In How To Play Cricket we will look at how we learn and how this can help beginners to play better and have more fun.
As you will see in the pictures on this page and the others in this section, children don’t need a formal environment to play cricket.
Give them a cricket bat and ball and they will play anywhere, in fact they will make their own bat, ball and game given half a chance.
So we want to tap into this desire to play cricket, in coaching we offer structure to this learning process, that is one of the key goals of coaching.
Children know what to do, they learn through copying their heroes on TV or watching adults play. Our goal is to accelerate this learning process.
In How To Play Cricket we give direction on what to pay attention to and offer stimulating and challenging drills to grow new, more advanced skills.
The Young Cricketer’s Brain
As we see in the sections in cricketlab.co on the mental game and cricket coaching, we are working with the brain, yours and the young cricketers you are coaching.
For the beginner who is learning how to play cricket, to learn faster, to play better cricket and to have more fun it helps if we know what we are working with, so lets have a quick look at the young cricketers brain.
The brain is a goal setting mechanism, it is designed to set and fulfill goals, helping our cricketers to understand this, makes learning go quickly and for them to play better.
We are our brains, so whilst you are reading this, it is your brain that is reading, when you laugh at a joke, it is your brain that is laughing, when you cry at something sad, yes, you got it, it’s our brains that are crying.
Brains love simplicity, it helps with learning, it allows the brain to pay attention to one thing at a time which makes the learning go faster.
In working with the beginner who is learning how to play cricket it is important to look and listen for the cricketer’s potential and to have positive expectations of the players ability to learn.
There is lots of research around this, but positive expectation sets up the learner’s parameters of achievement.
If as cricket coaches or parents we believe the beginning cricketer is of average ability or below, then they they will work to meet our expectation, conversely when we look and listen for limitless potential then we open up that possibility for our young cricketers.
Connection Machines
Not only are brains goal setting mechanisms, they are also connection machines, they learn best when they are doing it without too much interference.
Brains connect everything that comes in through the five senses, what you see, how you feel and all the associated bits of info like smells, tastes, sounds.
The young cricketer’s brain wants to learn and they love to be stimulated and challenged.
Brains need direction, the mind gives this, so we need to program them for positive outcomes.
The mind chooses a positive goal and then focus’s the brain on achieving it.
Repetition is the Mother of Learning
For the young cricket player to learn they need lots of repetition, not only of their technical skills in hitting, bowling, catching, throwing, but also in paying attention.
So we repeat cricket drills and skills over and over and we gently and patiently raise the level of the challenge. We continue with this and repeat again until the skills and drills are overlearnt, to the point where the cricket player no longer has to consciously think about them.
Helping cricket beginners to be patient is an important life lesson as they start to build their skills base,
Emotional Control is another important lesson as they learn how to play cricket, as they work on their skills, paying attention with a calm mind assists in the process of wiring in good decision making.
Go To How To Play Cricket: Part One
Go To How To Play Cricket: Part Two
Go To How To Win The First Hour Of A Cricket Game
Go To Cricket Batting Tips Against Spin
About Richard Pybus
I'm Richard Pybus, I've coached Pakistan, Bangladesh, Middlesex, Titans and the Cape Cobras in South Africa and the goal of this site is to help you to play winning cricket.