Experimentation in nets

Experimenting is such a key part of practice.

We just finished a small group session in the nets where the aim was to try and put a batsman under pressure. 

After discussion we decided that setting a scenario was not enough because you could hit the ball in a net well and think it's gone for runs when in reality it hits a fielder. So we improvised.

First, we tried bowling from 17 yards. This made the bowling much quicker. We then tracked the control of the batsman. After 50 balls we realised he was in control 75% of the time, so there was very little pressure.

We chatted again and decided to give him a stump instead. This made it much harder and his control went down and focus went up. It was more pressure and more challenge and teaching him to adapt.

Was it perfect? No way, it was contrived. Did it do the job it was designed to do? Absolutely.

This kind of session should be the bedrock of our quest to improve. It just takes a little creative thinking and commitment from players.

Game Note: Low Confidence Chase

Saturday's First XI match saw one of our best performances of the year, yet resulted in another defeat. We were unable to chase 187.

Despite the result there were a lot of positive moments. We bowled well and recovered back from a weak start. One of our spinners finally got figures worth talking about. We took wickets and restricted scoring. The fielding was excellent.

The batting had its wobble moment, but the top four all got starts. That's a huge improvement on the collapses we have seen all year. It set us up to be on an unprecedented 57-2 after 20.

From this point, there is no doubt we should have won. The required rate was 4.4 and the opposition were tiring. We had two good, experienced batsmen at the crease.

Instead, the opposition set ring fields (only fine leg and third man outside the circle) with the keeper up and bowled tight medium pace. It's a classic strategy that we should have been able to overcome with no issue. However, we scored 26 runs in 12 overs. One batsman took 45 balls to score 12 runs and when he was out the rate had jumped to 5.5.

Afterwards he told me that he was frustrated with his inability to get the ball away. He was playing good cricket shots, but hitting the ball to the phalanx in the covers (five men in the ring on the off side). He couldn't hit a gap and didn't know what to do other than keep trying. He was out trying to hit over the top and miscueing. Sadly, it was this phase that had the biggest contribution to the loss.

With the rate climbing, the middle order started to try things and all failed. Between overs 31-41 we scored 36 and lost four wickets. The worst of them was a young player who was clearly feeling the stress before going out to bat. He looked incredibly frustrated by the slow scoring, but is really good at working the ball around. When he went in needing to score six an over he should have played his "hit the gap and run hard" game, but he felt the pressure and ran down the wicket to be stumped. It was synonymous of our lack of confidence and experience in a chase. 

A confident team could have easily scored five or even six an over for 10-15 overs. We needed 86 runs in 84 balls with six wickets in hand. That's at the top end of our skillset, but possible. Yet with an atmosphere of failure in the dressing room and no experience in knocking off the runs, we found the challenge too great.

In one last gasp we pinned everything on a big hitting lower order batsman who delivered hope in a 21 ball 24. It was fun to watch but the challenge of scoring 64 in 54 balls (the situation when he walked in) was highly unlikely by that point. All out for 154.

It's clear to me that we are as strong as ever in all departments. However, our lack of experience at a chase cost us. We didn't know how to react to the situation and let it slip away. My job with the batsmen at training is to try to build a method they can use to score in this situation.

Session Notes: Standing About Fears

We have hit an good rhythm with training now. The structure of sessions has settled into starting with fielding, then breaking into batting and bowling and finishing with fielding. Hopefully we will start seeing some results in the middle from the way these sessions are going.

Players are self-managing well, and I have pulled back on the more stat-based drills and games for now. I intend to return to the tracking element shortly. Turn out has also improved, with 20 players at the session.

I focused on the bowlers, specifically hitting length. This is a "feel" thing so is hard to coach other than to set up a target and talk to players about locking in the feel of the right release point. We had about eight bowlers going, and I spent time with the mitt alternating between general encouragement and specific chats about how it feels physically when you are bowling well. The aim is to highlight the importance of being aware of how you body feels when you are hitting a good length.

I also had a chat with one of our spinners about better planning and field setting. He tends to run in and bowl without much of a plan, but has a lot of good tools that could see him be a very effective bowler if he can think a little more ahead of the game and try to set batsmen up.

