Training Notes: Outside in March 😱🤘🏾

The West of Scotland Cricket Club outfield gets a spring haircut.

Wonderfully, the weather had held long enough for us to do some impromptu fielding outside this week.

The importance of getting outside and holding a real cricket ball on a real pitch is vital to me. You cannot do it too early. I know other coaches who have players willingly outside on tennis courts and hockey pitches in January, so March training is hardly an achievement!

But it is important to get as much fielding as you can in before the season. Rain will get in the way a few times I am sure, yet we have a full month to "blow away the cobwebs" get a few technical things in and try to hone catching, throwing and stopping skills.

Firstly, it's about volume. Harden up the hands, get a feel for your best ways of moving, build confidence that you can still do it.

Second, it's about technique. Learn methods that work for you and try new things thing that might make you look stupid in the short term but have a good pay off.

One example of this is the blind side pick up and throw. When the ball goes to your weaker hand it is very hard to pick up and throw down the stumps. Even the best in the world only manage it one in three goes. The tendency with club guys is to never practice it as failure rate is huge. However, working on it a bit will see an improvement. If someone does it once in the whole season, surely that's worth the effort. It's fear of failure that stops us, not desire to improve.

Third, it's about fitness. Not just getting the heart rate up either, but getting shoulders and core stronger.

Overall, they real key to fielding practice is the same as batting and bowling practice: Go in with an intention. This might be a specific, measureable and realistic goal. This might be the idea to experiment with something new. Whatever it is, focus on a single intention.

Naturally, you want to cover all the basics. However it's easy in a group setting to do a few easy drills, the default to loads of high catching. That's fine if you want to improve high catching, but if you dropped five catches in the ring last week, surely you should focus on that.

I'll b delivering that message every time we get outside.

Steffan Jones on Fragile Cricket and Comfort Zones

Steffan Jones' epic article on coaching bowlers can be applied to any cricket skill,

"The aim of any bowling coach is to create anti-fragile bowlers and not fragile bowlers. Bowlers who perform strength sessions and bowl in indoor centers all off-season become fragile bowlers. They... break down when things are constantly changing."

At club level, I see a lot of guys training to be fragile.

Not just bowlers, but especially bowlers. They spend all their net time bowling. Some hit the gym. They don't play another other sport. They have no crossover drills either technical or based on developing specific strength and power.

Some are super-resilient naturally and never break down despite this. Others are terrified of too much training because their body is so grooved into cricket it might burst doing anything else.

I'm hoping to push a little more activity in the middle this summer with heavy ball bowling, med ball work, technical drilling and training under stress.

That last point is developed further by Steff,

"The common mantra is that perfect practice makes perfect performance, but in reality movement is improved not by exploring its core (i.e. perfect technique), but by exploring its limits (i.e. where it breaks down). You have to constantly test and push the body to its limits in order to improve. Fast bowlers will fail in this zone, but in the right environment they can also learn to do things better in the process."

Failure is part of success! 

The Fielding Experiment

Over the last month we have been running specialist fielding sessions for an hour a week at a local sports hall.

The basic idea was twofold: Hone throwing and catching before we get outdoors in April, and get brains out of the net mentality. The latter is not a hurtful thing, but it is a restriction we face at West with the tiny two lane indoor school.

We also have two guys working hard to get their coaching qualifications, so the sessions gave them scope to do some sessions outside of nets.

How did it go?

The sessions have been run by our budding coaches and, although would not have been the same as I did, still contained plenty of good coaching on getting world-class at the basics.

We have focused on simple things like throwing, ready position and catching. There was lots of activity and energy. Balls have been thrown, caught and picked up a lot.

For those who came, that is.

Numbers have been low. We booked a big space and have only got between four and 10 players turn up. I was hoping the core of the first and second eleven would be there alongside some keen youngsters and a couple of developing players to make a good size group. This has not happened despite my pestering of people individually to come.

It also put the brakes on people coming to nets, so had a negative effect on overall attendance.

It's clear to me the culture at the club is not ready for these kinds of session to be taken up en masse yet. I have some work to do on that front.

So the next step is to get feedback from the guys as to why they came, and why they didn't come. Not to judge, but to get an insight into what stopped us from succeeding.

Once I know this, I can plan ahead for next year and try to work out how to do fielding again with better attendance and better skill development.

One idea is we have our first three outdoor sessions dedicated to fielding. That's six hours of work (one more than we did indoors). I like this as it solves the attendance problem. Plus if people really truly want to bat and bowl they can use the indoor nets. (Great idea Lucas).

Another idea is that we have the hall sessions dedicated to juniors. It's easier to get commitment from young players and we can do more fun and useful stuff in a hall than we can in nets.

Whatever we do, the important part for me is not the failure, but the attempt and what I can learn from it.

Coaching in an Unmotivated Environment

One of my biggest challenges is finding a way to coach kids who are less interested in cricket.

At club level there are always times when older kids (around 13-16) come along to cricket training without a lot of motivation. They are not interested in improving. They just want a bit of fun with their mates.

This is fine, cricket should be fun. It doesn't have to be performance sessions every time.

