What does Alan Hansen know anyway?

This weekend I achieved a career first. As I looked around at the squad assembling for our team warm-up at Quarndon on Sunday, I realised that I was in fact the oldest player in the team. While this admittedly was a blow to my self-esteem (I always pride myself on being ‘down with the kids’), it also emphasised to me the youthful vigour that is filling the Kimberley dressing room this season.

Alan Hansen famously said that “you will never win anything with kids”. As a Manchester United supporter, I was of course delighted to see Fergie's Fledgling's rip apart that ludicrous assumption in the 1995-96 season as a team filled with Beckham, Scholes, Butt, Giggs and the Neville brothers romped to a league title. To be fair to Hansen, his statement was perhaps more driven out of the fact that it was a big surprise for Ferguson to sell Paul Ince, Mark Hughes and Andrei Kanchelskis in the summer before the season began.

Alan Hansen back in 1995 made his statement after United lost their opening
game to Aston Villa. They went on to do the double of Premier League and FA Cup.

Similarities can be drawn to our position at Kimberley. There is no doubt that Hansen would be looking at us and thinking, ‘well how are they going to replace the likes of Birch, Patel and Wright’. What Alan missed back in 1995 however, was something that one of my favourite coaches, Australian Ric Charlsworth, summed up beautifully in his book, The Coach. For Charlsworth, building successful teams requires a blend of ingredients with one of the most important things being to ‘ignore youth at your peril’. There is no doubt that this year we have taken that philosophy to the max!

Its success is dependent on something else that Alan was unable to see in the August of 1995, and that is the quality and hunger of the group of young players. Having worked through the winter in my new capacity as Coach with these boys, and seen them in the first few games of the season, I have huge confidence that they can go on and put in some head turning performances this season. What is going to be the litmus test for the group though, is can they do it under pressure and crucially,  when it counts.

So far, the results have been promising. At 2 for 2 on Saturday, it did look a little bleak, but a brilliant 112 from 20 year old Paldip Sidhu and assured 42 from 18 year old Dominic Brown took us to a position from which we could compete. Off spinner Alex King, at just 19 years old, took 7 wickets across the weekend, and on Sunday 16 year old Harry Ratcliffe put in a faultless performance behind the stumps. With other vital contributions from the likes of Dominic Wheatley, who steered us home on Sunday, and from James Mann, who set up the platform for that success, there are signs that these young players have got what it takes to turn potential into wins and points.

There is no doubt it will be a season with ups and downs. Our challenge is not to get too low when we struggle or believe our own hype when things go well, but to look to learn something from every game. If we can do that, maybe we can surprise a few people along the way.

Purposeful practice will pave the way in 2013...

So here it is. The final week of the season. It has without doubt been one of the most unusual seasons I have played, mainly due to the fact the weather has been so torrid. This has led to many matches being abandoned or rain effected and as a result has meant that the season never really got into full flow.

At Kimberley, while there have been many positives, I do feel, slightly, that this year has been a missed opportunity to some extent. With some of the traditionally strong league challengers being hindered by the weather, it presented a chance for some of the other clubs to step forward and put together a title challenge. Cuckney have really set the standard this year, and assuming, as expected, that they win the title this weekend, it will be much deserved (as it will be for the Academy if an unusual set of results takes it in their direction). For a period in the middle of the season it looked like we might piece together a challenge, but once again, we couldn’t find the form or consistency at the crucial stages to keep the pressure on at the top.

So what could make the difference for us next season? Well firstly, I actually don’t think that we are too far off in terms of the personnel that we have. I am sure Sam will be looking at the balance of the squad and will no doubt be looking to make one or two additions in the winter months to fill gaps he thinks need plugging. But, on the whole, I think we have a group of players with the ability to beat any of the teams in our league on our day. And that is where the challenge lies. We need to make it ‘our day’ more often.

Players need to strive to be more consistent with their performances if we are to put together any realistic assault on silverware in 2013. So how do we become more consistent? Well there is only one answer. Purposeful practice. As a group, we need to find a way of practising with the intensity and desire required to attain the improvements and quality of our performances that we need to deliver on the weekend.

I have seen it all before. On too many occasions players go through the motions of ‘netting’. There is no game plan as a batsman, no focus to what you want to achieve. Without these objectives, any training or practice will lose its effectiveness. After all, why practice if you don’t actually know what you are trying to improve?

The traditional image of a club net session, but, what is the purpose?

The direction and purpose should not always come from a Coach of Captain either. As a player you need to be more aware of what you need to develop and improve and take responsibility for it. This might be a particular shot, catching in a specific position, or as simple as concentrating on your bowling for six balls in a row.

