ECB Coaches Association links Hitting the Seam Issue 37 | Página 5

‘We need to lose more!’ is not
a phrase you expect to hear
from someone in charge of a
national team, but that’s how
Mark Robinson expresses the
situation facing England
Women.
Robinson spoke to ECB Coach
Development Manager Martyn
Kiel, before he took an extended
squad to Abu Dhabi for a
comprehensive training camp in
preparation for a tournament
where expectations are sky-high
for the host nation.
‘We’ve tried to take
the fear of failure
away, which is a
difficult thing in
professional sport.
We’ve tried to free
the girls up to
express themselves.’
The opening game, on 24 June,
comes over seven months after
their previous competitive
fixture and over eight months
after their last defeat, to the
West Indies in October. His
willingness to be challenged
is understandable then.
‘Failure is part of the game,’
Robinson explained. ‘You can’t
win all the time or be happy all
the time. Learning is often ugly,
so let’s get things wrong, let’s
be in game situations where
things aren’t going to plan.
‘We play too many one-sided
games currently, so we don’t
get tested. That’s an objective
for us, to put more pressure on.
To make better decisions under
pressure is something we’re
working on, but you never know
where you are with that until
you’re in a pressure situation.’
Pressure is certainly not new to
the former Sussex coach, who
has been at the helm during a
pioneering time in the women’s
game. His appointment came a
year and a half after the
introduction of central
contracts, a massive leap
forward for women’s cricket
but a challenge for this
generation of trailblazers.
‘Professionalism has allowed us
to have more time with them, it
has allowed them to dedicate
more time to training, but it is a
case of coming to terms with
what it means – the
accountability. They are judged
now, so they must train, be fit
and perform.
‘You don’t just make them
professional and expect them to
be 100 times better all of a
sudden though. These girls are
pioneers, the first group of
female professionals. They don’t
have senior players around who
have got the t-shirt – the
experience with the press for
example. That means sometimes
we have tears, along with joy,
but that’s one of the reasons
I’m here, to help the players
understand the good and bad
of professionalism.’
Managing the emotional
rollercoaster of elite sport is a
key part of Robinson’s job and
one that he’s been building an
understanding of in the
women’s game since observing
his daughter at Sussex.
‘Having her play and love
the game did bring me to
women’s cricket and made
me look at the struggles that
female players face. That’s
changing now – counties are
supporting far more and are
bringing the right people in to
quicken that change.
‘Working with my daughter
gave me greater empathy in
terms of seeing how female
players tend to beat themselves
up far more than male players,
and can at times take it more
personally.
‘In their own eyes what they do
is often not good enough and
it’s being around my daughter
and speaking to people close to
her that I came to understand
that before I even started
working with the national team.
I now spend a lot of time trying
to normalise feelings and
behaviours with my players.’
Emotions will be heigh tened as
hosts, but Robinson is intent on
using that to spur on the team,
not as an excuse for poor
performance.
‘I relish these global events and
there’s no bigger than a home
World Cup. There is a sense of
pressure though, in terms of
eyes on us, so we need to
embrace all that while
understanding that the girls will
be feeling that added scrutiny.
‘Managing our own emotions
around the tournament will be
the biggest challenge. We’ve
got to embrace all the well-
wishing, rather than let it
overpower us. We can use it as
an advantage.’
From the opening game, the
pressure – and excitement – will
be something for us all to
embrace.
Bring On The Pressure
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