SEDBC training Joe

As per usual Joe didn't seem to be that up for going training - freezing cold night and the drive to Fitzwymarc school straight after dinner. "I'd rather go to sleep". We arrived with Mo and his Dad Naeem and saw that most of the other lads must have been of the same opinion as Joe and had stayed at home. The bloke Scott led the session talking about the need for strategies and plans then handing out written down game scenarios, saying to the lads, that's where you are in the game - think about your strategy and set your field. The boys were put in random groups of 4 and told to discuss it amongst themselves and come up with a plan and field. Quite a tough task if you're not a cricket obsessive with any desire to be a captain I'd say.

Obviously though, it was also a strategy to see who would take control of the groups, as these boys would be potential candidates  for the captains role. Joe's group only had 3 and one lad 'AB' took control from the start with Joe and the other kid chipping in. It looked though as the AB kid then having started the plan - handed it over to Joe and the other kid and said... you decide where the remaining leg-side players should be.  Which I thought was clever.

 

 

 

Their scenario was the first ball of the game as far as I could make out and they came up with this...

Joe had one other kid in his lane and using this field they both took a wicket each in the first over, nicking it to slips. Both of then bowled a pretty good line and length preventing the batsmen from scoring runs. The first 4 overs they'd gone for 14 runs, most of runs coming from balls being struck through the dark green zone.

After the four overs the bloke Scott got them to review the situation and the field was adapted to this...

Eleven was move around and 9 taken out and put in slips to cut off the runs and sure enough it had the desired affect.

 

Joe bowled really well, not once did he stray down the legside - leaving that to the other 2 kids bowling with him. Some of the balls were a little short and near the end he bowled a lovely slow ball which had the batsman all at sea. Joe came away from the session having really enjoyed it and I think he also came away feeling as though he'd learnt something really useful that would enable him to have the confidence to put the plan into place in a game scenario. As far as Joe was concerned this was his best session so far and the most useful.

 

Overall though it was observed that they're all a bit quiet still and they were encouraged to speak up and suggest things and have discussions openly about what had happened. But I still think they're all still unsure of each other and not comfortable in their roles and places in the team set-up. Joe this week probably buoyed by the session and having his confidence boosted was far more comfortable with the kids in his net and vice versa. 

What to do during the off season - Cricket

There's been some discussion about what to do during the off-season if you play cricket. Personally I'd love to carry on playing indoors, but there doesn't seem to be many opportunities to do so, I did consider in the summer getting some of the old MPA crew together and somehow cobble a team together and join a league if such a thing is possible, but I'd forgotten about it and it's too late now.

Over the last few years whilst the kids were young I was able to carry on playing and mucking about with them, but as they're now 15 and 13 it's slightly more difficult to get them to do that, although they do if I ask them, but a part of me doesn't want to over do it and put them off of cricket. As I was learning and struggling with the Googly syndrome I used to put a lot of effort into training and I used to get out as much as I could during the winter, practicing 3 or more times a week. I'm less inclined to do that these days and since last year when I hardly did anything over the winter because of Joe's leg incident. I found going into the season this year, despite the fact that I'd hardly practiced, things went better and I continued with an approach where I practiced less and therefore didn't over-analyse what I was doing. I kind of found that by practicing in shorter bursts, but being more focussed on what it was that I wanted to achieve and limiting those goals, things came together in a different way. So this winter I'm going to repeat that process.

Fitness, strength, agility, stamina.

What I have noticed is that I don't get a good start to the season seemingly because I'm simply not fit enough and the main aspect of this seems to be strength. I'm a teacher, so I don't do a lot of physical exertion as a part of my job, especially upper body strength, which of course for a wrist spinner, arms and shoulders and core strength are essential. Once into the season and with general summer activities with my two sons, my fitness levels start to increase and by the time we get to late June things are starting to come together. But that means I've usually bowled poorly through all of May and all of June almost, which isn't good.

So over this winter, I'm going to focus on Fitness, strength and flexibility, hoping that stamina just comes along naturally as it's something I'm usually okay with. One of my gripes with these kind of things is the time factor, so I can't be doing with spending loads of time huffing and puffing doing this stuff. So, I've been looking for a way to do it that makes good use of down-time and the approach I've come up with at the moment is this.

Using this video here, I've taken these exercises and at the moment reduced the time spent doing each one down by about 50%. What I'm doing is... When I get an opportunity to do the sequence, I go though it - I've just done it amidst writing the blog and I did it earlier waiting for a kettle to boil for a cup of tea. So anytime there's a few minutes I'll do it, the hope is that I'll build the strength slowly but surely and increase the reps over a period of time till I'm doing the full five minute version 3 or more times a day. I have modified the drill slightly as I don't do the burpee jumps at the end instead I do this exercise here as it's specific to my own bowling - improving my deltoids and shoulder (Rotator cuff).

Hopefully going into winter nets I'll be in a better place with regards to my upper body strength and the transition into the new season a lot better? The only other thing I'm still working on is flexibility and balance, I'm looking for a similar sequence of yoga moves that'll help with that aspect. Once I find one I'll add that to my drills.

Snow in Essex Feb 2012

Ben my older son, who did the majority of the work with me.

This is the Rec Tennis courts where yesterday we I had a knock about with Frank and Mark bowling wrist spin. We thought it was a bit cold yesterday!

Langdon Hills Recreation ground cricket pitch.

I told you it was cold yesterday afternoon! As a consequence there was a little snow over night and nets was cancelled for Ben and Joe so we did snow stuff.