2008-09 - University of New South Wales Cricket Club

UNSW Cricket Club Annual ReportCoaching ReportCOACHING REPORT1. OverviewOur playing performances were, in Club Championship terms, very poor. The age profile of ourplayers puts the majority of them in the 16‐21 age bracket making “experience” (or lack thereof) one ofthe key factors in our performance this season. In addition, the club lost two players, Daniel Christianand Tom Cooper to South Australia. Both players had strong and pivotal leadership roles within theclub and proved difficult to replace.The club held a senior players/coaches/officials meeting in April 2008 to review the previous season;identify our strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats; and to develop a strategy for the2008/2009 season. Outcomes from this meeting included a revision of the coaching panel to provide abetter structured training environment for all grades and teams. This included the appointment of:• Warren Smith as Head Coach with a focus on the 1st/2nd grade squad and Green Shield;• Paul Howse as Assistant Coach (Lower Grades)• Murray Creed as Assistant Coach (Batting)• Tim Lang as Assistant Coach (Fast Bowling)• Hugh Le Lievre as Junior Teams Coach• Matt Sanders as Coordinator of the club’s in2Cricket Program.Despite the poor results on the field, the consensus of senior players from all grades was that thecoaching structure generally worked well and with some improvements and minor changes should becontinued into the next season. Training attendances were up on previous seasons (see statisticalanalysis below) and the general intensity and commitment by players at training was considerablyimproved.2. Coaching ProcessesAs with previous seasons, our coaching processes provided varied and structured skill drills(particularly batting and fielding) at every practise, particularly Thursday trainings when Paul Howsewas in attendance to conduct specialist fielding drills. Centre wicket practices were provided on mostWednesday sessions. The excellent lighting provided at the Village Green over our practise nets andthe ground itself continues to allow for quality practise at times never contemplated before. The clubincreased its use of video coaching analysis with all Green Shield players and the majority of our1st/2nd players being videoed by batting coach Murray Creed. Each player was provided with splitscreenvideo displaying their batting technique and the optimal batting technique for a number ofshots.A program of invitations to successful ex‐1st Grade or long term grade players to provide insightsand, where relevant, coaching/mentoring to current players continued this season, again in a little adhoc and disorganised fashion. In particular, Mark Ray mentored and guided a number of our youngspin bowlers throughout the season.The appointed captains assisted the coaching structure and processes by enabling important matchday instruction and feedback to occur on a frequent basis and rolled out into practises.3.PractiseSeason 2008/09 saw practice attendance levels increase compared to recent seasons. At season end astatistical analysis of training attendance indicated that:• Average attendance was 40 players per session, up from 36 last season (11% increase)• Wednesdays continue to be better attended than Thursdays, by an average 7 players. In otherSeason 2008/2009 Page 23