a teams and player's level of intensity and be able to manipulate this to produce a positive, productive training and competition environment. Training by its very nature has a lower intensity level than competition. Coaches at practice should seek to encourage competition within a fun learning environment where the focus is on process not result.

The art of managing a team's competition intensity is one for the hardest parts of coaching. You have to gauge if the team is complacent, nervous, distracted, defensive or arrogant. Every team will go through many moods. As a coach you have to recognise these and design your comments and training around them.