The SportCentral Academy reconvened at the beginning of October. Sessions are once again being held at Dollar Academy on a Sunday morning. The first two weeks of sessions acted as trial sessions, where the players were tested on all aspects of the game, including game sense and awareness, and general fitness levels. After these trial sessions, the final Academy squad was selected, with 23 players being selected for this year’s intake.

As there were so many players selected, it was decided it would be beneficial to split the players up into 2 groups, with each group attending sessions every 2 weeks. The groups were split roughly based on age. However, the groups are not static and if players impress then they will be able to move groups.

All players have been issued with player diaries, which they fill in on a regular basis, not only to log what they have practiced in relation to their cricket skills, but also to log extra fitness work that they are doing. These diaries will be analysed by me at various points throughout the year.

In a major change between this year and last year, it was decided by Cricket Scotland and SportCentral that the Academy would feed into the Eastern Cricket Academy , instead of the Caledonian Cricket Academy . This would hopefully mean less travel for our players to attend further Academy sessions.

This report will be split into 2 sections, the first section covering the activities of the older group, and then the second section covering what the younger group have been doing in their sessions.

Group A (Older players)

OCTOBER

The players only had one session in October, and this was used to perform agility and fitness drills, followed by a net session – which was used to capture all the players batting and bowling on video. After this there was a series of fielding drills run, and again we managed to capture the players in all aspects of fielding.

I was assisted in the session by Simon Smith, who is the Eastern Cricket Academy Head Coach, and he will be attending the sessions from time to time, as well as helping me plan the sessions to be delivered.

NOVEMBER

The players had three sessions in November, and a wide range of skills were practiced during this session.

The first session focused on batting, catching and video analysis. There was a series of batting drills that took up a large part of the session. These drills focused on front foot movement towards where the ball lands, and not just planting the front foot. This was followed by team catching drills. While the batting drills were being run, each player was taken one by one to look over the video from the previous sessions.

The second session started with a series of team fielding drills, and a recap on throwing technique. We then started to work on bowling run-ups and improvements that were identified on the video analysis. Each player was also handed out an action plan of areas of strength and areas of improvement.

The third session again involved batting drills, but this time focused on back foot drills, evasion of the ball and learning top hand control during shots.

DECEMBER

The only session held in Dec was a joint session with the other group where a series of games were played to assess improvements in game sense and awareness. This was a very successful exercise and there was a lot of improvement to be seen in the players from both groups, in terms of shot selection and game sense.

Group B (Younger Players)

OCTOBER

In their only session in October, this group practiced their agility and then went into a net session, and this was used to capture the players on video. Fielding drills were run after, and again these were used to get the players fielding on video.

NOVEMBER

In the first session of the month, the players were split into pairs and played a pairs game to assess game sense and strengths in their own games. While the game was being played players were taken out one by one to look over the video footage taken at the previous session.

In the second session I was again assisted by Simon Smith, and this session was used to cover batting and bowling drills. Front foot drills were carried out, using shadowing through stumps as well as hitting balls. After this we carried out a generic running technique session, followed by working on specific bowling aspects revealed in the video analysis. Players were given action plans as well, highlighting areas of strength and weakness from the video analysis.

DECEMBER

Throwing and ground fielding were covered in the first session, along with batting drills related to judging line & length of the ball. After this, a short tactics discussion was held, discussing field placements and different fields dependent on game situations. This was used to test the players to try and start thinking more like cricketers.

The second session was the joint session with the older group, and this was very beneficial for the younger guys to play alongside their older piers.

All in all, the first three months have been very challenging, but I feel we are making progress with them. The main skills for the older group to work on are taking responsibility and learning their role in the team, while the younger players need to start thinking more about the game. Instead of going out and playing without any thoughts, they need to start thinking about how they are going to score runs or how they are going to take wickets.

I have been assisted in the delivery of sessions by Kari Anderson, Bob Ramsay and Stuart Williamson, and I have been very grateful of their input into the sessions.

The plan over the next three months while we are still indoors is to continue doing skill based practice with an element of fitness work, until we can get outside for the nice bright summer!!!

Gordon Allan

SportCentral Academy Head Coach