Over-coaching young cricket players

Coaching is always tricky.

But it becomes increasingly harder when you are trying to balance naturally talented young players AND correcting technical faults in an attempt to make a better player.

For instance take Paul Adams, the South African spin bowler with his "frog in the blender" type action. Without question it is one of the most improbably bowling actions you will ever come across and it would be near impossible to get him to change it. Yet during his time with the South African test cricket side he was one of the top strike bowlers - he landed the ball in the right place and turned it a fair distance. As a captain or coach - what more can you ask for?

Shiv Chanderpaul with his extremely wide (almost baseball style) stance - if a coach tried to correct that then he MAY have lost some of his skills and timing as a batter. His 45+ average proves he knows what he is doing.

I have a mate who is quite actively involved in coaching junior cricket at a leading school here in South Africa. Every year he sees the same problems playing themselves out - a talented young kid scores a ton of runs in his first year in high school and he gets sent off to an "academy" or "specialist coach" who is going to 'refine' his technique. The kid comes back with a completely changed batting style and for the next 2 seasons he can't get the ball off the square.

Instead of focusing on his natural talent and hand-eye coordination, coaches look at what he is doing wrong and then try and change his whole style to change this.

Obviously in the early stages of cricket playing, it is easier for an average player to stand out simply being bigger, stronger and quicker on the ball.

But coaches should be wary before implementing full scale changes in a young players style, until they know what the kid is doing right and why they are successful.