Game Notes: Ninth Round and Session Notes

It's a very busy time so updating is a little patchy. To bring the site up to date here is what happened:

The firsts lost with the usual story of not enough runs. However, our opener and captain carried his bat which was a thing we had lacked, so it wasn't all bad.

The seconds won at home defending a low score and not playing at their best. That is a huge plus.

Tuesday training was indoors due to a game in the middle and we worked on individual batting skills and technique with 11 players. One player decided to do some coaching instead of batting as he felt time away from hitting balls was worth a try. When combined with an ex-player coming along to help out with the mental side, it was a very positive session. I'd still like to get more focus on the right goals, but we have found a good middle ground and more coaches takes the weight off me a lot.

More detailed updates when things get a little less intense.

Session Notes: Getting Focused Indoors

Every time it rains I thank the forethought of West of Scotland to have an indoor net. The members might complain about it's fast pace and short run ups but it undoubtedly better than watching it rain.

So, in this session, after 20 minutes in the wet with incrediballs to get some fielding done, we went inside for a session on the bowling machine. 

The outdoor drill was designed to get the heart rate up. A pair were asked to perform three skills in a row: chase down and return, take a catch and take a low catch.

The variation was that I had two Katchets set up in a line so I could hit a ball onto them with the new Skyer (we bought this week). It flew! The feedback was also encouraging. The players loved the challenge.

Once indoors we ran an open net against bowlers and a net with the machine set round the wicket swinging in to the right hander. I chatted to players about their intention, as always, before going in to the net. This time I spent more attention on making sure we got the intention spot on and was clearer about what I thought was right when a player was unsure. This worked much better than just saying "do what you like".

Most players worked with me on the machine on a technical point: staying more open and learning to hit the ball through mid on off the front foot. I saw some kind of progress with every player, including four guys who were able to hit away swing through mid on while still playing straight. That takes awesome balance.

To make sure the bowlers had a goal too, I set down a generously sized length area. In the nets the bowlers tend to bowl too short so I told them to hit the length target and keep score of how many they hit during the session. This was also stuck to relatively well and the ball was pitched up more.

• The good: Clearer planning of intention in the nets, group worked well together with focus.
• Needs work: I wasn't able to monitor the open net as I was running the machine. Possibly encourage another player to take more of a coaches role.

Session Notes: Back to the Bola

The Third XI were playing a midweek game so we had a small group in the nets for this session. We used the newly repaired bowling machine for the first time this season.

Turnout was low, but the 1st XI top seven were all either playing or training (bar one who had told us about a prior commitment). This is a great sign to me; players ar willing to put in work and even when they can't make it to training, they let us know. That's a strong culture. If games were won on culture alone I'm sure we would be top of the league.

The session itself was mainly nets, with some fielding to warm up. We took the boundary rope in 10 yards to do some ground work and throwing at the stumps. We only hit about 10% at a single stump so there is work to be done there.

Inside, we had the machine in one net and bowlers in the other on PitchVision.

I have mixed feelings about the machine. It gives you a lot of reps in a short time and lets you work on things you can't get reliably from a bowler. However, it also locks you into a rhythm that is very different from batting in the middle. Plus, some people really can't deal with the way the ball pops out with no real bowler there.

However, at this point in our batting progress I am keen to try anything to stem the tide of wickets. The machine might not be the golden ticket to runs galore, but it's a new thing to try that might just get someone over the line.

I set the machine up to be bowling inswing, pitched up at 62-66mph. Players worked on driving the ball through mid on and midwicket. I like this drill because it forces you to play straight without falling over. However at that pace you can't just use the pace of th ball to hit it. Everyone who wanted a bat got a go and everyone decided to work on that aspect.

We also got a couple of overs of back of a length bowling to drive and cut. 

I did intend to have a points game in the other net, but with the low numbers I decided to focus on the machine instead and didn't even mention the game. I suspect they did the usual thing of having a hit with no intentions or thoughts of game scenarios. Certainly no one mentioned any thoughts to me. I must be careful not to let this happen too often as I can see myself "giving up" and letting the kids have their way for an easy life. That's not going to help in the long run.

That said, the machine time was super productive for all five batsmen who used it. If I did it again I would take a moment to speak to each outgoing batsman to get their reflections on the session and plan for next time.

• The good: Lots of productive ball hitting with a technical purpose. A good fielding activity session outdoors.
• Needs work: Better run "live" net (give it an objective). Hit the stumps more often. I'd like to see a 30% hit rate as standard. Allow for better reflection after a machine session rather than just saying "next".

Game Notes: Eighth Round

Saturday's league game was a crushing defeat for the First XI. I coached as the opposition scored 236-8 and our reply was essentially over at 46-5 after 20. We ended up on 125-8.

The bowling and fielding remained solid, although mistakes cost us and we did not seem penetrating enough to cause problems. An opening stand of 87 in 23 overs put us in a weak position. We dropped a catch in this period but generally the batsmen looked comfortable against the opening bowlers.

We exerted tighter control between overs 15-30, again without much penetration. Our leg spinner - who has bought us valuable wickets in the past - didn't take a wicket until his 10th over and was attacked heartily. We didn't take another wicket until the 35th over, leaving them on a strong 145-2. Four an over seems a little slow in these days of sevens at international level but - as it turned out in the second dig - it was plenty.

They gave it the long handle in the last 10 and lost wickets but also scored 77 runs. It was a classic old fashioned, effective tactic; set a base, rotate in the middle and swing at the end. 236 was well above par.

As you know, our batting line up has not looked effective this year at all. Our reply was in keeping with the usual state of affairs. 

