In Cricket Coaching there is a special magic that takes place in the relationship that the Coach has with their players and the team in general.
I think of this relationship as a gift,it is to be respected and nurtured.
There are special ingredients in this relationship, this photo of myself and Waqar Younis depicts the trust and rapport we had as Captain and Coach, this is central to all coaching relationships.
We Pass ‘I’ On. Passing our Passion on for this beautiful game.
The grace is that when we do it well, we do it unconditionally, we help and support, but it is the player and the teams journey.
The magic in the coaching relationship takes place in the ‘space’ between where the cricket player and team are now and how we help them to get to where they want to be.
This is a journey of growth into potential.
As a cricket coach I believe it is essential that we suspend our judgement of what we believe is possible with our players and teams.
When the magic starts to take place in that ‘space’, we really don’t know how far a player can go.
On Dale Steyn’s player page I share some of my journey with Dale, how he went from a promising first class player to becoming a great international cricketer.
Even more remarkable is how Roelof van der Merwe went from being a provincial player to an international cricketer in literally 12 months.
He was playing in the amateur team for Northerns, the feeder team for the Titans Cricket team and we would invite him down to nets to be an extra bowler.
He bowled so well that we gave him a start in an one day game and he never looked back, 12 months later he played his first game for South Africa.
Cricket coaching for me is many things, but primarily it is about learning, to challenge cricket players and their brains to grow into their potential.
This potential doesn’t end when the player gets older, they are always facing new challenges in the game, our job is to facilitate this learning process and then get out the way.
Values Based Cricket Coaching
The foundation of our coaching practice are the ‘Values’ that we bring to the job on a daily basis.
They are the compass by which we judge every decision and action in the coaching relationship.
Simple Values like honesty, discipline, honour, humility shape how we work with the players and the team.
It is important that we make these explicit so that the players know that we embody these values.
Sit with the players and the team and choose a ‘Compass of Values’ by which you wish to play and work.
It is a reference point you can all come back to and as a Coach it allows you to stand on a higher authority when issues of discipline and attitude come up.
The wonderful thing about values is that they are universal, I have used them with teams whose cultural backgrounds are as diverse as Pakistani, English and Afrikaans.
So long as we are consistent in our application of these values we will always be on track.
Pass the Passion On
Getting back to passion, passion is energy, if we want to assist players and the team to create inspiring and motivating goals to drive up their performance, then a key goal is… Passing the ‘Passion On’ for cricket – Fun and Enjoyment
We are passionate about people, understanding that central to the coaching relationship is our ability to build trust and rapport with the team and players.
We show them we care by preparing and organising well.
We sit with them and plan goals for the team and players, it gives them critical direction.
Comprising: Vision-Outcome Goals and Process-Performance Goals
We focus on small process goals that we can control, building on these small success’s so that the cricket player and team make early gains and get confidence flowing.
These early gains that get confidence flowing are like grains of sand, lots together make rocks, then boulders, then mountains.
Day by day and week by week we build on this momentum.
And yet we keep coming back to our central coaching model, what is going on in the performers brain, how we are challenging it, how we are we communicating with it ….. and how we learn….. baby steps…. one at a time.
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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.