What I find frustrating is when that mild disinterest takes away from any kind of discipline. I'm not talking about military level here, just bowling when it's your turn, playing the game as set out and putting your pads on in a timely manner.

It starts with being distracted (phones, training gear, food and other stuff laying around they can look at or use). The upshot is a batsman waiting to face a ball because everyone is doing something else.

Sometimes it gets to a point where they become unsafe: Throwing balls around, trying to trip each other up and bowling two balls at the same time.

How do I deal with this?

At the moment I am following the classic coaching plan of standing at the back of the net and shouting "focus" and "bowl please" as distractions take up more time than actual cricket. As a method, it has a low effectiveness.

It relies on the assumption that if you repeat something enough, attitudes will change.  Evidence is so far proving to the contrary.

Another method I try is to give a theme to the session. This more often mindset based than technical or tactical. We focus on things like "trying your best" and "avoid your gremlins". This also has mixed results.

In the last session I also worked actively to reduce the distractions:

• We played a game that required more focus than usual as it was 2 vs 2 in "combat".
• I moved the music speaker out of reach of stray hands deciding they want to put it on maximum volume.
• I moved the sidearms out of easy reach meaning anyone who wants to use them has to go through me first.
• I also now insist that phones are not brought to sessions (or kept off and safe for the hours they are in the nets).

Each one of these work independently, but do not see an overall reduction in the distraction moments. In my mind this is because the issue is not with the items of distraction but the actions of the players.

So, I need a better way to keep minds focused, and stop me getting frustrated with behaviour that is not helpful.

Or to put it another way, I need to teach these guys to be good blokes before they are good cricketers.

So, for future sessions I plan to make the nets a haven from everyday; a place you come to enjoy moving that's fun. A place to help others have fun too.

The first step in my mind is to have a big intervention.

I will ask the guys - especially those who are most disruptive - why they come to cricket and what the would like to get out of it. My suspicions are they will say to have fun and maybe develop some skills.

I will also ask what they expect from me, and from each other. I suspect they will say something along the lines of helping each other play better cricket, and maybe have a laugh along the way.

Whatever they say, I'll have them agree to a one page document that outline this in simplest terms possible that gives them a reminder of what they said.

Then, I will tailor every session around meeting their stated aims. Every session will,

• Keep the distractions to a minimum.
• Keep teaching mindset tools.
• Be structured based on what they said they wanted.

I don't expect a transformation in focus. What I hope to build is an environment where we each trust each other to do exactly what we said we would do. That just being a good human being.

I'm realising that, at this age, it's as much about keeping guys engaged on a human level, not just on a cricket level. Cricket comes along for the ride, but it's a tool for bringing individuals together as a team, and that's more important.

This is a new angle for me. I have never coached players with this level of disinterest in cricket before and never seen such frustrating consequences. However, if I learn how to manage players at this level, I know it will give me better skills with more committed guys.

Training Notes: Improvement is Our Advantage

I have been enjoying a week off with stand-ins doing all the hard work this week. Much thanks goes to Colin, Dave, Mike and the lads themselves for keeping the ball rolling.

However, the previous week was the last small group session before we switch to fielding at a local school hall. My aim was to bring back the mindset theme.

After some thought, I realised a simple way of looking at it was this;

Improvement is our advantage.

I noticed this when a local rival club - one who are significantly better than us at the moment - announced on Twitter they were starting indoor nets. To compare, by their first session we had 15 team sessions. Anyone who attended them all would have had 25 hours in the nets before our rivals had one.

Even though overall they are a better side, we absolutely must be closing the gap with such a difference.

We may never fully catch them, or we may overtake them in a couple of years. Who knows?  What I do know is we are doing way more than them to catch up than they are doing to stay ahead.

So, this leads to the simple message; the more we train with focus on growth, the smaller the gap will become while they continue to do the same things and develop very little.

We have the big advantage of the indoor school, where we can train almost anytime, and we should see it as a huge benefit. That is, of course, before the hours I put in that I am sure no other club coach does in the off-season.

Plus we have PitchVision.

This week I carefully noted a few stats down to show people what the standards are. The risk is putting people into a fixed mindset, so I kept it very light and pushed home the point that stats are a tool to help improve, not a way to judge ability.

It all feeds into improvement.

We have even convinced the ground management team that starting a week early might be worth a try. We have a warm up game scheduled for 15th April. This is the earliest game I have seen attempted at West. Another example of improvement being our advantage.

If we focus on improving (not proving) we are taking full advantage of our natural strengths over the opposition.

I will keep pushing this in the last few weeks before we try and get outdoors. The biggest training advantage has passed, but we are still well ahead and able to draw further away with three sessions a week (most have one) plus one to one sessions.

Next time I'll report back on how the special fielding sessions are going. 

Inherently Reliable Technique

Read this brilliant article on wicketkeeping. It's superb. However, I would challenge one thing: 

"Russell's, approach will work more often; Rossington's will look better but work fewer times."

The point of contention is not about the method itself, but the underlying assumption that a classical technique is inherently more reliable.

I don't think that is true.

