Luke Sellers - 101 Youth Cricket Drills Age 7-11

This book is designed to support coaches and teachers to deliver fun, safe and effective cricket sessions. The focus is to help young players develop basic technical skills and begin to apply them in competitive situations and games. At this stage in their development it is important to give players the opportunity to have a go at skills across all areas of cricket, e.g. batting, bowling and fielding. Cricket is often perceived as being a complex sport and it is important to make sure that as coaches we make it as simple and accessible to players as possible. The practices in this book are designed to be quick and simple for coaches to set up and easy for the players to understand.

A players first experience of sport will stay with them for the rest of their lives and it is vital to ensure that our young players have the best possible first experience of cricket. The key outcome of every session should be for the players to enjoy themselves and come back next week. I hope this book will help you to provide your players with a fun and exciting first taste of cricket and give you an enjoyable coaching experience.

Note:

The practices in this book have been designed to be carried out with either a soft ball or hard ball. The type of ball used is at the coach's discretion depending on the experience of their players and the space they are operating in. If you are using a hard ball please ensure that batters and wicketkeepers wear the appropriate protective equipment. In some drills you may also need to adjust the distance the fielders stand from the batter if you are using a hard ball instead of a tennis ball.

A great coaching session should contain three main elements: fun, safety and learning. The challenge for you as a coach is to make sure that every young player has an enjoyable coaching session in a safe, supportive environment, and learns something new in each session. It is hoped that this book will give you lots of new ideas to help you and your players get the maximum from your coaching sessions. In addition to the practices in the book there are some hints to help you develop your coaching and use the book effectively.

Coaching players aged 711 should be all about giving them an amazing early experience of cricket that will make them want to keep playing. Sessions should be fun and safe, and should move at a fast pace. The young players should have lots of opportunity to learn through playing games, and each practice should be fun and allow the players to achieve success. You should give plenty of positive feedback, and your enthusiasm should match that of the players. The focus during these years should be on making sure the players enjoy themselves while learning the basic skills of cricket. The young players should be encouraged to learn a wide range of skills, and experience every different role from batting to spin bowling and from wicketkeeping to pace bowling. Players should learn basic tactics through playing games with your support. In addition to learning the basic techniques and tactics of cricket, the youngsters should be encouraged to develop as athletes. They should develop the skills of agility, balance, co-ordination and speed, as outlined in the Long-Term Athlete Development model (for more information go to http://static.ecb.co.uk/files/planning-for-long-term-success-910.pdf). Finally and most importantly great coaching is about coaching the person, not just the sport. Treat each player as an individual and adapt the sessions to the ability, experience and enjoyment of your group of players.

Planning

It is crucial to plan your coaching sessions in advance. This will ensure that your sessions are safe, allow you to stay in control of a session and avoid wasting time. A good session can take many forms, but presented below is a good basic structure to build on. This book is designed so that the different practices can fit into this format in an easy cut and paste style, to help you come up with an effective session.

Simple plan for a 1-hour session

10 minutes warm-up

1030 minutes skill drill

25 minutes game or skill progression

minutes cool-down or debrief

Use the warm-ups, skill drills, games and cool-downs in the book to slot into your simple session plan. There is more information on each area later in the book.

Safety

Your plan should also include the equipment you need, the size of the space you have to work in, the number of players, assistant coaches available and the key safety issues for the session. You should complete a risk assessment for each venue you coach in, and check the facilities and equipment before use to make sure they are safe.

Making the session fun

Challenge

The key to making a session fun is to provide players with the appropriate level of challenge in a safe and supportive environment. If a session is too easy, players will lose interest and focus. If a session is too difficult, they will become disillusioned and give up on a task this can often lead to a breakdown in behaviour.

The grading system used in this book

To help you gauge the appropriate level of challenge for your players, all the drills presented in this book are labelled with a simple 13 grading system (you will see the relevant number next to the title of the drill on each page). Drills rated 1 are easy practices for young or inexperienced players. They can also be effective as an exercise to help more experienced players recap on previous skills they have learned. Drills rated 2 are a medium level of difficulty; they involve more complex technical skills or may present an increased challenge by adding tactical, mental or physical skills to a technical drill. Finally, those drills rated 3 are designed for the most experienced players. You can mix or match practices of different levels, but it may be a good idea to start players off on an easier practice and observe their performance. Once they have successfully achieved a particular skill graded 1 they should move on to the harder practices in subsequent sessions.

Try to make sure the level of challenge increases during the session and from one session to the next, to make sure all the players have fun. Dont move on unless the players are achieving success at the original skill.

Numbers

Another thing that will affect a players enjoyment of a session is their involvement in a practice. Players will become bored and distracted if they are not constantly involved. You should organise the amount of space and equipment on offer to make sure as many players as possible are involved at one time. The majority of drills in the book can be performed in pairs and all can be implemented in small groups. Where possible, try to work at skill practices in groups of no more than six, and adapt the rules of games where necessary so as many players are involved as possible.

Rate

Make sure that sessions maintain energy and a fast pace so players are not doing the same practice for too long. Young players aged 711 have short attention spans. Most individual practices should last no longer than 15 minutes, while games, nets and more complex technical practices should last longer, depending on numbers.

Positive feedback

For players to enjoy sessions it is essential that you are positive and praise them regularly. You should make sure that you praise every player and comment on their effort not just their ability so that players of all levels receive positive feedback. This feedback can be given one to one or in front of the group. Where possible, give specific feedback to help reinforce key coaching points for example, Fantastic throw! You were in a really balanced position and your non-throwing arm was pointing right at the target.