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DCB COACH EDUCATION VISIT TO SOUTH AFRICA 2007

Devon Cricket Board has well established links with South Africa and each February the Under 15 squad tour Western Province and Mpumalanga playing a combination of 50 over and two day games.

Anyone who has been fortunate enough to visit South Africa as part of a cricket tour will be well aware of the tough competition that will be encountered. They will also testify to the wonderful hospitality and warmth of reception likely to be experienced

Reciprocating this hospitality is a daunting prospect so we were delighted when the opportunity came to visit Mpumalanga during October 2007 in order to contribute to their coach education programme. The idea originated through an informal arrangement whereby Alan Swift would run a short course for students and teachers at Skukuza School in Kruger National Park during a social visit to South Africa. What eventually emerged was a request for two courses to take place at White River, one for teachers and pupils from the rural areas and another for managers and coaches of the Mpumalanga representative teams. It was realised that this programme went some way beyond the original plan and arrangements were made for Matt Theedom to accompany Alan on the visit.

The first course took place over two days and was attended by 56 people comprising 21 boys and 35 teachers from 19 schools. It certainly presented a few challenges, apart from the large numbers very few participants had knowledge or experience of cricket, for most English was their third language and there was a need to run a teaching course for the boys while at the same time providing the teachers with understanding and ideas to take back to their schools.

It was decided to mix the teachers and pupils and wherever possible approach learning through the use of small sided games. Fielding was fairly straight forward apart from the techniques specific to wicket keeping while the batting skills improved considerably after some time was spent on the basics of grip, stance and backswing.

The boys showed a remarkable capacity to acquire basic bowling skills through copying demonstrations and surprisingly little intervention was needed. This was not the case for most of the adults however who found the unnatural technique of bowling difficult and some considerable time had to be spent in helping them. It would be stretching the point to claim total success but by the end even those who still had suspect actions were able to distinguish the difference between bowling and throwing.

The game of pairs cricket was introduced and proved to be very popular; it also provided the opportunity to put the work covered into context and to explain other features of playing a game such as field placing (we used marker discs to help), running between the wickets, umpiring and scoring.

At the end of the two days the participants were given an attendance certificate from the Devon Cricket Board and the overall feeling was of a most enjoyable and worthwhile experience. All were delightful people who approached every aspect of the course with great enthusiasm while their capacity to generate a lively atmosphere ensured that the coaches also derived much pleasure from proceedings!

The second course (over one and a half days) was attended by managers and coaches of the various Mpumalanga representative teams together with their current U12 squad. The requirement here was very different to the first two days and we were asked to provide examples of activities used by coaches in Devon which might enhance the work they do with their youth players, a broad agenda and with some uncertainty as to what would be an appropriate level.

We eventually settled on a programme which included examples of fielding drills commonly used by coaches in Devon, the use of middle practice as part of team preparation and video analysis as a means of helping with the development of individual players.

Interestingly the inclusion of fielding drills was in response to a specific request by those attending the course. Some time was spent on these together with discussion and activities relating to pre match preparation. The ideas appeared to be well received with plenty of interaction and discussion as the session progressed. We noted on the second morning (during the time that the coaches and managers were involved in video analysis work) that the boys, unsupervised, were setting up and practicing the drills covered. An indication perhaps that we had done something right!

We were limited by time for the middle practice which meant that the match situations presented to the players were fairly short ‘4 overs left and 26 required to win’, ‘6 overs left with 2 wickets remaining in order to secure a draw’. The idea of the fielding side and batters formulating their own strategies without coach intervention was stressed along with the need for post practice discussion of what had taken place.

It is interesting to note that the players, who were of a good standard, showed no more idea of how to try and take wickets at the end of a time format game than our own players in Devon (and probably the rest of the UK). Given the fact that the batting side required 150+ runs with only 2 wickets and 6 overs left, the first over was bowled with only one close fielder, 1st slip together with sweepers on both sides of the wicket – it did however provide us with plenty to talk about at the end.

It seemed that the use of middle practice played little or no part in their squad preparation sessions but at the end there was general agreement as to its value in helping players to think and make sensible decisions relating to match situations.

The video analysis work was approached by asking the coaches to complete an observation sheet for a batter and bowler during a live net session while the same two players were also recorded for subsequent discussion and analysis. As anticipated the difficulty of making accurate observations of a players techniques during play quickly became apparent.

The benefits of using video were illustrated by completing the same observation sheets for both players but using the recordings together with slow motion and still frames.

We found it necessary to ensure that all headings used on the sheet were fully understood and stressed the need to simply record what was happening rather than looking instantly for faults.

Much of the work covered over three and a half days reflected the methods and ideas, which underpin coach education in the UK, and it is pleasing to record that both courses were well received. Informal discussion with coaches on the second course emphasised that whilst our international team might be behind Australia in the test ranking and struggling in the one day game, the support provided by our coach education programmes are second to none in the world.

Work done it was back to Skukuza in Kruger. We were invited to dinner at the local golf club where we had the dubious pleasure of watching the rugby world cup final in the company of 200+ South Africans!! Who was it that said winning was not important?
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