Understand movement, not just technique
When coaches ask thoughtful questions and communicate well, they gain a deeper understanding of their players. From there, the role shifts toward facilitation. In a mixed disability side in particular, individuality is a constant. When a shared goal is set, each cricketer may take a slightly different route towards it. The coach’ s role is to recognise those differences and, where needed, offer varied options so that each player can settle on the approach that works best for them.
Lloyd Tennant puts it like this:“ Try to think about the individual. Not just the way they think, but the way they move. Do all our bodies move in the same way? No.”
“ I started with the physical disability group, and we were doing some catching. I was hitting catches a bit too gently and they questioned what I was doing. They wanted to be tested. Bit by bit, I started pushing them further. With the bowlers, I looked first at the desired result and tried to give more options to reach that result.”
Facilitation also means resisting the urge to provide a single solution to open situations. Players frequently discover methods that suit them better than anything prescribed. Callum Flynn offers one example:“ If one of the physical disability players has a prosthetic leg and a coach is wondering how they’ ll manage a certain movement, the athlete will do it themselves. They’ ll find a way. The coach-player relationship might have a bit more focus, but that’ s really about allowing the athlete to lead.”
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Try to think about the individual. Not just the way they think, but the way they move.
6 Hitting the Seam Issue 48.1