I don't have any stats on this, but I do know that people move differently and track ball movement differently. For some, staying still and leading with the hands is far more natural feeling than feet first classical style.

For these people, the flashier method is also the most reliable.

Then we also know that people have an eye-tracking preference. For a keeper standing up to a right handed batsman this means:

• A "right eye" keeper will be more comfortable moving earlier to try and get to pick up the ball on the leg side
• A "left eye" keeper will be more comfortable staying on the off side longer and relying on hands instead of feet.

Bottom line is this: There is no inherently more reliable technique: Only a technique that suits your personal body and mind preferences.

I like my keepers to have a go at every way and see what feels more right, but also be able to do the other way at least a bit. Just in case. 

Training Notes: The Balancing Act of Pressure

This week's training theme was "pressure". Results were mixed, but overall encouraging.

The balancing act here was to put people under more pressure without disengagement. Last time I tried to do this, the response we largely negative: Passive rejection of trying the game or perhaps even outright defiance. This time I set up a game with a lighter touch and gave people room decide for themselves.

I framed the game in a different context by saying it was an opportunity to learn natural response to pressure and develop a way of dealing with it. The idea was to give players an insight into their own mind from which they can learn.

The game itself was a simple incentive. Bat for 15 minutes without getting out and you get five extra minutes (an idea from Millfield School Head of Cricket, Mark Garaway). The players batted in pairs to add running to the mix. Running raises the heart rate, which is a quick way to feel under pressure.

I'm not sure how much it was coincidence and how much it was a lack of desire to feel pressure, but we had four players drop out once I explained the game in the team WhatsApp group!

The results were good. Everyone batted with focus and there were no strops. One player misunderstood the game and almost blew up when he was out first ball. Then he realised his net wasn't over and calmed down. Then after his net he said "we should play 'out means out' sometime too". Nice.

Naturally, I have no way of monitoring the success of the drill in teaching a calm response to pressure. That's down to how the guys reflect on the drill. However, from observations I saw people batting and bowling with more overall focus. So, I was pleased that the guys seemed to be taking the opportunity.

The next night was a more traditional net that is supposed to be run by our Development captain. I'm always there which means he tends to default to letting me run the session.

As a result I sort of plan something and then let the guys get on with it. This time I asked them to decide for themselves about raising heart rate. I suspected the results would be a passive ignoring of it. I was right. Nobody did anything except bat and bowl.

I now realise how important the balancing act is between setting up games and allowing self-management. Get it wrong and the goal is not met. Get it right and you have a chance for learning.

Last year I would have got frustrated at the player's lack of ambition to be self-reliant. This year I know that you need a bit of structure to allow self-reliance, as group-think and peer pressure seems to kill it unless you force it just a little.

I also think drills work better if I make it clear there is a single intention that is behind the drill. Even if someone doesn't like or appreciate it, they can buy into trying it once. 

Develop Skill in Context

Eddie Jones; 

"You have to develop skill in context. That means practising at high intensity under significant pressure."

I don't agree. 

Intensity and pressure are two factors crucial to skill. It's useless being able to play a perfect cover drive in the mirror at home but missing every one when you do it in a match. Yet, these element are at the top of a list that includes: 

• Basic understanding of the need to improve, and a desire to risk failure to do it. 
• Basic understanding of the skill itself, and how you perform it with individual differences.
• Understanding of other ways to perform a skill. 
• Tactical know-how.
• Confidence in your ability to perform skills.
• Having resilience when things don't go your way.

If you introduce more intensity and pressure too early, you risk losing people who have not yet developed these areas enough. They are likely to see training as a test they are failing rather than an environment that encourages growth.

I image for Jones, most of his players are well developed in these areas, so he is right in his ideas for the group he coaches. I'd also say for most cricket coaches - even at senior level - there is work to be done to develop other areas first before pressure is added.

That said, I am going to run a session that is higher on intensity and pressure this week, even though I think some of the guys may react poorly to it. I am going to put it into the context that the session is deliberately high pressure and unfair. The test will be made clear: Your response to pressure will reveal how you respond to in in actual games, so learn from it. 

I'll see how it goes!

Training Notes: Boundaries and Mindsets

​A few more sessions in and I can say with honesty that I am encouraged by my new approach this year.

I feel less resistance from players and feedback has been positive. Most players get the general principles of a growth mindset. Those who are more resistant enagage in interesting discussions with me as we navigate a way through. All positive signs.

Additionally, turnout and volume is increasing. We had a session with over 700 balls bowled this past week!

The most recent theme at the sessions was "Boundaries" and, as you can imagine, people bought into that with gusto. I had players choose their own interpretation of this, based on focusing on one thing in their learning edge, Most people worked on hitting harder in their best scoring areas. Some preferred to play a more cautious game of dot or boundary. Bowlers chatted to each other about tactics and lots of yorkers were bowled.

Only two people didn't buy in. One went on the bowling machine and spent 40 minutes playing straight and mostly defensively. Another was a young lad who got frustrated with the way he was playing and gave up saying "I'm just rubbish now, I used to be good." Classic fixed mindsets from both. However, these are exceptions rather than rules.

