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[AJ2014]

Hi All,

So my club is looking at adding a training day (increasing from 1 to 2 evening p/w) and a lot of people are keen to make one of them a 1st XI centre wkt session. My experience of this type of practice is that you're at training for a couple of hours, you get about 5 overs batting in pairs, field the ball 10-15 times and bowl a few overs (if you're a bowler). So basically not a very efficient use of time.

Does anyone have any better experiences of this, or have some good ideas for structuring the session that has less people doing not a lot at any one time?

Cheers, Tom

Think only useful for one two teams at a time at the most, 1st/2nd etc
Our second XI is a strong team.
Otherwise only viable for 1st XIs

[Tomp]

I have never really found this type of set up that useful given tjsy players will spent the majority of the time standing around in the field.  I think it works better with a net cage on the square with the bowlers coming of their proper runs and the batsmen who aren't batting or padded up waiting to bat doing fielding / fitness work on a different part of the outfield

Yes my thoughts exactly, we usually use a net cage on the square which i find far more useful, the idea of middle practice with fielders being to incorporate running between wkts etc. like Buzz said maybe it can work if we rotate out fielders so their isn't too much standing about.

[Tomp]

This is how our club works, we have a cage set up on a practice wicket and then most the bowlers are in the net and the rest are doing various fielding drills on the outfield - we just rotate the batsmen every 15/20 mins and likewise for bowlers/all-rounders etc. Everyone doing something useful as opposed to just standing around.

Also be weary of having training just for the 1st XI - big danger of alienating other club members, I've seen it before and it's always lead to more issue than benefit IMO. There's no reason all senior members can't train together on rotation (obviously you don't want the 3rd XI bowling at the 1st XI but that's where the rotation comes in).

Yes completely agree re alienating other members, I get the feeling the set up can work if really well organised but I prefer the set up you described which is what we usually do, albeit probably in a slightly more chaotic way!

[Tomp]

For me, nothing beats batting on grass (if you play on grass this is btw). Whether this be in a match scenario, an actual centre wicket practice or using a mobile batting cage on the square. Not only is it more realistic compared to the usual flat indoor surface, it stops me getting them annoying green "cherrys" on my bats which I can never seem to remove. 

We are fortunate at my club to have a cage and a fielding net which allows us to set up two lanes outdoors or block off one half of the outfield (either legside or offside). This free's up some of the fielders, as even though fielding is important, for me turning up after work to stand in a field in an uncompetitive environment for an hour and a half isn't the most fun.

This set up, also means that two groups can be set up with one taking on an actual fielding drill and the group netting can carry on. Bowlers/batsmen then rotate out of the fielding group and the netting group throughout the session as fatigue sets in or some variation is required.

It might not quite beat a fielding net or a mobile cage but if either of these are not available options then try and make a line of kit bags for those who have turned up to block off some of the field. Even if it saves you one or two fielders they could head off to take some catches, do some ground fielding work etc etc. It might not stop the ball at all times and of course people can hit over the top...

Some things to consider... Dont put the fielding group somewhere they are likely to have balls whacked at them from the netting group and vice versa really as some people hitting high catches do like to put snow on them and sometimes hit them a bit too far. Raining bombs on a set of bowlers or batsmen is not the way to go.   

Set a limit on the number of bowlers if you decide not to do overs. We've found that 2/3 seamers and one spinner is typically the best option if you can. Allows the batsmen to face up whenever ready and if the flow is good enough the seamers are not too far off their usual "over" time when they've bowled 6 balls. Stops bowlers getting too fatigued and batsmen should have no complaints that they've only faced a few balls.   

I'd agree on the point of the session not just being a 1xi - good for development of other players and the club atmosphere if you can have as many down as possible.

some great ideas here thanks!

[LockieEP]

I quite like this as a break to usual nets...tend to do these every few sessions with my juniors. Good to be on grass, you can set fields relative to the respective batters, you can generate a bit of atmosphere in the field and banter from the keeper. What we did last year was when the batters went off, they then went into the nets for some throw downs or you take a bowler off for a session as well. I was lucky enough to have Mark Robinson  run a few of the junior sessions and this is the format we used for those.. For me its important to keep the sessions varied and avoid the nets with groups of bowlers standing around (including those who dont really want to bowl ) and batters just trying to smash the ball back as hard as they can