Last night I wandered along to my local team's under 12 match. I wasn't coaching but the sun was shining and the boys were keen as mustard so I chatted with the parents on the boundary.

One boy was playing in his first ever competitive game and was keen to keep wicket. While he was padding up, one of the Dads said to me, "come on then, you know your stuff, what tips can you give the lad?"

I thought for a brief moment.

"Catch it."

"Is that it? Surely you can give him something better than that! This coaching lark is easy, what did we spend all that money on courses for?" the parent joked with me.

"You know what?" I laughed back, "If you had asked for a bowling tip I would have said 'bowl straight' and if you had asked for batting I would have said 'watch, wait and wack*'. Cricket is a simple game!"

The boy went out there and did well. He is a sportsman and enjoyed throwing himself around and indeed just catching it.

Sure I could have reeled off a bunch of coaching points about hands together, feet and head aligned, wide catching area and so on, but let's face it, he was walking out to keep in a game having never even practiced the skills before. He would have forgotten everything.

He wouldn't forget "catch it" though.

Experience makes complexity simple

Does that mean we are all massively overcomplicating things by focusing on techniques and tactics?

Of course not.

But one thing I have learned as a player - personally - and as a coach - with others - is that the more experience you get; the better you are able to boil the most complex recipes into the simplest of dishes.

There is a time for working on technical things. If you have a detailed and deep knowledge you are more able to get to the solution quickly.

There is also a time to stop thinking and start doing. No amount of tips are going to assist you, you just need to get out there and do it and work out the details along the way. It's well proven that skills are best learned if you work them out yourself, rather than get told them by a coach, teacher or senior player.

Once you are in that place, all the complexity falls away and you can produce excellent results. When anyone asks you how you do it, or what tips you can give, the simplicity of the answer is surprising.

To you it's straightforward because you have been through the journey. To those who have never trod the same path, your answers seem too easy to be correct.

The death of coaching tips?

It may seem bizarre that the Editor of a site dedicated to coaching is telling you that coaching tips are not a good way to learn.

Tips are just a starting point. They are something to think about and try for yourself. They are never the complete answer because - by their nature - they are the sum of experience of someone else and not you.

It's the difference between eating a nice meal at a restaurant and being able to cook the meal yourself. If you take the first route you will never become a great chef. The second route gives you a chance.

The bottom line; what do you think?

What does all this mean?

Realistic, progressive, deliberate practice combined with match experience is the way to get better at cricket.

(That's another one of those deceptively simple tips. So you better not scoff, but try it instead.)

I'll give you ideas for ways to improve via practice, tactics to try, mental tricks to keep you focused and all the rest. But it's all a waste of time unless you get to the nets and the oval regularly.

For you to really succeed you need to develop your own simplicity of experience.

What do you think about this? Leave a comment and let me know, be you a coach or a player. 

*I claim no credit for that coaching gem, you have to thank Mark Garaway's Dad.