Our main opener ran himself out trying to rotate the strike. The other opener got worked over with the short ball and couldn't play his role of hustling singles and hitting over the top. Number four was run out by number three and number five, by his account at least, got bowled by a complete jaffa. It did look good. Number six and I had a quick chat about what to do, and he decided to counter-attack because we already needed six an over. He has the style to do it but his first attempt didn't clear mid off. 45-5 in 18 overs.

Yet again, we had a plan, we tried to execute and we were found wanting. Their opening bowler was as penetrating and difficult to play as we were toothless. He hit his lengths, made it sing off the seam and took wickets as we struggled to survive until it was too late. His 15 overs got him 4-16. Their spinner was also ragging it and causing issues, in contrast to our spinner.

The rest of the innings was basically a block job. I understand the need to bat the 50 overs, but I didn't agree with batting out the time. Yes, it gave our number three chance to get fifty (stumped on 48 in the end) and it gave nine and 10 time at the crease, but it was a waste of time. On one hand, who cares? The game was lost. On the other hand, it's hardly going down fighting. Their spinner stopped trying to rip it in his last few overs and it made batting look much easier but if the game had been tighter he might have tried harder.

We can't even blame conditions as overnight rain and cloud in the first inning was ideal for swing bowling. The sun came out for out innings. We could not have asked for kinder weather. We were simply outplayed in every department.

We had a long chat afterwards and their was a lot of resignation rather than anger. There were many suggestions made, including giving batsmen more time in training against good bowlers (a fair point) and changing out approach to be more attacking without fear. Both are worth examining further.

• Stop: Finding ways to get out. Bowling without teeth.
• Start: Possibly playing with less fear and trying to hit the ball into gaps rather than blocking. Looking to build inning and take responsibility. Swinging the new ball and spinning the old one. Taking the fielding a notch up in the ring. Improving the wicketkeeping.
• Continue: keeping a positive and happy environment. The culture at the club is one of hard work, personal responsibility and good mates. There is a lot to applaud and if we keep getting that right we are doing all we can. The field was also at our usual solid standard overall.

Time for A Rethink in Junior Cricket

As part of my job as Head Coach, I manage the Under 15 team. It's a duty I am not keen about because it doesn't involve any coaching.

The way I see the core of my job, at any level, is to prepare players to be at their best. In season, the process should be,

1. Play a match.
2. Review the performance.
3. Practice, based on the review.
4. Play the next match.
5. Go to 2.

At junior level, this does not happen. Players are often busy with other activities, including a full programme of school cricket. Two of the boys are at boarding school and we see them only during the holidays. These are valid reasons. 

Yet the DNA of coaching is that five step process. Without it we are just filling fixtures.

Take last night's game where, due to a school tour and a festival, we had nine players with four under 11 guys way out of their depth. Only three players were there in time to warm up. I had to score and umpire the game. We got the fixture completed but there was no coaching or developing happening.

We got hammered but it didn't matter. Our star batsman hit 30 not out with no real challenge to him (he plays for Scotland Under 15 and our adult 2nd XI). None of the smaller kids batted or bowled. One got hit on the knee fielding. He was OK, but it was hardly a fun experience. It's the type of night that puts kids off cricket forever.

So, what's the solution?

In my mind, the development of young cricketers in a good environment is more important than anything else at this level. So, I would like to see a change in the structure of the game.

• Tier 1: Introduction to cricket from about six years old can be done with soft ball cricket played in tournaments, as it is now.
• Tier 2: When they are ready, kids can move up to hard ball pairs cricket played in midweek. This could be done by age group, but I would prefer it done by skill level. Most kids will be in the 11-13 age range.
• Tier 3: Above the pairs level is full midweek cricket played by any age, but with a focus on the 14-17 ages. This will be fully competitive, although still with a focus on development over trophies.
• Tier 4: Sunday 40 over cricket played with adult players.

Most of all, all these groups must have a training session where they can go through some version of the coaching process. This will clearly be different for a six year old than a 16 year old, but the basic process is the same, and the basic aim to get better does not change. Better juniors can attend adult training and those not ready can go to the junior session.

My thinking is that by grouping players into broad skill levels rather than narrow age groups, you can have better player availability (and perhaps even a selection meeting) and match player skill to games. For example, we have a talented 12 year old who plays adult cricket and would have no trouble with the top level junior games and adult training sessions. We also have a couple of 14 year old players who would be better off playing pairs as their development is slower.

You could even have adults playing in the tier 3 games to help players develop further and solve any issues of player numbers. You could certainly encourage more club members to come along to score or umpire so the coach can do actual coaching. Admittedly, this might be an issue with both admin (getting criminal checks done) and cheating (playing good players to get the win), but I'm sure it's possible.

If you wanted to get really crazy, you could also switch the Teir 3 and 4 games to eight a side. I made my case for that bonkers idea here, and it's not as crazy as it sounds. And it's a no-brainer to give the teams funky T20 names: "Partick Panthers"rather than "Under 11".

There are questions about this system; notability how you stop competitive coaches and clubs fielding strong teams to win within the rules but not the spirit of development.

But it's worth sorting them out because, for me, development and enjoyment should be way ahead of filling fixtures at junior level. This system puts our aims back at the heart of junior cricket.

Session Notes: Better Intentions In the Wet

This session was wet, so we were indoors with a core of 8 players for most of the time. We did get outside to do some wet weather fun stuff, that made the session relaxed and fun.

We warmed up outside with some throwing drills. I'm constantly working on throwing technique with players because it's an easy win. You can throw harder and straighter with a couple of simple changes. However, as is often the case with older players, despite the obvious and instand benefits of "baseball" style throwing, old habits die hard. I feel it will be a never-ending battle to remind people!

We used incrediballs to both save hands and stop cricket balls getting too wet.

