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[FattusCattus]

It looks like we might be a little over-subscribed on Friday nights for coaching the 'Blue-Caps' age group which is 5-7 year olds, so I'm going to have to get a bit more involved.

There is a limited to how many teddy bear rolls, roly-poly races and games of 'hot potato' catch I can do in one night so I wondered if anyone had any ideas on exercises I can do with kids of this age?

They get bored pretty quickly, so you can't do anything to technical or 'crickety', something fun, but loosely connected to cricket would be great.

[Churchy1989]

We normally start off with rectangle area set of stumps each end in its own area where you are not allowed to step into, 2 teams either roll or pass the ball a tennis ball to each other to eventually hit the stumps for a point, a cross between Netball and Cricket. Good for running around and getting them to shout.

Good old game of Bull Dog.

[GoodLeave]

We normally start off with rectangle area set of stumps each end in its own area where you are not allowed to step into, 2 teams either roll or pass the ball a tennis ball to each other to eventually hit the stumps for a point, a cross between Netball and Cricket. Good for running around and getting them to shout.

Good old game of Bull Dog.

Second the netball idea. Though we usually do it where you can stand next to the stumps and have to whip the bails off to score a point. Ball can't touch the ground or it's turned over.

[Woodyspin]

On my coaching course bruce they iterate keeping it as basic as possible.

Split them in to groups of 4/5

1 batsman
1 feeder
1 keeper
1/2 fielders

Focus on HORIZONTAL and VERTICAL batting. Kids understand this alot more than pull, hook, drive ect..

If you find some cant do it with a feeder try a pull shot with a ball balancing on a kwik cricket stump (upside down, for better balance), if they are finding it easy give them a stump to bat with.. 3 shots each and rotate.

To challenge them give them zones to hit through to het points and make it a contest

Send me a pm if you need any more help and we can chat about it on the phone

[FattusCattus]

Many thanks for all your advice - but have any of you done your suggestions with 5 & 6 year olds?  Mine must have particularly bad powers of communication if you lot can do this with yours!!

[Woodyspin]

You have to keep them interested, short but plenty of goes so they are not doing nothing for longer than a minute or 2.

[GoodLeave]

Many thanks for all your advice - but have any of you done your suggestions with 5 & 6 year olds?  Mine must have particularly bad powers of communication if you lot can do this with yours!!

Must admit, we do our netball/cricket practice with senior players. I don't think size/ability would be a problem but it may be difficult to grasp the rules with 5-6 year olds!

Let us know if you come up with anything good though, I'll relay it back to our lot.

[Churchy1989]

We do the bet all with younger kids, 5 hurts and you get a small bag of haribo.

It does need to be about fun.

Maybe tenner what you enjoyed as a kid and try to replicate that?

[ProCricketer1982]

Brucey


Bat tap races to a cone
Bounce the ball to each other
Underarm the ball into fielding nets rather than stumps as it's easier
Set some stumps, a cone 5m to the right.. 10m away two cones at mind off/on.. ball on a tee.. 4 fielders and a keeper.. batter drives the bat and runs to get back before fielders get it to keeper .. three goes and swap

Stuff like that

[FattusCattus]

Excellent work Adie, I like some of those ideas!

You're a proper 'fun time Frankie'😁

[cricketbadger]

Brucey


Bat tap races to a cone
Bounce the ball to each other
Underarm the ball into fielding nets rather than stumps as it's easier
Set some stumps, a cone 5m to the right.. 10m away two cones at mind off/on.. ball on a tee.. 4 fielders and a keeper.. batter drives the bat and runs to get back before fielders get it to keeper .. three goes and swap

Stuff like that

Eactly that. Great ideas and it's short and sharp. Give them lots and lots of goes and demo things so they can actually SEE what they need to do

[ProCricketer1982]

Eactly that. Great ideas and it's short and sharp. Give them lots and lots of goes and demo things so they can actually SEE what they need to do

I set up about 12 stations fridays for the kids and then they literally go through it like you would circuit training. Keeps them on the move, different activities every five to eight mins means they aren't there long enough to get bored.

Sure it takes a bit of setting up and kit but that's what it's all about

[ABello1]

As a small village we tend to have very low numbers of juniors come to the club  any ideas of what to do with small groups some times under 5 kids (amount not age) any ideas ?

[ProCricketer1982]

As a small village we tend to have very low numbers of juniors come to the club  any ideas of what to do with small groups some times under 5 kids (amount not age) any ideas ?

Think of it as a better chance to give more quality training !! More one to one time!!

Big clubs generally have more numbers but the quality is low and the one to one time (where the real value is) is also low... smaller groups yield less numbers but you can produce better cricketers