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[dynamiccoins]

Hi,

Kids cricket.  Specifically the running of a kids section at a club. I warn you its a bit of a ramble this....

Atm my two sons are going to a club which is in the process of setting up a youth section (U10 and U11).  When I say "in the process" they have been running a couple of years now.

Most of the kids don't go to private schools so only play at the mid week training sessions and when their is a game as state schools round here don't play the game.

The kids coming fall into three categories:

1. Good players who want to listen and learn
2. New / not so good players who want to listen and learn
3. Kids who arent really into cricket so its either the parents sending them for "child care" whilst they are in the bar, or kids who want to go cause their mates are going.  They dont tend to listen and mess about whihch affects the training sessions.

We have two teams - one made up of the better players from groups 1 and 2, and a second team which is made up of groups 2 and 3.

Watching a game last year where the second team played it is obvious most of the players just aren't good enough - bowling all over the place and when batting they step to leg as though they are scared of the ball - which is a hard ball.  And when fielding they aren't concentrating which could be potentially dangerous.

I think the killer is they have played a few teams with kids at local private schools and the difference is night and day as those kids have obviously played a lot more.

How do most clubs run youth sections - do kids only get games when they are seen as skilled enough? How is that determined? What happens if you have kids in group 3?  Is there any specific training the club should be doing as atm the training doesnt seem to be bring them on.

This is a ramble so apologies for that and I'm half expecting no replies ! But I just don't see the kids improving and I think the club needs to change its approach so was wondering how other clubs do things....or I need to chill out and not take it so seriously!!

[Biggie Smalls]

Cricket australia either have already , or are in the process of,  making some kids matches compulsory to  use soft centre balls (not sure if its only u10s or u12s aswell). This may help stop some kids stepping away from the ball /being scared etc as you described .....but i just see it as a soft move (sorry , pun not intended).

[Churchy1989]

@dynamiccoins I think every club is in your situation, in one way or another.

We hired Foundation Coaches for our Juniors for a few season. I rocked up to watch one game, what I saw disappointed me. 1 child didn't know where to stand and hit his stumps. 1 child used the bat the wrong way around!.

After passing this on, we sacked them.

Its hard to get all the juniors engaged - I would suggest an ECB cricket course to give you the foundations of coaching and engaging.

I like to get a big bucket of tennis balls and a racquet and pepper the kids. 1 it doesn't really hurt - 2 they can play shots which would be quicker than they would normally face. result - playing correct shots.

Also like to get the kits to take a few on the pads, to realise it doesn't hurt! result - not being scared (80% of the time). I even demo on 70 taking one on the shins...

[jblowe]

Sorry about this, but 2 and 3 below sounds like the lower divisions of the OCA, just change "kids" to "players" and it is a perfect fit

 

The kids coming fall into three categories:

1. Good players who want to listen and learn
2. New / not so good players who want to listen and learn
3. Kids who arent really into cricket so its either the parents sending them for "child care" whilst they are in the bar, or kids who want to go cause their mates are going.  They dont tend to listen and mess about whihch affects the training sessions.

We have two teams - one made up of the better players from groups 1 and 2, and a second team which is made up of groups 2 and 3.

Watching a game last year where the second team played it is obvious most of the players just aren't good enough - bowling all over the place and when batting they step to leg as though they are scared of the ball - which is a hard ball.  And when fielding they aren't concentrating which could be potentially dangerous.

@Northern monkey and @petehosk am I right?

[Northern monkey]

I wouldn't say just the lower divs Jason, standards a joke really, (look at my batting av, I'm a 50yr old weekend hacker) and I take most of the bowling apart


As far as kids playing, more the merrier.
So what if it's just an after school club for some, get one of em playing and it's worth it

MAIN MAIN MAIN thing, is that they are playing.
And that goes for adults too!

[Jimmyg]

Ideally clubs need to put the hard work into ensuring kids get appropriate training at U9s to ensure that at U10/11s they are ready for hard ball cricket. Calls to extend soft ball cricket for any U11s is really an admission of failure to adequately coach kids prior to that point.
So now you've got a sizeable section of U11s that are struggling at the basics, other than give up on those kids, the only option is ensure they get targeted coaching concentrating on the basic skills to get them back up to par.

[Jimmyg]

In relation to you asking about training specifics, the great thing about kids playing games, other than the players love it, is that it highlights the obvious areas where a Coach needs to work on in training.

So you mention that players back away when batting like they are scared of the ball, that's because they are scared of the ball!  So the Junior Coach should be putting together drills to get the kids in that situation used to hitting a hard ball and facing a hard ball. It might involve drills over several sessions, first hitting straight drives off a cone, then drop feeds, then bobble feeds, then gentle throw downs, faster throw downs, then should be ready to face the slower bowlers in your group, then the faster bowlers. Then do a similar drill for pull shots.

All Juniors need exactly the same basic coaching, the difference is that some kids will instantaneous master a particular cricket skill, whereas some in the same group it could take weeks,months or even years.

Best thing to do is to offer to help out with the age group. If you go on a coaching course, you don't say what county you're in. But it will give you the background knowledge to devise appropriate training sessions.

[dynamiccoins]

Guys - thanks for all the replies.

I think you nailed it that they should have been prepared for hardball, but rather than dwell on the fact they aren't there yet, its an opportunity to id where they need to improve and get them practicing appropriately.

I'm in the UK btw.

I've thought about doing the training course, but with work I cant commit to training each week, but I guess that shouldn't stop me doing the thing and helping out when I can.

Cheers