We then moved onto a sliding drill, where the players had to run out, slide, pick up a stationary ball and throw it back to me. They were aquaplaning miles over the fresh mown surface and not taking it totally seriously. I didn't mind, it was a bit silly, but I also stressed how rarely we get to work on sliding skills and how it is a chance to get better at it. In the end they did it seriously enough to get something productive as well has have fun.

We finished with a few catches, because you can never take enough.

Then we had a net session indoors. One net was live with bowlers, the other was me giving throws and technical tips.

Again, I asked players to think about what they were aiming to achieve before they walked in, and spoke to them afterwards to find out if they achieved it. 

In general this focuses the mind, but what has surprised me is the resistance to this approach. 

For example, one player went in with one aim, got bored and started smashing it. He then said afterwards "I changed my mind and wanted to practice death hitting". It was clearly an excuse because he's a top order batter who has no Twenty20 to play. It seemed to me he wasn't getting much from the net and decided to have some fun instead of doubling down. To me this seemed like a wasted chance to bat with discipline in an imperfect situation. He - as I still hear people say - wanted to "just have a hit". 

Another player self-identified that he wanted to bring back his driving as he feels he is missing out because he has worked so hard on running the ball into gaps square of the wicket. I threw him half volley after half volley, and told him to drive everything as an experiment. He drove about 25%, nudged about half square and defended the rest. Again, I find this odd that he says he wants to do one thing then ignores both his and my advice on the matter. Again, I suspect his real intention was not to improve the drive but to "have a hit" and made up the drive thing to keep me happy.

I'm still wrestling with how to deal with moments like this. I'm not the type to shout at people to play properly as players are in charge of their own game and should know what works for them. However, often they are making the one mistake I am desperate to avoid; mindless netting. I have tried cajoling, insisting and plain old shouting, yet the culture persists, hidden behind excuses to keep the coach happy.

It's frustrating on the level of people not getting better. In my mind, players are free to use their training time as they wish, but I so often see wasted nets despite my efforts to lure them into self-improvement. There is always lots of activity, people feel good they got their 15 minute bat and we all stay exactly the same skill level; wishing the form fairy will bestow her magic on us.

This might be all right if we were scoring 200+ every week but we are not and we have not been for a while, so we need to get better rather than just have some activity. For me it goes back to the key question "have I done everything in the time available to feel ready for Saturday?"

However, there were plenty of positives too. A young tail end level batsman nailing the on drive, and two guys with balance issues (one not getting forward enough, one falling over) working hard on getting into better positions. Overall it was a positive feeling session.

• The good: Fun, relaxed session. Some productive technical batting work done.
• Needs work: More technical focus on the bowlers, better linking the batsman's stated aims with the actual session.

Game Notes: Twenty20 Game Six

In the final 1st XI T20 of year we went out as we came in: with a one-sided defeat. Bowled out for 71, and lost by nine wickets in the 13th over.

As has persistently been the case this year, wickets fell with no discernible pattern. Our overseas player - who has never looked out of nick the whole year, yet never got a 50 - hit a ball to mid off. As did the other opener, although he had scored a few. Number three was run out by a direct hit. Another batsman was run out at the non-strikers end. A spinner fired in a couple of good yorkers and our captain was given out lbw sweeping when it hit his glove.

I'm still unsure how and why this continues to happen. We have a tactical plan and a method to achieve it. Most players are experienced and have records of success to call on. We know our roles. The bowling is not dramatically better, despite there being some good bowlers around. We can't even blame the wickets any more as they are good cricket pitches at West, giving equal chance to good bowling and good batting.

We do seem unable to see off better bowlers or target weaker ones, everyone who bowls to us gets wickets. Yet there is no pattern to this as far as I can see. 

One possible answer is to improve the quality of the bowling at practice. This can really only be done with a machine as we don't have enough 1st XI standard bowlers to give all the batting a decent go. I may also start approaching 1st team top order players for extra sessions on the bowling machine to see if we can get in some volume and make some technical corrections. The current method just isn't working the way I like it.

To return to the match, we bowled like a practice match with attacking fields and using our first XI opening bowlers for the first eight overs. As a result, the opposition attacked the ball into gaps, got away from us and won it easily. We dropped two catches. This didn't really matter for the result but it was a sign of the day, where everyone had a bit of an end of term feel. I can forgive that for this game that was already gone in a competition we were already unable to qualify for the next round.

One big plus at the end was someone saying he felt like the warm up was focused and that he felt it was a good team spirit right up until the last few runs were needed. I was delighted to hear as helping to create the right atmosphere is a big part of my role as coach.

• Stop: Finding ways to lose wickets, attacking too long with field placings.
• Start: Running the ball around more, picking the right balls to hit, build partnerships.
• Continue: Focus in the warm ups, playing like a team with a good atmosphere, confidence in our tactical approach.

Session Notes: Intention Nets, Granular Fielding

This session was about regaining control while also continuing to develop player's self sufficiency. The way I did it was bring back the group warm up session with a couple of quick fielding drills, then move onto a focused net, with some freedoms built in.

The warm up was a quick underarm technical drill followed by a drill called 360 degree fielding. Click here to see it. I noticed from the video of Saturday that our ring fielding was busy, but not always clean. This is a minor criticism, but standards are so high I can be as granular as that.

The fielding was a slight experiment. This group tend to get fed up very quickly unless they are doing a lot of activity in a drill. This is less high volume drill and more standing waiting for the ball. People got fed up after about five minutes, so we wrapped it up quickly. I will keep it in reserve as its a much more realistic ring fielding drill than others, but perhaps keep it to six players rather than the 15 it turned into as people arrived. I could also insist latecomers don't participate and do their own warm up, although that smacks of punishment. However, it was a solid warm up.

