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Welcome to the weekly blog following the London 2012 qualification process as athletes and teams compete to secure their place at the Games.
The qualification process can at times be quite complex, so we’ve put together a brief guide which explains how it all works.
February 2012 sees the launch of the West of England Sport Trusts (Wesport) new Celebration of Sport Evening. This event will give recognition to the achievements and successes of outstanding athletes, inspirational volunteers, great coaches and high quality clubs and organisations in the West of England.
The Celebration of Sport Evening will be held on 23 May 2012 at the Bristol Marriott Royal Hotel, and Wesport are very pleased to announce that the event will be hosted by former World, European and Commonwealth Games Gold Medallist Kriss Akabusi.
Kriss Akabusi said:
Sport happens in England thanks to thousands of people giving up their time to make it happen without them, we would not be able to do the sport we love and I would not have been able to achieve all that I have achieved in sport. With London 2012 getting closer every day, I am very pleased to be a part of the West of England Celebration of Sport Evening which will recognise a few of these very special sporting heros.
Wesport wants to celebrate those people who are truly inspiring and who work every day to make sure that sport happens in the West of England. As 2012 is the year of the London Olympic and Paralympic Games, its the perfect opportunity!
The Celebration of Sport Evening also coincides with the London 2012 Torch Relay celebrations that will be taking place from the 22nd 23rd May 2012 in the West of England area.
Work on the £22.6 million sports and leisure facility is well underway at Hengrove Park, providing a massive boost to the quality of sports and swimming facilities in the south of the city. The facility will be a sub-regional centre for sport as well as an important community facility and its connection with the neighbouring new community hospital will make it one of the leading projects of its kind in the UK.
January 2012 - A first look inside Hengrove Park Leisure Centre
The new sports and swimming complex will open to the public on 29th February 2012 and will feature:
Mark Garaway and David Hinchliffe discuss batting collapses in the light of India and England’s poor performances on tour. Every team has had a collapse, so the team talk about ways you can at least try to prevent them in your side.
Iain Brunnschweiler joins the show on the phone to talk about his work with the England Under 17 players in a recent camp, and also his Inspired Cricket Manual.
Plus we answer your questions on returning to cricket after a long break and the NLP term; “associated state”. The links that Mark outlines are:
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Just as with the pace bowlers in a previous article, we are concentrating on drills and progressions in pre-season. This week it's the turn of the spinners.
Bowling from the Delivery Stride Drills
I ask spinners to bowl from a stationary position at the crease which enables the player to isolate a certain part of the action or a part of the technique. So get your bowlers to work from their delivery stride initially and once they can hold the action and the technical enhancements that you majoring on in your coaching.
Things to work on and observe in Delivery Stride Drills
Different alignments of the seam angle against the pitch to produce different spin results (top spin, maximum breaking ball, stock ball, arm ball, doosra)
Up and over shoulder rotation within the bowling action (some bowlers have a tendency to rotate their shoulders in a horizontal axis, this reduces the shape of the ball in flight)
Completion of the bowling action. Ideally, a spin bowler should find that their bowling hand completes the action around the opposite trouser pocket area. This is an indicator that a full and complete bowling arm circle has occurred. Many bowlers have a tendency to cut the bowling circle short and their bowling hand ends up near the bottom of the ribcage. This reduces the dip on the ball and often leads to a loss of control of length.
Appropriate flight. Shane Warne's mentor, Terry Jenner carried a "Spin bowlers kit" around in his bag. One part of that was a simple piece of rope that he would fix across the net and challenge the spin bowler to deliver the ball above the rope yet dip and land within a coned area on a length. If a bowler is rotating the bowling shoulder up and over (rather than round) and completing the bowling action to the opposite trouser pocket then there is a good chance of the ball being flighted from the hand, over the rope and down into the coned area on a length.
For a net session, the cones can be taken away and chalk areas applied to the indoor pitch or matted area to measure the flight of the ball in a net session. A batter can then be introduced to play against the spin bowler delivering from the crease
ProgressionsOnce a spin bower has mastered this then a couple of steps are introduced and the results are assessed, if the technique holds up under momentum then the approach can be extended to incorporate a full run up.
Bowling from the Crease or a Couple of Steps in Nets
Just as with the fast bowlers last week, the stationary drill and then a couple of steps progression can be used within nets. The watchword again is to keep an eye on the competitive nature kicking as this can lead to technical breakdown.