I think the biggest surprise for players in this shift is the realisation that they can improve. Several guys have said something like "I'm too set in my ways to change", but then gone about a session with a specific goal to improve something about their game. Most people, rather than resist a growth mindset, have embraced the idea that they have more in them. Even if the more is just being the best version of you that you can be.

As a result of a strong focus on mindset, I have only done one team net based game so far. That one went well, but I am conscious of not letting a score encourage a fixed mindset. While tracking is important, I have quietly let PitchVision do that while players often focus on experimenting with different things in nets to find out what works.

Cricket nets in Glasgow at West of Scotland CC. PitchVision video analysis is seen in action. 

When someone is experimenting, I throw away the PitchVision data. When someone is specifically trying to improve their strengths, I use the data to help.

In the coming weeks, I will look again at the odd game where scores are kept, reminding people that the score isn't the important part, but it's good to check in with your progress in a quantified way from time to time.

I am also about to send out a update on bowling accuracy and pace to see the responses.

Otherwise, it's back to a couple more weeks of mindset-focused nets before a full month of fielding practice in March.

Good Coaching Gives Room for Autonomy

'...good coaching does not take away autonomy. If you doubt this, then ask yourself “Why does the average teenage boy play 17 hours of video games a week?” A big part of that why is there is no one standing over his shoulder critiquing every move, and demanding that he entertain them. Would it be helpful to have your boss stand over your shoulder and critique everything you do at work? No? Then why do we think it helps our young athletes?'

John O'Sullivan writing about why kids quit sport.  

This ties in with my philosophy of coaching too. I believe cricketers of all ages, abilities and skill levels need to work things out for themselves for three reasons:

1. It's the best way to learn something (it takes longer, but sticks firmer) .
2. It develops a growth mindset (you learn you can do it for yourself) .
3. It's way more enjoyable (play at something, think it through and solve it yourself).

The computer game analogy is a good one. I enjoy the occasional foray into the space combat game Elite: Dangerous. I get the most satisfaction from playing when I am challenged enough to have to work something out. I get the least satisfaction from doing something well within my skill level that is easy. If someone was to stand over me and tell me every move, I would not be engaged with the game and I would play it less. I my mind, cricket is the same, just "in real life".

Training Notes: Rotate the Strike

The last few sessions have kept a focus up on rotating the strike. We did this with a game first shown to me by good coaching pal, Sam Lavery.

The game work well and we tracked performance on PitchVision. Everyone bought into the idea. They were trying new shots and working out the best way to play balls into different areas. Some stuff worked brilliantly (one guy hit 40% of his shots into gaps), other stuff was a total failure. There were some complaints about it not being ideal, but I took the opportunity to ask how we could make it better next time.

Speaking of taking opportunities, I continued to bang the mindset drum at every chance:

• A player showed concern at facing bowlers who were too good for him. I asked him what would the opportunity be for success in that situation. H challenged me and I challenged him back. It was a great discussion.
• One player brought up his desire to warm up with football before games in the summer. I'm against football as a warm up as I have seen it go wrong too often. However, I have opened my mind to other ideas and so challenged the player to come up with a solution that everyone can be happy with, rather than just refusing to join in other games that I select (like he did last year).
• A player fed back to me that after one net he lost focus and starting swinging at balls. He wasn't happy with himself. I asked him what he could do to next time and we had a good chat about his options when he recognises the urge again.
• Another player had a similar experience but reacted differently. He came out of the strike rotation net and said "I didn't play the game". This is classic fixed mindset, defending his ego because he felt he didn't do well. I tried to refocus him on what he could learn from the experience. I don't think it quite sunk in, but he was certainly saying by the end of the chat that he doesn't want to be "one of those guys who thinks they can't learn anything."

Now, I don't want every net to turn into an experiment as we also need to nail down the basics of what works well. For batsman that's still a reliable drive and pull shot with nothing fancy. For bowlers that's still hitting the top of off stump with the odd yorker or slower ball/googly/arm ball thrown in. But I feel most of the time, players will naturally gravitate to doing this and just need focus to make sure it gets hammered home.

I need to ask questions like, can you drive well every time? If not, how can we make it better, if so how can we make it harder? I need to push those guys to their learning edge at every chance.

In some ways, bowling is easier on this as we have the accuracy stat. Accuracy gets lots and lots of wickets, so by hitting off stump you will do well in club cricket. All bowlers will work hard on this stat (measured by PVC of course).

Currently things are looking solid. We have two guys topping 50% (exceptional) accuracy and several in the 40s. This doesn't even include our opening bowler who is working away at the moment but is usually one of the more accurate.

The danger is people using the numbers as proof of ability not benchmarks for improvement. I am keeping my eyes peeled there.

Honesty in Coaching

Honesty is a complex thing, but when truth is told and heard in the right way, its powerful. Here's an example from a coach,

 

He let me talk (at least through my sobs), and then he let me listen. He was honest. He told me that I wasn’t ready. I was too weak... when it mattered the most, I didn’t work hard enough in the offseason, but he told me that I had potential, and asked me to stick with it.