We then broke into two groups of eight with the idea that each group had a "captain" who would be in charge of making sure everyone got a go. I chose the first and second eleven skippers to demonstrate authority this first time. This was a response to the previous session where no one ran the session well in the nets. I now had two people in charge of their groups.

We were also lucky enough to have a former West of Scotland and Scottish International come along to help out. He is retired from the game but was happy to help give some advice on batting and wicketkeeping to the guys. That's invaluable knowledge that I hope they tap into regularly. I never played a high level so he is the perfect foil to my role.

West of Scotland Nets

The first group, who were all first team players, went into the roll on net on the outdoor wicket. I wanted players to have freedom to do what they want, but I also wanted to stop the "have a net" mentality of last week creeping in. My compromise was to as players to write down their intention on a whiteboard. I said I didn't care what it was, but it had to be something. My thinking is that this focuses the mind a little more than going  in with no plan.

To me, this is not enough. I prefer to track results and improve measurable outcomes over time. The players have not responded well to this at all, so I am learning to adapt. I will continue to sneak in measured sessions, but for now the "intention net" combined with me asking the players to review after the session will keep the dream alive.

The second group worked on some fielding. I wanted the focus on both slip catching and infielding and they set about coming up with their own high-energy drills. In this area, the players are brilliant. They make up drills, and will keep wheeling away with the occasional switch to something else when they get fed up. The challenge for me is to build in some technical work too, but the activity is spot on.

The groups swapped after about an hour and the work continued. Only one person missed a "live" net, and got some throw downs at the end. Otherwise, everyone I asked got what they wanted. This was great progress.

• The good: Efficient, well-run session with the focus on getting relevant work done and keeping enough freedom for the players to work on their individual goals.
• Needs work: More technical stuff, keep the 360 drill more tightly focused, build in some accepted measurables.

Game Notes: Seventh Round

My first Saturday league game as coach only also saw our first league win of the season. It was a solid win, albeit with a significant batting wobble.

Pre-game prep was focused and efficient. I always wonder how much difference the drills make, but at least they put you in a mindset for the first few overs. We bowled first.

We had a new opener, with the usual new ball man switching to first change as he has been more effective in the middle overs. This was not a complete success as his first three overs went for 16 and he didn't take a wicket until his seventh over. However the score was 37-1 from 10. 

Generally, we seem to do better in the middle than in the first 10. We have not taken many wickets with the new ball this year. This was the case today, as at the other end our nasty fast bowler was dropping a lot of balls short. He also pitched them up, but as you can see from his bowling wagon wheel, 51% of his runs went square, meaning he was off a consistent length:

This rate continued through the middle overs with the opposition opener doing all the running in a 65 ball 48, while the number three held things up by scoring seven in 28 balls. When this partnership was broken the game was balanced at 59-2 off 14 (4.2 an over).

When the opener fell, the game quickly changed. Our change bowlers, who are strongest in the middle overs, combined with tight fielding to slow the rate. They scored 20-2 in the next 10 overs. Then, a collapse came and five wickets fell for 20 runs in 10 overs. They were bowled out for 100 in 34 overs.

I noticed a couple of weaker areas in the field, notably in the ring on the leg side, and some inconsistencies behind the wicket, so will focus on those in upcoming training. Overall, the standard was as high as ever.

So, with 101 needed, a confident side would have knocked it off 2 down in 20 overs. It took us 6 wickets and 30 overs. The run rate was good enough consider previous effort and we batted with real intention to score, even when wickets fell. 

The middle order wobbled again with some silly dismissals and some very good bowling on a pitch that had livened up in light drizzle. I am increasingly thinking that we are a side who can build totals with all the top eight or nine chipping in a few, rather than sharing out big scores. And it turned out to be the case here as the lower order put together a sensible 30 run partnership that saw us over the line with comfort.

I feel this is part a confidence thing, and part a technical thing. Our batsmen are not stars but they are talented and capable of each averaging 20-30 over a season. If we can factor in three to four match setting up partnerships per season per pair we will turn more games into wins. That's where the confidence factor comes in. We need to believe we can do it, then develop a technical method to achieve it. This is exactly what I have been pushing for in practice with things like the strike rotation and range hitting drills.

I also am filming games for analysis now, and can start to build a database of confidence-building video for players to remember how good they can be in the right situation.

2nd XI

On the other hand, the challenge for the twos is to maintain standards against terrible opposition. They batted first, scored well over 300 and bowled the opposition out for under 100.

At least we have players in form and biting at the heels of the first team batsmen for a place.

Session Notes: Lessons Learned

In this session I was lulled into thinking the players were more ready for responsibility than they were, and it went badly.

As is usual now, I insisted on players self-warming up, but this time didn't get anyone to lead it. The result was some people warmed up a bit and others did a few stretches. That should have been my first clue. I foolishly soldiered on with my plan.

A productive start

I set up three stations; throwing at a stump, fielding on the boundary and hitting the ball into gaps. These are all areas in which we can improve. I then told the guys to do what they need to do and gave them freedom to do what they liked.

This started well. Three bowlers said they would rather do target bowling and set up an area themselves. Another group wanted to do throwdowns. The others split between fielding and gap hitting drills. People were talking to me about the work they needed to do to be ready for the weekend fixtures.

However, it wasn't long before a couple of players were asking to have a net. I wanted to encourage this player-led action so, despite reservations, I said yes. 

As you may know, one of my pet peeves is players mindlessly netting with no one getting a clear benefit. I trusted that they were not going to let me down, so I made one rule of no more than four bowlers at a time and left them to it.

I was wrong.

