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Coaching Mental Strength, Application, Blocking Things Out

iamdavid

International Debutant
I will echo the sentiments of Pommie MacGill and Swervy.

If a player has natural ability then at such a young age I reckon the best thing you can do is instill in him a knowledge of the basic's , then leave him to his own devices.
Encourage him to "play his natural game" , now obviously he's gonna make some slip ups & he'll get out to some awful shots , but if he's really got a pashion for the game he will learn from those mistakes & be a better player for it.
I had a coach in under 12's who spent the whole training session whinging at us about how we "werent getting our back foot across quickly enough when we were trying to pull" , "were using to much bottom hand" and I had "an awful head position as I tried to release the ball".
He'd then try to correct these faults & punish the kids who didnt show substantial progress with running drills.
A blueprint for the way not to coach 12 year olds.
Obviously technical issues need to be addressed but they take a back seat at that age in my book , making sure the players dont fall into bad habbits can be done subtly but it shouldnt be the focus.....fun should take the limelight.
You dont expect many 12 year old Geoff Boycott's.

If a player has natural ability and a love of the game , the best way to go about things is to give him the basics , and work on his confidence , tell him to trust himself and really go for what feels right.
Confidence at that age can be more than half the battle , have faith in his ability and make sure he knows you have faith in him.

To much technical jargon at 11-12 years old can spoil his enthusiasm for the game itself.
 

Neil Pickup

Cricket Web Moderator
Just got back from one of the biggest mis-matches of all time.

Sidmouth U13 (five Devon players and four East Devon players) vs Exeter U13 (one Devon U11)... with a 20 yard boundary. Recipe for one of those games where you wonder inside if it's worth braving the rush hour for.

Certainly was. We restricted them to 164-4 off their 20 (yes, it's restricted, it's 100 less than Exmouth went for the week before). The kid I mentioned earlier got a bit of treatment in the later overs but on another day could've had a couple - in fact, had the luck gone the other way then we could've had them for sub-130.

We then put up an even better fight with the bat, one of the openers making 32 and our number five making an incredibly unorthodox 21* off fewer balls. The best shot was the "jump up and down on a yorker and inside edge with the toe for four" through fine leg. Our man made 4 in the slog overs at the end, yorked. We managed fifteen off the last three balls when the helmets came into play, too - ended on 133-4.

Gotta love cricket...
 

Swervy

International Captain
Neil Pickup said:
The shot selection is just a symptom of a deeper problem of being generally easily overwhelmed emotionally, I reckon.

thats 12 year old kids for you...he is eager to please and maybe trying a bit too hard.

maybe the fact that you have come on here asking about how to deal with this kid may suggest that you think he is a major player on the team...and so maybe he is picking up on this from you and the other kids which is putting pressure on him to succeed.

or maybe it really is as simple as that one particular type of ball he face is a bit of a weakness with him that just needs dealing with in time
 

Neil Pickup

Cricket Web Moderator
Yeah, maybe so - but having said that I do try to give the impression that everyone's a major player on the team - and we have 7 or 8 that all bat/bowl to a good standard.

Anyway, I have no intention of putting any extra pressure on players who don't need it (that's something that really does annoy me - and a lot of the time it's parents on their own kids).

There's so many different ways that this could end up playing out.
 

Waughney

International Debutant
Just a question Neil. Is he serious about his cricket, or is he just playing for a bit of fun? If he is serious take him aside and give him some 1 on 1 encouragement and practise outside training. This way he will know his coach is willing to go out of his way to help him and his technique and that he thinks that he is a good player with potential. This should give him extra confidence and will hopefully turn into results.
 

Neil Pickup

Cricket Web Moderator
The danger you run there if you push something too hard - and the thing that I really don't want to happen - is to create the situation of overload/overkill where you turn the game into a chore.
 

Top_Cat

Request Your Custom Title Now!
Yeah but if the slightest push will motivate him to lose interest, maybe he doesn't actually want to play? Is a parent riding him about cricket?
 

Waughney

International Debutant
Does he really want to improve? Is he dissapointed about his performances? If so try what I said. If he thinks that yeah it'd be OK to get better, don't worry, let him find is feet, otherwise you run the risk of what you said happening.
 

Neil Pickup

Cricket Web Moderator
I think this is all losing its initial thread a bit!

It's all gone a little bit off-tangent from what I was trying to get at initially and into a much deeper psychological assessment...
 

Waughney

International Debutant
Neil Pickup said:
I think this is all losing its initial thread a bit!

It's all gone a little bit off-tangent from what I was trying to get at initially and into a much deeper psychological assessment...
:p Well, if you ever step up to international level, you'll know what to do.
 

Neil Pickup

Cricket Web Moderator
Waughney said:
:p Well, if you ever step up to international level, you'll know what to do.
If I ever step up to International level, something's gone horribly, horribly wrong somewhere!
 

Waughney

International Debutant
Neil Pickup said:
If I ever step up to International level, something's gone horribly, horribly wrong somewhere!
Things have gone horribly wrong in the English selection process before, don't see why it won't happen again.
 

marc71178

Eyes not spreadsheets
Neil Pickup said:
It is at Taunton (I think it's the Northampton game on the 15th)... unfortunately I won't be going because I'll be in Holland somewhere being taught how to manage disruptive kids in the Eurocamp Kids Clubs.
I didn't realise Halsey was getting that bad!
 

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