I finished the season, despite a lack of playing time, and worked hard that summer. The next year, I played in every single game. I was awarded Honorable Mention All-Conference, and our team made it to the substate regional final.

The following year, I was a senior captain and starter. After the best athletic season I have ever participated in , my team made it to the first state tournament since the 1960s. I was again an All-Conference selection. My senior year laid the foundation for a 2010 team that would win its first state title.

What would have happened if my parents sent Coach P an email demanding to know why I wasn’t playing? What would have happened if they let me quit without having a conversation with him? My parents have taught me more things than I could ever count, but one of the most important things was to fight my own battles, and never give up.

Mindset Notes: We Should Win

"We should win every game next season"

That's what one of our stronger minded players said to me the other day. And I disagreed totally. Of course, I agree that winning every game would be a brilliant outcome. The problem is that reality is rarely so kind as to follow the most desirable course of events.

What if we get a couple of key injuries, feel rusty and play below our best in the first game of the season and lose? That's the entire plan for the year out of the window in April.

Let's go the other way and say we win the first eight matches. We are on top of our game. We are steam-rollering everyone. Then we come up against a pro who is on fire. We play hard, fight toe to toe and are vanquished in the last over in a game of incredibly high standards.

The plan to win every game is gone again. This time, through no lack of effort or ability from West, but an epic battle that went all the way.

For me, it's the word "should" that is the problem.

As soon as we say "should" we compare ourselves to other team's talents.

Comparison based on talent is a fixed mindset. We expect to win because we are better. Any loss is down to your innate ability as a cricket team.

And even a moment of thought about this makes you realise that is not how the world works.

The best team doesn't always win the match.

Worse than that, failure hits you hard. Really hard.

You can't understand why you lost (because you "should" have won) so you start making excuses. You blame yourself and look to change clubs or quit the game. You blame others and start pointing fingers. You blame the weather, the pitch, the outfield or the time of year. Anything, as long as it's not that you are not as good as you thought you were.

So, I want to say,

"Remember, when we strive to play our best we always succeed."

The achievement might well be the same (winnning every game) but this is not just rephrasing the same sentiment. It's a totally different mindset and team culture.

In this culture, winning is important but it's not the ultimate indicator of success. Winning or losing is not the direct result of how good a team is. So why set yourself a goal that you don't control?

The better aim is to work as hard as possible to improve and be as good as you can.

That means doing things within your control to be your best. It means focusing on the things you can control. It means admitting what went wrong if you lose and learning from to come back stronger.

It means focusing on improving, not proving.

We know from research that team cultures based on personal and team growth increase the chance of success over cultures based on fixed mindsets. So even if your only aim is to win every game, doing it from a growth culture is still more effective.

It's a no-brainer.

Drop the "should" and focus on things that work: effort, determination, focus and constant improvement.

Training Notes: An Early Start and Mindset Focus

We have had two rounds of training as I write this and things are off to a totally different start to last year. It's still too cold for cricket, even indoors, but we started earlier and with a different focus.

As I probably mentioned, we are setting out indoor training differently:

• An hour a week for 6-12 year olds.
• An hour a week for 13-15 year olds.
• Three hour long small group (3-6) session of seniors.
• A two hour session for 16 plus juniors and Development players.

And I am running one to one sessions by request.

With each session I have come up with a theme to give some focus. It seems to be working well with people taking up the cause.

Turnout has been reasonable. Numbers are still somewhat lower than ideal, with notable people missing. However, I have seen about a dozen juniors and roughly 20 seniors at various sessions. I am also doing six regular one to one sessions a week (up by three from last year). Two new players have joined. This is predictable for the time of year (sessions have started several weeks earlier than last year). I will continue to press people to come along, but also be aware that the nets can only reasonably hold about 10 people. And that's crowded!

The juniors have had one session and the theme ("Do Your Best to be Your Best") worked very well for the older kids. There was the usual shenanigans of course, but it was far more focused than usual. The younger ones are just happy to have a bat in hand and I want to encourage that "play" element as much as possible.

The small groups have been super-focused. The first week was my push for a shift in mindset, the second was a specific focus on strike rotation. In both cases I did not play any score keeping games and kept the focus on approaching nets with a "plan-act-reflect" process rather than having a hit.

I have not given up on keeping scores, and I think people are more open to monitoring as well. It's just my focus is on building a growth mindset and sometimes a challenge or scorekeeping can encourage a fixed mindset. So, I will bring these things in carefully at a later stage. Of course, we are still tracking bowling with PitchVision.

This has been a big shift for me from last year but I sense it has gone well. People are more focused on the mindset when they don't worry about games. That said, they have bought into using PitchVision so well that some are asking me how to run the software (last year only one person was interested in that, this year it's been four already).

We have also had the addition of two new coaches.

Both are currently players and both are keen to make an impact as coaches on the senior teams. One has become Development captain and so has fallen into a role of running the Development nets. He still has plenty to learn (as we all do), but he enthusiasm is well directed and I have already felt confident in letting him run sessions. This will grown his confidence and takes pressure off me in that I don't have to do it all!