Mindless nets

What happened was exactly what I feared; nobody organised the net they had requested meaning players batted on for a long time while others stood around waiting. At one point there were nine bowlers in the net and one guy - who I had essentially banned from bowling - standing by the bowlers because he couldn't think of anything else to do. There was no doubt it was a disorganised mess.

Also in the meantime the "hit the gaps" drill disintegrated as players decided to stop fielding and have a bowl or pad up.

Now, I have to take the blame here.

I reasonably expected that - as an adult - if you ask for a net, you are going to organise it. I left them to it without either taking responsibility for keeping time and managing bowlers, or assigning that job to someone else. For that reason, no one did it. I took my eye off it to work with fielding drills.

That said, what annoyed me most was no one spoke up. I heard at least two people grumbling about it but not one person thought to either take control of the net, or ask me to take it over. The cornerstone of my coaching philosophy is that players have to take personal responsibility. That's why I stood off and that's why I was saddened my the response.

Strangely, we had two under 15 boys at the session who took it on themselves to work together and spent the entire session doing unsupervised, productive work both batting and bowling. They showed this can be done.

Lessons learned

The lesson learned here is that I have assumed too much responsibility on the part of the players and need to reign in this aspect until they are more ready for it. As one person said to me after the session, "we are used to being sheparded like sheep, and are lost without that". I don't want sheep, I want lions and tigers, but I need to bring in these things more slowly and piecemeal.

My plan for future sessions is;

• Continue to stress the idea of personal responsibility; players must come to every session with a clear idea of what they want to achieve. Constantly challenge players through the session to stay mindful of their aims.
• Ask people to speak up to me if they feel something isn't working. However also have the ultimate aim of removing me from the process so they can adapt drills without my input.
• Be more mindful of people choosing to stand around doing nothing. Take a moment to speak with them and find out if waiting 20 minutes with your pads on is the best use of your session. It isn't.
• When dealing with nets or complex drills, assigning responsibility to a single person to ensure the net is managed.
• Returning the whole group fielding session to set a more organised tone before breaking people off.

• The good: the session was actually alright. We did a lot of fielding, lots of people got a go in the nets. Activity was high.
• Needs work: Organisation (ideally player-led).

Game Notes: Twenty20 Game Five

With great relief I can report a First XI competitive victory in the Twenty20.

We are off and running, and while I always try to keep my response to results as even as possible, the length of time it took to achieve this win leaves me feeling more satisfied than usual.

Playing away, we took a strong, aggressive-minded team across the city. I was there as coach not player. As is often the case with evening matches, the preparation was rushed. The captain and opener was stuck in traffic and arrived five minutes before the start. Lucky for us a senior player was sensible enough to toss, win and elect to bat first.

Once we were all arrived the game and settled we could relax and watch the top three make a solid start. 32-1 after six is about par batting first on a dusty track with a slow outfield.

The good batting continued against some frankly poor bowling and after 11 we were on a healthy 59-3. Our "pinch hitter" was going well. From here I was hoping we could kick up a notch and score another 60 or so runs to take the game away. My guess was anything over 100 was a winning score.

What happened next was some very clever bowling, mixed with some luck, that saw a brilliant triple wicket maiden from their old-stager skipper. He bowled off spin with a run up that started at short mid on because he was starting his run from behind the setting sun. He took one over (10th) to get into this weird run up that went for 12. Then he bowled three overs for three runs and five wickets!

This collapse was not entirely self-inflicted. The bowling was slow and straight and clever and hard to pick up. It set us back to 67-8 in after 16. That five over period went for 8-5 and cost us a par score. Nevertheless, the tail are sensible and know how to rotate and pick the balls to hit. They took us 88, mainly thanks to a "block or hit" run a ball 13 from our young leggie. Kudos also goes to our agressive number three who held the middle of the innings together during the collapse and scored a useful 30 at 75 SR and 45 SB%.

We faced 73 dots, scored 59 singles and six boundaries.

We knew we had to bowl well to have a chance, despite their weaker batting line up.

So, we came out straight away, hit up some catches, took some ground balls to get the feel of the bumpy outfield and got ready to bowl at the stumps with a tight ring. And we did exactly that, after five over they were 15-2. After eight they were on 24-2.

This was a crucial moment. They had wickets in hand and with 68 needed in 12, the game was on. Especially as two poor overs from change bowlers took them to 40-3 after 10. However, the bowlers settled down, the fielding was spot on and a double wicket over changed the momentum back to us. 

It was always going to be tough to score 45 runs in eight overs with the long shadows, no sightscreens and with our attack, but it was still on even if we had the advantage. We had to go well, and we did. We stuck to our plan and as the dots kept building the risk taking went up and wickets fell. 57-5 off 14 seems like they are still in the race but when you are behind the rate (they scored 9-2 in the four over period before that) you find it hard to get back on track. They lost the last 5 wickets for 15 runs and finished in the 19th.

They faced 75 dots, scored just 26 singles and four boundaries.

Admittedly, they were poor. We could have beaten them by at least another 20 runs, but It was an overall excellent performance where we were only behind the game for one bowling spell of three overs.

I filmed the game for further analysis later, and may write up how I do this efficiently another time.

• Stop: Being vulnerable to unusual approaches. One bowler kept them in the game. Picking poor boundary options when going for sixes.
• Start: Raising fielding standards higher to turn more half-chances into real chances. With pinpoint throwing we could have had another run out.
• Continue: Playing with a free spirit with the bat, rotating the strike, looking for boundaries. Staying calm under pressure. Excellent ground fielding and catching.

Session Notes: Commit to Basics

I set up a WhatsApp group to discuss training before this session and got some interesting comments about what the players wanted.

One person said they wanted to do the basics but felt like we did the same thing every week. 

