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Published: July 24th 2006
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Hi guys,
Been a busy weekend, got in late Sunday night from our 4 day trip to Edmonton to work with the new national coach Andy Pick and play the 2nd leg of the men’s intercity matches. It was a very successful trip in that we swept Edmonton 3-nil for the series (Inc a wash-out) and took a massive amount away from Andy's work ethic, vision for the future, and passion for the game. Beard is gone but I'm missing it and it WILL be making a comeback over the next couple of weeks. Have added a couple of photos to my last blog from the rodeo, and basically if you have little to NO interest in me babbling on about cricket then permission given to skip this entry!
As always we were dragging our feet getting up to Vic Park on Thu morning (despite giving ourselves a 4 hour window). You could just about count the number of corners on the Calgary Trail highway that leads to Edmonton on your hands and feet, so people basically sit on aboot 130 clicks just to keep up with traffic. They don't let them use speed cameras in Alberta, so the
tricky buggers use helicopters to nab you. They have lines painted on the highway that allow them to time how fast cars are going, then they just radio down and have you stopped, so we made sure we kept an eye out for airwolf.
Andy Pick is basically on a 1 year loan from the ECB and is travelling around the provinces getting a look at the talent. We spent Thursday working with the elite juniors (including my Alberta U18 team for the Canada cup) and Friday was directed at the top men’s players on the two city teams. Andy is a fantastic bloke, a shit stirrer, who genuinely loves his 'job' as he showed over the 4 days. He was equally happy to stand and chat about cricket with the top guys as he was to answer questions and offer help to some of the 'crazies' on the hill.
It was pleasing that Andy used pretty much the same activities, drills, and explanations that Ru and I used on our camp the week before, albeit with a far better delivery. Lots of questioning, a real emphasis on being accountable for your own training time, and plenty of
Debrief night 3
Not sure about paying $8 for a bloody guinness... nearly $10AU are you kidding! And you want a tip, here's a tip, Don't buy the Guinness! reflection based on guys questioning themselves "is that my best" for the effort, application, concentration that they were committing to tasks.
The highlight for me was during one of the questioning sessions when one of the U18 guys (who incidentally is about 6'4 and bowls good wheels) shot me a look as if to say "shit, you actually do know what your talking about" when he realised that everyone on the team already knew the right answers to Andy's questions. We worked hard to gain the respect of some of the guys on camp who were pretty sceptical about what we were providing, so it was automatic validation cause here it is again coming from the national coach. Awesome.
Did heaps of work on reverse chaining/backward shaping of shots (drives, sweeps, cuts etc) which was top class to see explained so thoroughly. I think with my coaching that I am a little to much 'entertainment' based with my approach, keeping things moving to much, and skipping over the "fine details" which was a major emphasis for the sessions. Probably a reflection on my past experiences coaching younger kids, and something that needs to change to work with more
Daniyal with eyes wide shut
Daniyal working on his run-up mature players. There really is no substitution for repetitive hard work when it comes to developing habits/correct technique. Yes it can be boring at times, but that is the trade off that comes with being successful.
Geez I'm talking shit. Anyway, Calgary knocked off Edmonton in game 1 after we were generously offered the opportunity to bat first on a 36 deg day after losing the toss. 286 runs later the opposition may have been questioning that decision... Despite the terrible fielding standards of both teams, the game was a ripper with Edmonton losing by just 4 runs on the chase. They were down as low as 13 off 12 balls but our death bowlers were just too good. Game 2 saw Edmonton restricted to 225 after winning the toss and batting (surprise!) as the temp past a lazy 34 deg. At 3 for 30 things look a little shaky, but the 'Great One' Summit and his protégé "The Next Great One" Shajib piled on nearly 200 to see us thrash 'em in the 35th over. Good for me cause I had been copping grief from the opposition manager 'Junior' after my U18's went down to his boys, dragged
it back to 2-all now with a U23 game to play in August for all the bickies!
Had a couple of nice meals out, got plenty from the 'debrief' sessions with Andy and Ru (which in a fortunate coincidence were scheduled at the Argyle Pub at our hotel every evening!). Andy and Ru also seemed to enjoy the opportunity to bag my Aussie vernacular at every chance, so all I heard all weekend was "why don't you drop another U-bolter" and "fair dinkum mate" in awful Steve Irwin-esk tones. Cheeky Bastards.
Top notch week, well worth the airfares over here just to work with someone of Andy's calibre had I done nothing else. Anyhow, if you have read this far you are either very bored, or in awe of my incredible writing skills which allow me to paint mental pictures reflecting my incredible use of..... Absolute bullshit.
See ya all!
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