As sessions get busier and more intense it will be a challenge to keep players engaged and in the right mindset. It's hard to measure this, but I will monitor it by conversations with players, and watching reactions (to thing like errors, focus, choice of goals, skipping training, and dodging hard work).

Switch Hit 🏆

Until yesterday, I had never coached anyone to play a switch hit. That run is over, so I thought I would explain it a little.

Coaching club players means "fancy" shots are a long way down the list compared with building a serviceable drive, cut and pull. The switch hit is the most fancy of them all. Created by KP, who is king of show-off batsmen, the shot is risky and has a low pay off because you hit the ball into a well covered area.

So why did I coach it today?

It was a hunch.

The batsman in question is very right handed, using his right hand for most of his control over shots, and looks like he tracks the ball with his right eye. He ends up squaring up a lot in his drives, but still hits the ball well from an open position, even through the off side.

Purists might criticise his batting for this, but I didn't want to break his natural inclination, so focused on getting him to align his body to the right line and focus on stepping forward so his weight transferred into the ball.

In other words, I left alone his tendency to stay open.

One session in passing I said that if I was coaching him as a kid I would try him batting left handed as his dominant hand and eye would be on the other side and he could hit the ball better. We laughed at the thought and moved on.

Then I realised something.

It might be too late to teach him left handed batting, but why not try some left handed shots?

The easy swipe of the switch hit seemed like the obvious thing to try.

And so, as it was out last session before a break we tried it!

Here's what we did:

• 30 minute of working on right handed footwork with drills and sidearm
• 10 minutes of underarms with him batting left handed and trying the switch hit, sweep left handed and drive left handed.
• 20 minutes of switch hitting against the bowling machine at 47 mph on a good length.

It went well. He nailed the switch hit, the left handed sweep and a left handed cover drive with no issues against underarms. That was a good start considering he's never batted left handed before and is self confessed "not very good" at pulling or sweeping.

On the machine, he was hitting 8 from 10 well almost right away.

We made a slight change to how he changed position (early hand switch first then spin round to bat left handed) and his timing improved too.

Then I found a weak point, aiming the ball slightly fuller at off stump. He struggled more to make a good contact.

It was certainly an experiment where I was learning as much as he was, we got a lot from the session:

1. He is reliably decent left handed.

2. He's is a naturally defensive batsman and this gives him another surprise attacking option.

3. It demonstrates how his right hand controls the shot.

4. It gives him the lead in working out the best way to do it, but I am there to guide with drills and suggestions.

Also we had fun!

Will he ever use it in a game? It's too early to say. It takes a lot of guts and self-confidence as a batsman to reel out a shot like that. If you get it wrong in a game you would look a fool. And he is not most confident player ever anyway.

I think he has the potential to use at least the switch hit and perhaps the left handed sweep in a real game. He just needs a bit more work to feel consistent.

But even if he never uses it, I'm trying to establish in him that he can play attacking cricket and have confidence in his technique to play shots reliably. If he feels he can switch hit he will feel like a genius and that will leak into other parts of his game.

That's my plan, anyway!

Coaching Philosophy

This time of year, I often turn my mind to the big picture of my coaching. As one of the players I coach is fond of saying; what is action without reflection?

I've decided it's about time I built a philosophy to overarching all my coaching. I've always had a vague idea of "helping people get better at cricket, because they can". This year has taught me a lot more, so I am starting to formulate some pillars that I can thread through the way I coach and the influence I have on the team.

Heres my first draft.

My philosophy as cricket coach

To give cricketers the opportunity to develop into the best they can be as a player and as a person.

• Mindset: Building a team culture based on trust and a growth mindset. Expecting the highest standards of effort and behaviour, and challenging players to meet these standards.
• Goals: Using data and coaching to build plans based on individual goals. Measuring the success of these goals. Using these measurements as a driver for more enjoyment, skill and determination.
• Coaching: Creating training that takes players onto the learning edge and allows them to think for themselves. Coaching by questioning, observing and collaborating. Giving honest, constructive feedback based on player's and team goals.

I'm not totally happy with this. Questions I ask myself are things like,

• What do I mean by culture of trust and growth, and how do I do that?
• Is there more to coaching than questions?
• Is there enough cricket in it, or is it a bit too high-falutin'?
• How do I present this to players (if at all) and how will individuals respond? Is there anything I can do about negative views or actions from this exercise?

I certainly believe in this as a both a philosophy and a practical approach to coaching. I just need to clarify things further in my mind. More reflection to come, I'm sure.

The Learning Edge

Jeff Mitchell - The Learning Edge

“Your learning edge is located just above your competency zone – just inside your anxiety zone. Here is where the greatest learning occurs, as you are challenged by a task that is just outside your competency level. You can expect to make a lot of mistakes as the task is just beyond your capability. You are able to maintain your composure, rather than shutting down as you would further into the anxiety zone, due to the task being only just inside this zone. This means that you are able to make use of your mistakes, which provide great learning opportunities. ”

Put this in a cricket growth mindset context.

For players I can ask things like, does going into nets push you to your learning edge? If it doesn't, how can you get there?

