Ask the Readers: Who Influences Your Cricket?
Which coach has influenced you most? Leave a comment below to discuss the unsung heroes of cricket coaching.
Cricket is, above all, a game of technique and mental strength. It’s one that is ideal for coaches to flourish: providing direct advice to those with a burning hunger to perform.
Yet even with the awesome information power of the web, these influencers remain strangely isolated.
The men and women with the keys are rarely found outside the locked door of the professional game where they ply their trade.
Where are the blogs, the Youtube accounts, the facebook groups and the coaches who tweet practical, useful advice?
Barring a few poorly curated websites acting as adverts, there is nothing but the odd sound bite from Duncan Fletcher that doesn’t give more than a part of the game away.
While PitchVision Academy is working to change that odd silence with daily content and detailed online courses, I don’t want us to be the lone voice.
Do you pick theories from books by men like Bob Woolmer? Do you scour the web for tips from players you admire like JP Duminy or Kevin Pietersen?
Perhaps you avoid the big names and have tied your trust to one local coach who has tirelessly worked using his own methods without a single desire for recognition?
Leave a comment and give your man his dues. I’ll give an award to the most influential coach.
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Comments
Of course I have to give heads up to all our coaches at PVA, but especially Gary Palmer, Ian Pont and Mark Garaway. They seem to be endless sources of great ideas. KP and JP have the content to back the hype but I think the first 3 are certainly not as well sung as the International players.
What's yours though? Someone more local perhaps?
Pitchvision! Other than PV I would say my coach from my club who has helped me a lot with my cricket and Ian Pont without the fast bowlers' bible I wouldn't have been able to add on so much pace onto my bowling.
Of course David and the rest PVA coaches been the main help, but I have gotten great advice from other players I have played with and against.
Lets have some names, don't be afraid to but praise on the guys who do the hard work. They deserve a mention even of they are not well known.
graeme swann ray price and brendan taylor
Swanny does have an amazing twitter account. Sadly lacking in advice for the budding offie though.
VVS Laxman. Just watching him bat influences me to train 10 times harder, hoping one day I will be able to play like he does (minimum of effort).
Kamal, Morris (both bat and ball), John and Shaz. Just to name a few.
I've found the Bob Woolmer coaching videos on youtube very helpful, such as this - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ktyP9QwCgFw
He leaves no stone unturned in terms of batting technique. There are several practical drills that he demonstrates too. I've used these a lot and have found them very helpful, especially on the morning of a match. I went through a lean trot last year runs-wise. His videos emphasise going back to the basics such as grip, stance, trigger movement and head postion and this really helped me analyze my game, change one or two minor things and then perform quite well.
Shane Warne offers many tips on his website or in videos like http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kfZgFi9Q9gc . He has often inspired me to stick with bowling leg spin even though things may not go to plan in every match.
I have been lucky enough to be coached by mr. yograj singh ,father of yuvi.I think he is the best coach in our city chandigarh.The mental strength combined with deliberate practice EVERYDAY makes him so famous .He has a gr8 technical & tactical knowledge of the game.A regular session started with an assembly and we had to call out our nos. which taught us discipline , then we did fitness drills everyday for warm up which included striding ,sprinting ,yo-yo tests which lasted about 30-40 mins .Then we used to have middle practice everyday for 2 hrs approx and side by side 3 nets were run : one for spinners ,second for fast bowlers .third for playing plastic balls on cemented tracks,like this the batsman had to play on 4 different types of surfaces.This was done on mon ,tues and wednesday.On thurs ,fri and saturday,the fitness part remained the same but instead of nets we used to have hard fielding session .He made us practice really hard catches which used to break our fingers ,fast and accurate collecting and throwing,sometimes the ground fielding was so fast that we feared trying to stop the ball.then he used to remind us of the international standards which kept us going.We finished with some recovery runs and stretching in a group .Then we had some team meeting where he used to correct some particular problems and also shared his experience about playing for INDIA and coaching yuvi in the early days.He made us run even on the rainy days which showed his dedication.He impressed everyone with his gr8 personality and coaching skills.
Menno Gazendam! Wish he played for sa.