I'm not sure how those things marry up as we do work on the basics of fielding, bowling and batting, but always have different drills to keep people occupied in fresh ways. I suspect the truth is, for this person, they want to get a longer bat outside against decent bowling and feel any "fancy drill" is just getting in the way of hitting balls. This is a valid view and I'll think about getting the key batsmen a longer bat at least one session a week.

The rest of the feedback was more practical. They wanted middle practice but with focused fielding and good bowling. As you know, we have struggled to make this work in the past, so we set up a new game. More on that in a moment.

Fielding

At the start of the session, I did my usual trick of self-warm up - which the players are getting the hang of now - followed by three fielding stations.

• High catching with me on the mitt and Skyer.
• Low catching with the Katchet.
• Throwing at a stump.

The last drill had a complexity element. There were two sets of stump set up. Players had to do 10 press ups, then get fed a ball and told to throw at either the red stumps or the yellow stumps. You got a point for getting through wide cones, and three points for throwing through the target (two stumps with no middle).

Basics, covered.

Batting

We then set up the middle practice with a net on the leg side to allow for off side fielding only. The plan was to work on strike rotation; both stopping it in the field and making it happen with the bat. The rules were:

• 1 point for the batting pair for a run
• 1 point to the fielding unit for a dot
• 5 points to the fielding unit for a wicket

Scoring middle practice

We also experimented with making the fielders do press ups for every five runs conceded. This aspect didn't quite work as planned but I like the idea, and will tweak it in future.

Others not in the game went away to get throwdowns or do some more fielding. I liked how this aspect worked as players just went and did creative stuff with no input from me. 

The game worked well for about half an hour then the fielders started losing interest. The score stopped being kept, some fielders were half-hearted, there was no field setting element and one person was throwing his hands up - literally - and moaning about it being pointless. My plan for a leaderboard of scores was scuppered because of these reason.

Stop pointless netting

I had to twice gather the fielders in and give them a dressing down about the point of the session. If middle practice is to work, everyone must treat it like a game where every run matters. This wasn't happening, so I told people to do something else or commit.

My analysis is that the "have a net" mentality is ingrained in all of us very deeply. It means that when you practice it's only a matter of time before you default to mindlessly going through the motions. This is the antithesis of my reasons for training. We all turn up to make sure we do well in a match, so we must treat every session like a golden chance to improve in some way. I will continue to press this home.

I'm happy to admit I could have driven the analysis better of the session. I was conscious of wasting time gathering people together, so perhaps a compromise is to have a huddle after a wicket. This gives the batsman time to consider his approach and acts as a minor punishment of less batting time. Meanwhile the fielders can "reset" mentally and tactically.

Despite this glaring issue, it was a good session overall. Key batsmen got a go against good bowlers. We got some fielding in. The sun shone and we all learned a lesson or two. Not a bad way to spend a summer evening by any means!

• The good: Basics covered, people taking greater responsibility, good middle practice initially. Commitment still high.
• Needs work: Maintain focus, encourage further mindful training rather than default netting.

Session Notes: Good Old Fashioned Nets

Good weather, a dozen players and lots of positive, player-led activity in this session.

I again asked a player to lead the warm up, and will continue to do this with the overarching aim that players turn up and just start warming up themselves. This is an area of self-reliance that should be easy to bring about as soon as we change the culture. 

We then had a fielding completion, where two teams took turns to execute pick up and throws and a catch with the best set winning each round. It was a 5-2 landslide to Team A.

I wasn't planning on using the wet square, but a senior bowler wanted to bowl through to test an injured leg. He, along with other senior players, impressed on me the need for outdoor training, so we got out the net and ran it for two hours. This is exactly the kind of player-led training I am after: People telling me what they want and me facilitating it.

Once the net was running, all I had to do was keep people focused on the tasks. I challenged batsmen in different ways to avoid the "have a hit" mentality, I made sure people were getting throw downs and I asked bowlers to focus on specific things rather than "turning the arm over".

However, these were minor things as most of the time people were focusing on getting productive work done.

This freed me up to find time to do some range hitting with a batsman, some technical drills with a young player and some keeping work with the first team keeper. 

I also brought everyone together at the end to summarise the session, which acted as a way to remind people that the onus is on them to do the work rather than look to me to tell them what to do. I reminded them I will always be available for drills, analysis and conversation around their game, but the rest is up to them. This was a nice little bookmark and I'll keep doing it as long as I can find something to say.

• The good: self-led session, everyone focused.
• Needs work: I'll need to butter up the groundsman after ruining a pitch!

Winning Twenty20 Tactics

Based on a study from 2014, here's the areas to focus on to win: 

1. Wickets in hand are more important than runs in the first 10 overs, especially the powerplay.
2. 50+ batting partnerships win games. Batsmen who score 75+ win games
3. Winning teams score more runs on the off side.
4. Teams who bowl more yorkers and short balls win games.

Game Notes: Twenty20 Game Four

I am moving closer to my aim of coaching and not playing as I got to coach the firsts in the latest T20, including some video analysis.

After batting first and scoring 90-8, we lost with 26 balls to spare, taking two wickets. A hammering. It was a difficult pitch with large, slow outfield.

Despite the one sided feel, I can honestly say I saw improvements. The intent to score was clear but wickets fell and we had to dig in. Nevertheless we kept trying to rotate the strike and the dot balls were more play and misses than defend and leaves. To recover from 37-6 in 10 to get to 90 is a fine effort.  Naturally, it's the 6 wickets that are the issue. I filmed the whole thing and made notes.

After hearing how tough it is to bat second, I was surprised how easy the opposition found it. They started well, played and missed less, and hit more boundaries. We tied them down in the middle with a lot of dots so the dot% was the same, but they hit the ball over the line more often. This was especially true after the 10th over.