If the coach asks you to do a drill that is challenging but possible, are you worried about making mistakes or feeling challenged by the opportunity to learn.

As a coach, I can ask myself if I am pushing guys too far into the anxiety zone, or not pushing them enough and leaving them in the comfort zone? I see players working hard who never leave that zone and if we are to expect higher standards I need to push this hard.

Fixed Mindset Behaviours

Yesterday I wrote about the fixed mindset, and as I was putting my plan together for 2017, I found I had made a list of all the things that happened last year that seemed to come from a fixed mindest.

Oddly, almost every negative thing I could think of tied in. And every one could have been avoided with a growth mindset.

It's not just players either, there are a few in there from me!

So, to remind myself to be on high alert for fixed mindset thoughts and actions, I'm keeping this list here. Maybe it will help you too.

Fixed mindset behaviours

• Skip training because the surface is different indoors.
• Skip training because you secretly don't want to show yourself up.
• Skip training because you are too good to face third team bowlers.
• Claiming you are the best.
• Come to nets to "just hit balls".
• Finding ways avoid helping anyone else with drills or clearing up because you don't want to waste your precious training time.
• Complaining about being treated unfairly.
• Come to nets to hit half volleys on the machine for 20 minutes.
• Refusing to take part in a middle practice because "it won't do any good". 
• Getting cross because someone is getting more time batting in nets or batting higher up the order than you, and that's unfair.
• Never trying anything new or challenging because you think you might look silly or have someone take the mickey out of you.
• Assuming you should bat or bowl where and how you want because you know your ability the best and shouldn't need to change.
• Dodge fielding practice when it looks difficult because you might mess up the drill.
• Thinking that revealing you have some weaknesses is a sign of lack of ability.
• Not warming up because you might get injured and it doesn't help your game.
• Let others get away with doing their own thing that is counter-productive to the environment just because you want everyone to be self-sufficient.
• Ignoring negative behaviour because the only method of recourse was old-fashioned discipline.

My answer to all of these now is going to be some variation of "what's the opportunity to grow here?"

Let's see how it goes.

Training Notes: Lessons from Autumn Training

The 2016 autumn sessions have nearly finished, and as Christmas approaches, it's a good time to reflect on them.

As I said before, these are a very different structure and so have resulted in some positives and negatives.

First the areas that need work,

• Although we had more people come through, attendance was not as regular. There were a few faces there most weeks and some who barely came at all.
• Some people vanish for the winter. One one hand it's good they let me know they are not interested in cricket until spring has sprung. On the other hand, it's a source of frustration.
• My "hands off" style often lead to a lack of direction from some players. In younger players this often lead to distracting each other and senior players.
• Even with small groups, there were times when things didn't match up and players were not quite getting what they wanted from a session.

I have decided one simple way to get this aligned is setting out clearer themes for the sessions. This still gives players room to work on things they want to focus on, but with a loose structure around it.

On the encouraging side,

• I'm doing way more one to one sessions outside of the main sessions.
• Those who came to the sessions with more of a plan achieved positive outcomes, including one player who has transformed his front foot driving and another who looks like he has cracked a problem with his bowling action.
• I've learned some things about technique just by watching and interacting with players and asking for feedback. It's felt like an awesome discussion, working towards a solution with players, rather than prescribing one way.
• I have learned a great deal about encouraging a growth mindset in both myself and players, and I sense this could be transformational.

Mindset

I'm currently reading "Mindset" by Carol Dweck. It's about the idea of the "growth mindset", which sounds a bit new age drippy, but is a scientifically proven approach to success. I urge you to look into it if you play or coach cricket. The absolute basic idea is that people approach the game in one of two ways: either prove your worth (fixed mindset) or improve yourself (growth mindset). Those with a growth mindset are more likely to succeed.

I took pages of notes as I listened to the audiobook. The ideas in it have drawn together a lot of threads for me in both my own coaching and the way others approach being coached and training.

Before I read the book I thought I knew the score about growth: we can all improve. That's a huge part of it, but there are other layers that I have spotted in myself and others. For example,

1. Players who either skip training or turn up to sessions without focus are probably in a fixed mindset. You don't push yourself, you can't fail. Every play and miss against a net bowler proves you are not good enough. You would rather play safe and not turn up, or do something simple.
2. I'm convinced this is where the phrase "I just want to hit balls" comes from too. Before, I thought it was a lack of a desire or creativity, but really it's because fixed mindset cricketers see nets as a test. If you go in and face balls at random you get to see if you are "in form" or not and protect yourself from pushing forward.
3. In myself, I have seen fixed mindset language. I have given players excuses for a bad performance ("oh that ball swung more") rather than giving honest feedback that is difficult to deliver. I have been demeaning to players as "banter" for when they are unfocused when it would have been much better to have demanded the best from them in those moments.
4. I have praised players ability to build up their confidence. This sounds great, but Dweck's research showed this is counter-productive. When you praise people by telling them how good or talented they are, they stop pushing themselves because they don't want to fail and prove their lack of ability. Instead praise works when it is about growth: effort, strategies, choices and genuine attempts to challenge yourself.
5. I have pushed players and when I got resistance to the idea of something new and challenging (fixed mindset), I caved to their demands because I wanted to be player-centred. Actually, I know know the answer is in the growth mindset: to offer the challenge, see who takes it up and work with those who resist it. Tell them I want them to be the best and this is the way I have chosen. If you genuinely don't want to do it, how can we develop by doing something different?
6. I've realised that there are far too many fixed mindset excuses to not train. Those in the growth mindset see setbacks as opportunity. Those in the fixed mindset see it as clear reasons to avoid nets. If I hear "the indoor nets are not good for my game", I'm on red alert for the real reason, which is "it's challenging for me to adapt, I'd rather play safe and save my ego". Compare that to the player who was at nets this week, saying the bounce on the concrete is different, but as long as he is making the right shot choices, he's happy he's developing.
7. That said, I have also noticed measured training is not only way to learn and improve. It's a very important way, but as long as a player is in a growth mindset where they are trying to find ways to learn - even in failure - then they can learn from unmeasured training, games, reading, talking and so on. There are many tools.