If we can find purpose in our practice next season, we might just find the success we are desperately looking for. See you all in 2013!!

Ps. Look out for my new blog on the hockey season – ‘Glove on Stick’ coming soon!

Ready to be inspired by a great Storey...

As the rain continues to pour though, I do hope that it can abate for the Opening Ceremony of the Paralympic Games, a wonderful spectacle and celebration of human achievement. I have always been a close follower of the Paralympics since the mid 1990s when my sister became very good friends with Sarah Storey, or Sarah Bailey as she was then. In London, Sarah will be competing in her sixth Paralympics, her first being in Barcelona in 1992, and will be aiming to increase her medal tally up from the 18 she has already won including 7 Gold’s. What makes Sarah’s record even more impressive is that up until 2004 she competed as a swimmer, but when an ear infection forced her out of the pool in 2005, she then took up cycling to keep fit. Within a year she had broken the 3000m Individual Pursuit Paracycling world record. Since then she won two Golds in Beijing, won a World Championship Gold in the able bodied team pursuit breaking the world record and almost making the Olympic squad and will be aiming to increase that medal tally in her home Games.

Sarah Storey has always been an inspiration

                For Sarah’s story (forgive the pun), there are many others, and I look forward to hearing about the  remarkable tales of bravery, achievement and dedication of these true sporting heros over the next few weeks. What I am certain about, is that many peoples misconceptions of disabled sport will be challenged, and I hope to see greater opportunity and access to disability sport following the inspiration provided by these great athletes.

                With just two weeks to go of our cricket season at Kimberley, it is getting to that stage where sometimes it can be hard to find the focus. With no chance of winning the league and finding ourselves in the comfort of a mid-table position, there can often appear little to play for as the season begins to peter out to a close. We must make sure that we do not fall into this position and that we keep our standards through to the end of the season. Two wins to finish could leave us as high as third in the table, and that should be what we are aiming for as we come up against two strong opponents in Clifton and Welbeck. It was great to see Dan Birch and Akhil Patel in full flow last weekend as they demolished Worksop and hopefully they can maintain that form through the final two weeks to let us leave the season on a high note.

Finding the winning formula

As the cricket season enters its final throws, my attention has already started to drift a little on to the difficult task of preparing my Beeston hockey squad for the new season. With a new season always comes the challenge of building a new team. Very few teams have exactly the same personnel each season and once again, we will have a small amount of player turnover for the new season. It is always important to have renewal. This does not necessarily have to be new players, but renewal can be as simple as new challenges for experienced players, new tactical considerations or different approaches to previously turgid tasks. Of course, new renewal does not mean that you should not continue to build on previous achievements and successful aspects, and both at Beeston this season, and Kimberley in 2013, that will be the challenge we face.

Building successful teams though, is as much about creating the right team environment as it is about having the best players. There is no doubt having top players is helpful! However, as we have seen with England during the past two weeks, the best players at times can often be the most disruptive!

So how can you deal with awkward players as a Captain or Coach? Can you ever fully integrate players into a successful team whose goals or targets are not aligned with those of the group or who values their own success above that of the team?

For an answer to this question I have looked to the words of Ric Charlesworth, a renowned cricket player and Olympic hockey player and coach. He states “Complex integrated team activities require co-operative, co-ordinated actions, both continuous and spontaneous. An athlete whose primary goal is not the success of the team will usually not improve the team’s performance. Athletes are occasionally self-centred to the detriment of the team, but rarely is it a consistent pattern of behaviour. What is common, however, is that the athlete is distracted by outside influences such as the media, family, friends, personal issues and lifestyle issues which can absorb and overwhelm them. These influences can cause athletes to lose awareness of the team dynamic that contributes to performance. Being able to co-operate and work together is critical to team sport.”

Kevin Pietersen's desire to play in the IPL has been the real cause of disharmony in the changing room

As much as you can guess, I think this assessment pretty much sums up the situation that had led to Kevin Pietersen being jettisoned from the England team. While there is no doubt that he still takes pride in playing for England, and wants to continue, as demonstrated by the hastily put together video interview prior to the last squad announcement, the lure of the big bucks of the IPL and no doubt poor advice, has forced him into negotiations with his employers which have clearly ruffled the feathers of Captain, Coach and teammates. The inevitable consequences in any dressing room are then disharmony as the perception takes place that this man would rather be somewhere else.

Yet is it all KP’s fault? Of course not. This particular problem surrounding the IPL has been brewing ever since its conception. Other countries have had issues already, Chris Gayle of course a clear example. If the IPL continues to fill the window it takes in the calendar and the ECB insist on playing Test cricket in April and May then it will not go away. The ICC seriously need to take a look at the cricket calendar and decide in which direction they want the game to go. I fear that they can’t continue to have their cake and eat it for much longer.

