Coaching Insight Volume 8 | Page 45

A Fielding Focus A FIELDING FOCUS Ex-England international and gun fielder Lydia Greenway shared her expertise at our National Conference in October last year. T hese days the game has improved and developed at such a pace that you can’t just be a specialist batter or bowler, you have to also be an awesome fielder. I was very much a middle-order batter so for me to get into the England team I had to keep my fielding at a certain standard. Helping others do that is something I feel very passionate about and I think as coaches it’s our role to give players as much time as possible to work on their fielding, because ultimately we want to create more game-changers, not just with bat or ball but in the field as well. I’ve developed a fielding framework since retiring from cricket in 2016, based on what I’ve seen from playing and coaching at all the different levels of the game. Players need more guidance now, from us, on how to excel in the fi eld. It’s been easy for coaches to say “do what feels right to you” but with catching and diving in particular I don’t think that’s helpful enough. We want to be building fielders who can operate within the ring, on the outer ring and in the slips: robust, versatile players. The attitude and mentality that underpins the entire fielding framework is: “I want the ball to come to me.” Without that, they are already on the back foot. At the bottom of the framework is movement patterns, which is something players starting out in the game need to spend a lot more time on. Without those, they won’t be able to perform the technical side of fielding efficiently enough. 43