I can take all these things into future sessions and help create an environment at the club built on growth. I thought we were there before, but I can raise it further by using a growth mindset to set high standards of work and discipline while removing ego-based value judgements.

This can be done, and I'm glad we had this phase to bring it forward. The work continues.

Training Notes: An Autumn Opportunity

Last year we put together a highly planned and organised Autumn series of training sessions. Players had to commit to 10 weeks and all had plans to follow.

The success of those sessions was exceptional in both measureable (a big jump in runs and wickets) and unmeasurable (the feeling of working as a team) ways.

But it was not perfect.

A few guys felt left out because I kept it to just eight players once a week. One player in the group trained hard then barely played a match all year, adding to the feeling of space being wasted. Not everyone made noticeable improvements.

So, this year I have mixed it up and changed it from one group of eight, to several small groups of four to six, with an hour each. This allows for more players with a wider range of standards, while keeping the focus on specific improvements.

I've also moved the focus away from identifying and correcting technical errors and towards encouraging players to solve their own issues. I have asked guys to bring their own intentions to the sessions and I can help draw out their own ways of solving the issues with drills, ideas and analysis.

The first session was a fascinating mixture of different responses to this challenge. Some guys wanted to talk more, other guys struggled to find a focus and some hit the nail on the head first time.

It certainly has a different feel. I plan much less, instead focusing on pushing players towards certain drills and practices based on what they tell me. However, I am not dogmatic about it and also let players make their own mistakes, even if I think I know the answers.

This is a fresh approach for me and it's not in my comfort zone. I like to plan everything to the finest detail. To keep my hands off and act more as consultant rather than dictator is not easy. But I know this is the only logical way. I can't play for people, I can only help people work out their best way of playing.

However, after two sessions things look good.

There have been 14 players at the sessions (with another four showing interest). That's a huge increase on last year and covers a wider range of skill levels. Here has been the breakdown of self-directed goals:

1. Develop dip in spin bowling.

2. Improve consistency of driving on the ground.

3. Hit with more power to pierce the infield.

4. Improve hip drive to fix a follow-through issue.

5. Learn to consistently play later, and hit harder leg side shots.

6. Learn to sweep and reverse sweep consistently, and bowl with more pace.

7. Play straighter.

8. Off drive consistently.

9. Put more power and timing into drives.

As you can see, these things are mainly technical with no focus on tactics. I still have all my tactical ideas ready to go but this time of year is a great time to build a platform of fitness, technical ability and general self-confidence to take into the start of next year.

In each case, we will measure how effective we are in this goal with a combination of measureable effects on PitchVision and how the player feels they have improved.

That leaves five players without a goal set.

Two have had sessions to "get back into it" and ended up trying a few things without direction. They have been asked to come up with better focus for the next session.

The last three are juniors. As they are younger, I am putting less emphasis on them to come up with plans and letting them play around more, challenging them to both fit into the senior culture and stay focused.

When they do it right, they coach each other pretty well, offering advice and generally challenging each other. When they fall down it descents into insults or doing things they "can get away with".

So, for example, one youngster was batting in nets and backing away to shorter balls. The bowler shouted at him that he was "scared of the ball" and should stop stepping away. The boy responded by saying "I'm not! Shut up!"

Now, I know this kid is far from scared of seam bowling. He's tough and strong. I have seen him challenged by a bowling machine bowling fast and short at him and he steps into the ball and smashes it. It's not fear, he is making room to score through his favoured off side.

So, I stopped the net and told them they were both sort of right. The batter was backing away and the bowler was right to point out that this solution might not be the best way to play. I agree, he tends to hit them in the air. However, I also told them both that saying "you're scared" will not get theat point across. It will rile up and cause defensiveness. Instead of looking for an emotive cause, look for a solution. What can you do to stop it happening? How can the bowler help the batsman do it?

These questions make the same point but with the desired effect.

But anyway, back to the sessions.

I plan to continue to run these as they are, track results and report back on the findings at the end of this phase (around December time). Then we can move into more tactical skills.

Positive signs, but a long way to go yet.