Our stats:

• Wickets: 8
• Dots: 48%
• Singles: 39
• Boundaries: 3

Their stats:

• Wickets: 2
• Dots: 51%
• Singles: 20
• Boundaries: 11

The bowling was solid as always. Perhaps a little loose early on and at the end, but a seamer and spinner kept it tight in the middle. They were only 41 off 10, but with wickets in hand they hit out and killed the game quickly.

We dropped five catches. You would expect to take at least two of them, with the others being trickier but taken on a good day. Despite that, heads stayed up and we fought until the last. Spirits were high.

Sadly, I needed to act as 12th man in the field so was unable to film the other innings.

In review,

• Stop: losing wickets in the first 10. Dropping catches.
• Start: turning dots into ones and twos. Hitting boundaries off bad balls. Building a platform with the bat to go big in the last 10; four down should be the most going into the back end.
• Continue: good spirits, tight ground fielding, accurate bowling, lower order calmness when batting.

Here's the review from the captain:

• Stop: Losing top order wickets in bunches. The guys in the top order often get caught playing either overly aggressive shots, or defending without any intent to score runs. We need to find a happy medium which allows them to play freely while not getting out.
• Start: Practicing catching more. Our four dropped catches cost us the game, no doubt. All the culprits are guys you would expect to drop them under pressure because they don’t work hard enough on this vital aspect of the game.
• Continue: We have a good blueprint for playing T20 cricket which we should continue to build on. Our ground fielding was very good, our bowling was excellent. Guys all have clearly defined roles which they bowled to, and the lower order batted excellently. We just need top order runs to become a truly formidable T20 side.

Session Notes: Self Reliant Cricket

I ramped up the self-sufficiency in this session, looking to encourage players to take control of their own development and also realise that I can't be everywhere so they need to work together to get better.

I started by asking someone in the group to run the warm up of 15 players for me. It was a bit of a surprise to him and he blanked on it, but we got something done and I'll keep pushing players to have a warm up ready in case I ask them. They all know how to do one, after all.

To settle them back down we did 10 minutes of skill work, working on throwing technique for power.  We then set up three fielding areas where throwing was the focus. I took the lead from some recent advice from Sam Lavery in my delivery. I let the players work out the drill for themselves with only minor prompting. I also let them work out the groups and the rotation times.

The drills were,

• A simple catch and return working on throw accuracy.
• A pick up and overarm throw drill from three positions, working on strong and weak side throws.
• A diving drill where a player has to defend a goal from two throwers.

They sussed out the drills quickly enough, but the self-organisation is still lacking a little. It worked fine, but I feel the general idea is the coach leads and if he is not about then things drop into default busywork modes. My long term aim for this strategy is to see groups turn up and just start warming up and drilling unprompted from me. This is the first step.

We then added a controlled net. We used the indoor nets for throwdowns and a "live" net with three bowlers and a single batter. I again generally left people to work things out themselves and again it defaulted to having a hit and waiting for coach instruction. I can't fault the guys as this is what they are used to doing, but I will keep pushing the self-reliance mantra.

Not everyone wanted to go indoors, so I left batters to get throwdowns outside. I was pleased to see - despite the lack of the square to use - a group had an impromptu middle practice with bowling, batting and fielding. This is exactly what I was after.

This also gave me time to do throwdowns to a couple of batsmen and do some basic technical work (back foot play and power hitting) with them. I think that's my first chance in a group session to do this work. It was limited in time but it felt productive.

I'm still thinking about how to track performances in training better. We had PitchVision set up, which is a good start but I may need to develop a "testing day" where skills are monitored just for that day. There is not quite the take up for day to day tracking I had hoped for.

I also want to have a clearer end to the session. People drift off early while others stay late. I think I will have a set time to quickly summarise and remind people of the importance of reflection and plan in for the next session.

• The good: Balanced my time better, got some technical work.
• Needs work: Encoraging players to have a plan, performance tracking.

 

Game Notes: Fifth Round (and Development XI)

This weekend saw three games, with the Development XI starting the season with a friendly.

2nd XI

I was in the 2nd XI who won an easy game. We bowled them out for 30 and won without loss in 5 overs. It was nice for the two bowlers and two batsmen, but not a good way to prepare people for the next level. After the game, we discussed changing the league structure and, perhaps something more in our control, batting first by default. 

We fielded well, the opening  bowlers were on target and we stuck to the plan of being ruthless. It was over so fast there was little challenge, but it was also good to see we didn't relax.

1st XI

Meanwhile the firsts were busy making me sound like a stuck record. We didn't score enough runs. We batted first and mustered up a hundred and change. The opposition lost three wickets in the reply, but did it in under 25 overs.

The reports of the batting were as always; batsmen find ways to get themselves out. The opposition bowling is good and accurate but not terrifying. We can survive all day, but when we look to score we lose wickets. I still believe the intent to score is correct, but am starting to worry that no one really believes we can score enough. That is reflecting in a fear of getting out rather than confidence to play. It's a working theory that might be solved with fresh personnel: If we can find someone raw and brimming with confidence.

The question I ask myself is this; how can we set up training to restore belief? That's a tough one.

I was at the ground for the second half. The bowling and fielding again seemed reasonable. We were lacking two of our main bowling attack and the 2nd team opening bowler got some early tap. Our main strike bowler was a little short on his lengths. He's too quick for most to pull from back of a length and he beats the bat a lot but isn't finding the edge enough. I will encourage him to bowl fuller to club players.

However, the game was over fast and so it's unfair to do too much analysis around the bowling and fielding. In short we look solid enough but need more on the board to not have to rely on a tear-through-the-top-order bowling strategy. 