I also made sure I spoke to a couple of batters as I let them do their own sessions on the machine this time, but wanted to stay engaged with the group. However, I am pleased at the progress of batsmen working on specifics. We can do more, but this is a good first step.

The standing about dilemma

One final note about the fielding: a few times I have noticed players impatient if they are not doing volume work. They call it "a lot of standing about". 

Now, I appreciate the value of both volume and and activity in large group drills. That said, I also feel there are moments when adult players don't need to be active to get value from a drill. Some drills have less activity because they are focusing on something specific. On those occasions we need to stay a little more focused.

An example from this session was an underarm pickup and throw drill I set up with 10 players. 

The first part was a warm up so they queued up, did their drill and did a little run round to go back the the queue. I would estimate one throw per minute per player.

I then split the group into two sets of five in the classic "run out game" where one team tries to run out the other; a fielder against a batsman. After one go each we swap round. This added some pressure to the skill and allowed players to do a sprint finish to the warm up. The number of throws dropped to one per player. Each player also had on sprint to complete and the whole round (both teams) took about 3 minutes. Not high volume but much higher pressure and a good way to finish.

However, even in that 90 second period of waiting for a skill, someone said "there's a lot of standing about here". 

The take home point for me is to keep the wait times low in these mass drills. It's also to stress that it's fine to "stand about" if you get something useful from it. The fear of missing two throws because you have to wait longer should be overcome by what you learn about working under pressure. As always there is a balance between viewpoints to be had.

Game Notes: 11th Round

The first XI game was another lost to rain, although we did get the full first innings in, bowling and conceding 287.

I'm starting to notice a lack of wickets up top is hurting us. We have only one bowler who has taken a wicket in the first 10 overs, and his strike rate is 36. This means decent opening stands that translate to a platform to hit out.

Combine this with some horrifying RpO stats for the last 10 (6.6 is the best, then 7.7, 9.8 and 16.3) and you see the knock on effect. We are stronger in the middle overs but the top and bottom are poor, with the top being the root cause.

There is not much to comment on with the batting as we only made it to 16 overs. The top three hustled hard to try and get ahead of the D/L par, which was impressive. We had a couple of specific tactical issues with two guys in the middle that I will not discuss here, but gave me food for thought to work on individual things.

2nd XI

Meanwhile the seconds won a battle that was more about bearing the weather. They batted first, got a decent total then made short work of the opposition barring to win before the rain came. A solid performance.

One question that came up was the overall role of the 2nd XI. We have a team that are a mix of first hopefuls and second regulars. So, when a first team squad player who trains hard comes in, do you play him ahead of a regular seconds guy who has less chance of moving up but is doing well?

My thought is that priority goes to the ambitious player regardless of form. This player is better for the club as it creates a first team squad and it better for the culture because it shows that training, ambition and results gets priority.

Session Notes: State of the Coaching

At this point in the season, I have seen the culture at the club alongside the strengths and the limitations of players. It's not been totally as I expected, and there have been some important lessons.

Batting

The biggest issue is still first team batting. My challenge has been to try and bring players up to scratch. I identified three batsmen who could do the job with help from me, but none have done well, and one has done awfully.

Supporting batsmen have also not found ways to improve. I think we have seven other potential top six batters in the club, plus eight who could contribute. All of the former have played without making an impact and most of the latter are the same.

We have tried throw downs, bowling machine, bowling in nets and middle practice. We have added pressure and context and even - despite my protests - had a hit. Nothing has clicked into place for anyone batting in the top eight. No fifties, no one with over 150 runs in total for the year, and no one with a Sb% over 29%.

Some of this is down to training volume: No one can train every week through various other commitments but some don't train at all. We have a generally good attitude to training at the club and those who don't train understand it hurts their chances of playing. On top of this, we get a lot of guys at training who don't want to bat in the top six of the first team but they do want a go in nets. That reduces time available to to the better guys, so volume is lower again.

It's fortunate we have the indoor school as this allows us to get something done.