The option here is to take the isolating technical focus away and work on delivery of skills (executing variations) or tactics (field setting/angle of delivery/getting batters off strike) or if the bowler is in danger of complete technical breakdown then take him out of the net and back into the drills above.
As preseason progresses, the bowler will be a more compete technical model who can adjust to the competition scenarios that we put in place, the personal battles with the batters and bowl your side to victory on a number of different surface types.
It is a real pleasure for me to welcome Iain Brunnschweiler and his Inspired Cricket Manual to PitchVision Academy: Coach Education.
Iain was a young player who I started coaching and captaining in the late-1990s at Hampshire CCC. After I moved into coaching, I continued to work with ‘Brunchy’ until I moved from Hampshire to move to Somerset in 2001. We have stayed good mates and often chat through coaching ideas.
As a wicket-keeper, person (and now as an International Coach) Brunchy displays an open mind, an obvious sense of innovation, has a good understanding of people and a infectious work ethic. It was no surprise to me when he moved into coaching and then progressed up the coaching ladder with the England and Wales Cricket Board at such a rapid rate.
As well as heading up Inspired Cricket, Brunchy is now England Under-17 National Coach and is very well thought of in the ECB.
His values, coaching philosophies, innovative drills and ideas shine through in the eBook and I would encourage any player or coach to pick up a copy from PitchVision Academy and build his concepts into your training plans.
The great thing about Inspired Cricket is that you can carry it around on your mobile phone or iPad to every session meaning that the drills are always with you: an instant coaching resource.
Brunchy is one to watch in the coaching stakes as he will no doubt continue to rise through the England Coaching ranks in the years to come. Get on board with the Inspired Cricket Manual and do the things that have taken Iain and the players that he coaches into the International arena.
Be Inspired!
If you are in the Birmingham area this Saturday (4th February 2012) you can get entry to the UK’s biggest cricket trade show because we are giving away a limited number of free tickets.
The Cricket Resource show Midlands places major brands, suppliers of coaching, playing and administering products, equipment and services in front of cricket clubs and players.
Aiming at Club administrators, managers, coaches, parents, volunteers and players: all the people who make sure cricket clubs keep running and all in a one day event, keeping it cost and time effective.
It's at the Edgbaston ground in Birmingham from 10am.
Tickets are normally £10 each, but as a PitchVision Academy reader you can get complimentary entry.
To get your ticket, all you need to do is contact us, let us know:Please only apply for a ticket if you are sure you are able to attend.
See you there.
Coach Darren Talbot laments a wasted chance in this article. To find out more about Darren Talbot Cricket Coaching click here.
Around preseaon clubs plan their senior and junior winter net training sessions.
Maybe you are doing it now.
One of the biggest issues is finding a venue as there are still nowhere enough indoor net facilities to cope with the demand from clubs, schools and individuals.
But why do we do nets?
What are the real benefits, especially in the winter?
How much “netting” do the pros do in the winter and early spring? The answer is not much, if any. So if it’s not appropriate for them, why are we putting ourselves and our junior sections through net sessions?
It makes no sense at all.The answer is because that’s the way it’s always been done. But that doesn’t make it right.
Leaving the seniors aside for one minute, if you are a coach of a junior squad, ask yourself these questions:
So what should you be working on?
For me the answer lies in indoor cricket matches and skills coaching leading up to that. Indoor cricket improves:-
So why do nets over indoor hall coaching? Especially when you have the opportunity to choose almost any venue that has a hall big enough.
You don’t need the nets!
Even for seniors. I guarantee your players will start the season sharper for playing indoor cricket ahead of net sessions. There’s a stronger argument at adult level for maybe 5-6 weeks of focussed nets but only with and/or after 5-6 weeks of indoor cricket sessions.
And what about hardball practice?
Yes I accept that it is useful to feel ball on bat and bowling with a hardball again. If your group is good enough (and I take you back to that key question of bowling accuracy earlier) then I would consider doing maybe 3 weeks of nets at the end of the indoor training but only after a minimum of 5 or 6 indoor cricket type nets.
The pros don’t tend to do that much hardball batting until about 6 weeks before the season starts so as amateurs and coaches we shouldn’t either.
So don’t bow down to peer pressure, parental pressure or just plain “that’s what we’ve always done”, think wiser and think better.