Advancing with Lucy Arman
Kent Cricket Under-15 Girls Performance Head Coach Lucy Arman says that attending the ECB Advanced Coach programme had “ opened up my eyes that actually there is a career out there for female cricket coaches ”. She summarises her positive learning experience below and provides some candid insight into why it is vital the sport attracts more female coaches .
Three national lockdowns may have forced this year ’ s schedule to be extended beyond its usual six-month duration , but Lucy already knows – before attending the face-to-face modules in Derbyshire , and completing the applied coaching activities – that the course has been a gamechanger for her career .
That Lucy is able to juggle a full-time job as a PE teacher at Simon Langton Grammar School for Girls in Canterbury , with her part-time coaching role at Kent Cricket and her own coaching business – Girls Performance Cricket , of which she is the founder and head coach – is a clear indication of her drive and ambition .
Her time on the programme has further stirred her ambitions and quenched her thirst for knowledge whilst , significantly , given her the opportunity and the confidence to achieve her principal goal , which is to make coaching her full-time career .
“ The experience so far has been so positive and beneficial ,” says Lucy . “ One of the things I ’ ve enjoyed the most is the connection with other experienced coaches – albeit online in breakout rooms rather than face to face because of lockdown . I ’ ve learnt so much just from talking to and getting to know all of them .
“ And the course organisers have been really good . The days we were meant to have our
face-to-face modules but couldn ’ t due to another lockdown they got specialist coaches to come and give presentations virtually . One of the areas which I really wanted to develop was coaching spin bowling and I was really looking forward to that face-to-face module but , luckily , they had a specialist spin coach on and he did a two-hour workshop with us online .
“ Being able to bounce ideas off the few of us that work in the girls ’ and women ’ s game has also been really useful .
“ I was expecting the course to be very technical and tactical , but it has been more around you as a person and how the relationship with your players is more important than ‘ this is how you hold your bat ’, ‘ this is how you bowl the ball ’ and I ’ ve found this interesting and illuminating .”
Valuable lessons learned
The easing of restrictions and phased return to cricket has given Lucy the opportunity to start putting her newfound knowledge into practice .
Her excitement at the prospect of this practical implementation was , however , quickly eclipsed by the thrill of witnessing the positive outcomes of her newly-refined coaching methods .
For example , she says the programme has taught her the tremendous benefits of giving her players greater autonomy and control over their learning .
2 Hitting the Seam Issue 43.4