The other challenge is getting the right bowling to the right batting. We often have six to 10 first team batsmen to practice against three or four first team bowlers. At 15 minutes each, eight batsmen take two hours and there is no way our opening bowler is doing that much work. I wouldn't let him even if he wanted it!

The final element is training quality. When we are focused and mindful we improve, yet we still don't have that culture at the club. Very little deliberate practice occurs and we are patchy in the way we review things. I'm huge on the process of practice-review-improve and that has not settled in, as reflected by the lack of progress.

Instead we simply talk about volume to much. 

We say things like "I need to feel bat on ball to get my timing". There is an assumption that hitting more balls is all you need. Yet, I strongly believe hitting more balls is a way of preventing further decline rather than getting better. To get better you need to work on something specific, measure if it's working then review and adjust at suitable intervals.

In hindsight, this is a big change that won't happen in one season or with everyone. Instead, it's  a matter of identifying core players who can buy into the idea. We have a enough passionate, committed players to make this work in the long run.

Outside of training, there are lots of opportunities for top order batsmen to get "time in the middle". We play a huge number of games (this week gone saw six adult fixtures and anyone wanting a bat could have played four times). The top order generally don't play much outside of their one first team game a week. Personally, I think that is fine for experienced guys. Match experience gives you game sense more than anything else. That said, I would rather see someone play than come to training to hit balls mindlessly. At least in a game you could learn something about pressure and shot selection.

On the other hand, there has been plenty of run scoring in the other teams. In fact, several failed first team players have bashed big scores in the seconds and thirds.

My theory here is that there is a much larger gap in standards between the firsts and other other sides. If you can bat a bit, you can plunder plenty of runs against weak attacks in lower teams. However, in the firsts you get at least 30 high class overs. A pro can bowl 15 overs, so you only need one other very good bowler and you are 60% covered. Many sides have three or four classy guys so there is little respite. If you can bat a bit you won't ever get a fifty in the firsts where you might have easily got one in the seconds. You need to be bang on your game.

Of course, all that means training is crucial for those dozen run makers who could make up the top seven. That's without even considering eight, nine, 10, jack who also need to improve their batting skills.

I would say only three guys are training right for their needs. Two are close to being in decent form. The rest fall into the "don't train or train and hit balls" camp. Only one guy is an automatic pick for the first team because he is a "natural" (although he has also not performed this season). The others have shown very little improvement despite mostly training hard. This is where the problem lies, as they don't have the skill to overcome good quality bowling and are not getting better because they lack focused training.

And really, it's that lack of progress that is hurting us most, and is my biggest failure as coach this year.

Bowling

As we don't have an overseas bowler, we rely heavily on our local talent. This area is a lot better in the firsts and is also looking good for the future.

We have three very good seamers: Two line and length guys who can bowl good pace and one out and out pace bowler. The latter has found a much better length as they year has gone on and has taken 20 wickets in nine digs. He plays a lot of cricket and knows how to manage his workload. 

The other seamers are experienced bowlers and don't need a lot of input from me. Both will bowl on the spot all day and get it nibbling about on a good day. We could do with some more variation to complete the seam picture but it's still at least 35 good overs from those three.

The backup seamers - barring one guy - have less pace and train less often as a general rule. That said, they still manage to be one of the best second XI seam attacks in the league. We have five guys in that category.

Training for all these seamers is not tough. They are happy to bowl as much as they need to bowl and most prefer to bowl at a batsman. I have brought in a lot more target bowling this year without a batter and have used middle practice. It's a lot easier to do mindful practice as a bowler because you are controlling what happens, so for me it's a matter of managing workload and making sure bowlers feel more than just a human bowling machine.

I have tried to introduce a few technical things here and there to mixed success. One guy was dead against anything technical so I left him to it, while another came to me with a run up issue that we have tried to iron out. I'd like to do more technical work with the bowlers but have left them mostly to drive it and not had a lot of requests. Performances have been reasonable all season.

The spinners are a different story. We have a lot of talent bubbling under (three youth leggies have broken through into adult cricket this year) but the senior spinners have not bowled well this year. We have used two in the firsts, but neither have bowled well and have had few overs. Even the seconds have not seen many wickets come from spin.

