ECB Coaches Association links Coaching Insight 2019 | Page 48

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It’s all in the DNA
“The notion of posing a
problem, then allowing
the children to find the
solution, is vital across
all sports.”
“The fact is that we’ve got thousands
of children who send the ball from
here to there in thousands of different
ways, so why lock them by telling
them, ‘this is what it looks like’?
“The outcome – that the ball gets to its
target accurately, in a way that it can
be controlled at the other end – is the
only thing of importance. How does it
get there? I’m not really bothered.
“The notion of posing a problem,
then allowing the children – who are
at the best point in their lives for
experimenting with their game – to
find the solution, is vital across all
sports.”
On top of his Foundation Phase
role, Pete became Head Coach of
England Men’s Futsal in 2008, during
which time the success of that team
ballooned and Pete’s belief in the value
of futsal (a variant of indoor football
born in South America) set in.
“The thing about futsal is that there’s a
high level of repetition of similar – but
not the same – moments.”
The improvements futsal brings in
decision making and technique have
been well documented, but what can
cricket take from the way The FA has
used futsal?
“In cricket, the ball, the bowler, the
field, the match situation, they are
never exactly the same. So the idea
of adaptive expertise is massive.
Regardless of how those elements
stack up in a given delivery, the batter
needs to find the gap.
“By having thousands of repetitions of
varied, but broadly similar, situations,
the brain gets better at unconsciously
knowing what the body needs to do to
find the gap and hit the ball there.
“The best way to train the brain that
way is to create those situations