Last week I wrote about how constraints led practice fast tracks development of batters against spin.

Last night I was faced with my own set of constraints as my beloved Millfield cricket "bubble" indoor facility was flattened by 'Storm Clodagh'.

The Millfield cricket program has 51 county age group, regional and international players within the program. It also provides every Millfield pupil with the opportunity to enjoy the great game in every week of the every academic term.

Yet, we will now be without a bespoke indoor cricket facility during the darkest wettest coldest months of the year.

An absolute disaster.

Or maybe not!

As Dan Helesfey and myself attempted to recover as much of training equipment as we possibly could (fear not, the PitchVision system is safe) we were also building contingency plans for the next couple of months.

We will have very limited access to net based facilities over the coming months yet we do have some wonderful sporting spaces at Millfield on campus that we can access and utilise to take our programme to the next level.

Fast Bowling Programme

Dan's fast bowling programme will now take place in and around the mezzanine floor within the amazing Millfield Aquatic Centre.

Dan has already penned the next phase of the programme which will include static and dynamic drills, medicine balls, overweight/underweight bowling, running drills on the track and utilising the wonderful Aerofloor with sand filled balls being bowled into a padded wall.

We do have one traditional net session per squad in each working week in an adjacent multi sports hall. So the technical elements that we practice on the mezzanine floor can support the craft elements that we will be focusing on in the net sessions.

Power Hitting

Steve Wilson's power hitting programme can really focus on developing understanding of when and how to hit the ball hard, maximising each individuals kinetic chain and specific movement patterns. This will both help to increase hand and ball launch speed.

Steve will use his well researched drills which include striking thousands of balls on the shot-shaper, using resistance bands, Swiss balls, medicine balls and hitting sand filled balls to help batters to hit the ball further than ever.

Again, we will use the net sections to test each individuals transfer from drills into match practice and also to assess the effectiveness of the hitting programme that we place around the players.

Fielding Programme

The throwing program will major on sharpening footwork into our throw, refining general throwing technique and significantly increasing throwing power and distance.

We shall also focus on diving techniques with the intention of every person within our cricket programme being able to dive both left and right with equal effectiveness.

The fielding program will take place on the mezzanine floor in the aquatic centre, squash courts, tennis courts, and hockey pitches around the campus.

What an opportunity!

So there you have it, a potentially disastrous situation that has led to a group of coaches coming up with plans which may turn out to be even better than the original ones we had lined up with the bespoke cricket facility in place.

What are you going to do when 'chaos' next descends on or around your coaching program?