The senior spinners practice hard, with one working on some technical stuff with me, but have not seen any huge signs of improvement over the year. I feel the answer is to drill down hard on some ball tracking, especially as the wickets get better for spinners in August. If we track performance across sessions as well as from ball to ball, we can see improvements much more easily.

I'm also considering a "spin hothouse" idea, where the spinners get together for a few specific sessions possibly under the eye of an experienced spin coach. We have seven proper spinners playing senior cricket so I am sure we can get some great cross-pollination going in this art.

Fielding

When I started I wanted fielding at the centre of our performances. I wanted us to have the highest standards for throwing, cartching and stopping in the league. I think we have those standards but there is a long way to go.

Everyone who trains does a lot of fielding. We have done technical work on throwing and volume work on everything. I love hitting balls and will make sure we get something in every session and before each game. We use several Skyers, various stump targets for throwing and two Katchet ramps. Players do a variety of drills and are good at making up their own. It's our best area at all levels.

Our catching is generally good, but we have also dropped a lot as a club this year.  Groundwork and throwing has been impressive. We can do more: We can hit the stumps more often, pick up more cleanly in the infield and take more flat catches. These are all advanced skills and I'm pleased we are looking at them as realistic aims.

One of my goals is to track all fielding stats better so we can see improvement, rather than assume we are bad because we made mistakes. Every team makes mistakes, it's how many over time that matters most. The challenge is to get all the drops, runs saved, stumps hit and missed, and misfields recorded every game. Our scorer has plenty to do, and I have not settled in to coach every game as yet, but I plan to record things for the last games this year to have a benchmark for next year.

Nevertheless, I see fielding as my biggest success as well as the area for easy growth this season and next.

Session Notes: On Track

We had two sessions this week that were different but both influenced by the rain, and both on the right track.

Tuesday saw a small group suddenly become 15 players when a game was called off and most of the players had a net instead. We did some outdoor fielding drills with the small group and focused on hitting the stumps. This is an area that can always be improved, and I feel we are especially poor. We hit less than 10% in practice. To counter this we did some volume work, first aiming at five stumps and going down to two as we hit.

When the group got bigger we went inside for nets as the square was unusably wet. Six players went indoors and the rest I left to self-lead fielding. 

Inside, we had three or four bowlers in an open net, and one guy up on the machine. Everyone is getting the "bat with intent" mantra a lot better and we rotated batsmen through, all working on specifics. The challenge now is to make a difference to player's in the short time available.

It certainly seems that way. One batsman wanted to work on judging the ball outside off stump, and he nailed it for three buckets. Another wanted to learn a pulled shot and was getting it dead on within 10 minutes. The proof will come in games, but it certainly looks good in training.

Thursday was a low turn out with a 3rd XI game on the same night. However, it was the perfect situation for a net in the middle: The pitch was one that had only been used for three overs in an abandoned match, all the players were first team standard bowlers (except one who was a dab hand with the sidearm anyway) and they all wanted a bat. Everyone got a good 20 minutes against good bowling on a good pitch. The bowler's were fired up. Everyone got something from it with none of the usual frustrations of net sessions.

However, I have decided to chase up individually some guys who I have not seen much in recent weeks. There has been a big tail away in numbers. A lot can be explained by reasonable things like games and holidays but I would like to remind people we are still only halfway through the season and there is still a good chance we can stay up if we put the work in.

Game Notes 10th Round and Session Notes

One more quick update before returning to fuller articles in future.

The weeks training was all done indoors due to rain. We have settled into a compromise way of training were there are fewer games and scorekeeping and more traditional netting, only with a clear intention from each player. This is working well, although my ambition is still to get better on tracking training performance.

The Saturday matches were rained off, and the Sunday Development XI managed 60 overs from 80 before being abandoned. I was pleased to have one of the Under 15s make his senior debut and bowl eight overs for a respectable 50 runs (he was bowling to some very good players). He bowled well enough for a wicket but couldn't get the luck for one. Still, it was a fun and tiring experience for him.

I also noticed a couple of the guys I have been working with on batting playing with a better technique. This is highly satisfying as I can see some results from the hard work they are putting in with me.

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!