Development XI

The job of the development team is twofold: to bring young players into adult cricket and to give club players who don't play league Saturdays a chance for a game.

We played a 40 over friendly on Sunday with a mixed team: Three players on debut (including a 12 year old batsman/leg spinner), a few first and second team players and a couple of guys who are not quite league standard yet. The game was played in friendly spirit with retirements on fifty and every bowler getting a bowl. We scored 198 and they got 175 in reply.

What mattered more was getting people into the game and the captain did that very well. I wanted to join up the preparation of the younger talented guys with a review post game, but they ran off, so I'll need to follow up with them another time.

I know it's a friendly, and results don't matter as much as enjoying the day but good habits are part of a culture, so I would like to sharpen up the intensity of fielding and running a little more. A short pre-match and post-tea warm up will focus body and mind there. My thinking is that when a player steps into league cricket he will understand the basics and the only change is in intensity rather than culture.

I'm also hoping that when we get a chance, we can slip in a declaration game or two just to mix up the pressures on batters and bowlers.

Session Notes: More Indoor Work

It was another wet day, so we dodged the showers for 15 minutes of fielding then hit the indoor nets with a core of 9 players.

The fielding drills were both new ones to my list. The first was aimed at encouraging a throw at the bowler's end stumps when fielding at short fine leg. Too often we throw to the keeper from here, but the run out is almost always at the far end.

The second was a simple execution of four skills in a row: catch, outfield pickup and throw, underarm flick, and over the shoulder. It's simple but intense.

Then we netted with a spin and seam net setup. I encouraged playing with discipline in one net, and experimenting with freedom in the other. The batsmen batted in pairs and I encouraged real world running and calling to add some realism.

Measuring success

One challenge I am starting to realise is dealing with consistency of training. Very few guys train twice every week. And very few guys take it on themselves to monitor training performance. To counter this I may need to sit down alone and decide what outcomes in training we need to measure more closely as a team, then impress on individuals that to meet their goals, they have to start tracking things consistently based on their individual needs. This is a two way process but neither the players or I have driven it hard enough.

• The good: Made use of what we had, numbers and standards were manageable.
• Needs work: measuring sucess both during the session and over a number of sessions.

Game Notes: Fourth Round

A quick summary of the round four match for the firsts: we batted too slowly scoring 131 in 49 overs, and the opposition knocked it off.

I spoke to the skipper at training who reported the same story as has been all season: players either look to score and find a way to get out, or shut up shop and go at two an over. 

Again the bowling seems in better shape. Defending 131 is never easy but the core seamers seem to be doing everything they can. The spinners are less strong but still capable. Fielding is good and intense.

The key lesson for me is simple: The only way out is up. We have to get the top order scoring fifties. Until that happens, the bowling needs to keep going but we can't even assess effectiveness until we get a good score on the board.

The way we do that is "controlling the controllables" by preparing mentally and physically, staying confident and positive and backing our clear ability to come good. With a couple of super keen youngsters in the side next week, we can tip the balance.

Session Notes: Imperfect Middle Practice

In this session we did some middle practice. However, it fell a little short of my aim of giving important strike rotation practice to senior batsmen.

We had good numbers, so after a quick warm up we used an old wicket to have middle practice with a realistic scenario for each pair batting time. I set the aim to try and rotate the strike because we have failed so far as a first team to do this well. We currently score off one ball in every five. At that rate, 120 is a par score.

I decided to do it timed to allow players to experiment. The first couple of pairs went well. Top order batters came up against good bowlers and there was hustle from the fielders.

Imperfect practice

The problem came when we needed to give lesser bowlers a go, but we still had top order batsmen to have their time in the middle. The standards stopped matching up. At least one player was clearly unhappy with this outcome.

We had one new player who will be joining us in a couple of weeks so I made sure he got a decent bat and he shaped up well.

The imbalance evened itself out as the lesser batsmen had their go and standards matched back up, but some people didn't get to have a bat because of time constraints. Another player was also clearly unhappy about this. Additionally, the standard of fielding was low and dropped away further, so by the end strike rotation became far too easy with the pressure off. I tried to mitigate this by bowling with the sidearm to some better players but this failed as it was getting too dark to see the ball at pace.

At the time I felt I had failed in my role of giving adequate practice to the players. I spoke quietly to both guys afterwards who both said it was not an issue, but I read between the lines that it was. I reiterated to them both that when I am managing a disparate group of 14 or more players, the onus is on individual responsibility to get what you need from a session. And, the more I think about it, the more I realise that there will always be a compromise in a two hour session. If I want to get some decent results for some players I have to focus on them and put others down the pecking order.

No acceptable alternative

The alternative would have been to give everyone their seven minutes in nets against all kinds of bowling standards and no one gets a hint of improving. That is unacceptable and I won't do it. I would rather have four guys get a decent bat and another three a proper bowl than 15 do nothing but busywork.

I told the players again that they are the ones pushing their own development and my job is to facilitate what they need from what they tell me, not run a mass session. I will keep pushing for this to sink in.

I will also push for a stronger "get on with it" mentality. Most people got stuck in, but at least one player got annoyed at the standard of bowling and lost focus, getting out twice to shots he wouldn't play in a match. I had a sharp word for him to focus, but didn't get the chance to reflect with him afterwards about the importance of making the most of an imperfect situation. As he has limited time to train I will try to catch up with him over email instead.

I was happy with the session intensity. It wasn't at full pelt (which would be my preference) but it was good enough considering the vast difference in fielding standards between players. Everyone stuck at it for two hours, which is a long time to stay focused.

• The good: commitment, realistic practice.
• Needs work: Better communication with individuals about meeting ther needs, better matching of standards, better fielding, sidearm.