What though, as club cricketers, Captains and Coaches can we learn from this saga? Well primarily it is that you need to have everyone working towards a collective goal. If you as Captain want to win the league, but others in the team do not share this vision, it will be hard to carry people with you. Everyone must strive for the same goal, and in doing so appreciate that personal sacrifices may have to be taken in reaching it. They also have to trust and believe in their own ability, but perhaps more importantly in the ability of their teammates. Sharing this trust, and also enjoying the success of others as much as your own is the only way to become a successful team.

Aggregate the marginal gains

This weekend proved to be something of a mixed bag for us at Kimberley. We went from the highs of a sensational innings of 180 by Dan Birch on Saturday, to the low of being 8 for 4 in our biggest game of the season on Sunday. What I was most pleased about though, was the way we fought on both days to push for the win, particularly Sunday, when it would have been very easy to roll up and disappear into the night, or the early afternoon, at Sandiacre.

                Sunday’s performance was actually, in many ways, one of the best I have seen from a Kimberley side I have played in. That may sound strange I know, having been beaten quite comfortably in the end. However, the way that we fought back from the brink to post a score, demonstrated to quite a few spectators, and members of the team, that we do have the backbone to sustain a challenge when the going gets tough. Dominic Wheatley innings of 50 was without doubt his best for the club, and is another sign of the way he is converting his undoubted talent into consistent performances. In the field, we were dynamic, relentless, and perhaps one might think a little unlucky with decisions on reflection. Ultimately though, we were beaten by a better team on the day, and we wish Sandiacre all the best in the Final.

                It is starting to get to the stage of the season now where you start to ask yourself, what can we do to get better in order to go in the future from contenders to winners? There is no easy formula of course. One of the main attractions for me when joining Kimberley was the fact they play by the rules. There is no temptation to start throwing money at players, which of course gives you a perceived advantage when wanting to challenge, but is not always a sure fire way to success.

So what can you do to break out of the pack and become top dog? For the answer, I have looked to take inspiration from Team GB outstanding cycling team. Their Head Honcho is a man called Dave Brailsford. Once again at the Olympics, the British Team have dominated on the track, winning 7 out of 10 events, in addition to a silver and bronze. This has left many teams puzzled about how the British are able to dominate so often. Is it through some hidden technology or wizardry coaching they ask. For Brailsford it is simple – just ‘aggregate the marginal gains’. In simple terms, this just means that by making small improvements in lots of different areas, it enables you to make bigger improvements overall and thus stay one step ahead of the rest. Here is an example – when Victoria Pendleton and Chris Hoy are waiting between races, they wear electrically heated ‘hot pants’ that keep their leg muscles warm, something inspired by Formula One’s tyre warmers.



guardian.co.uk (c) Dave Brailsford has a mantra based on aggregating the marginal gains

So how can this help us at Kimberley? Well as much as it would be funny to see Richard Adams wearing electrically heated leg warmers during tea, I don’t think that they will necessarily be in our budget or prove quite as effective. However, if each player starts to examine their own game in more detail to see where they can improve, it might just give us enough areas to work on to make that difference. It could be something as simple as hitting more balls in a warm up to get your eyes fully attuned to the conditions, or becoming more specialised with your fielding positions and warming up specifically. We often see slip fielders practising using a cradle, but how often do we see point fielders practising fielding balls hit square off a bat with spin taken into account?

Hopefully, if we start to think more carefully through the winter about the smaller components of our game, it might just give us the edge to ensure we stay in contention into September rather than just August. One thing that is for certain is that this weekend clearly showed that we have the quality and the fight to do just that in the future.

ICC need female Twenty20 vision when it comes to the Olympics

What a fantastic week it has been so far for British sport. I have spent Monday and Tuesday down in the Olympic Park, and it has been a wonderful experience. The tag line of the games has been to ‘inspire a generation’, and I have no doubt that the sensational performances by British athletes is doing just that. One of the things that struck me about the games, was just how well organised everything has been. Often the press have been very quick to jump on the back of politicians and civil servants for small mistakes or perceived overspends on just ‘two weeks of sport’ that few will be interested in. How wrong they have been. The country has been gripped with Olympic-fever, tickets are the hottest property in town, and now Paralympic ticket sales have rocketed as everyone wants to experience their own taste of London 2012.

                One topic I picked up being debated in social media while down in London was should Cricket be included in the Olympics? It is a question that often produces polarised opinion. Many Games purists argue that the Olympics should be the preserve of the amateur athlete, and that Cricket, a hugely popular professional sport has no place there. One clue to support this argument has been the response from the general public to football at these games. Despite the fact we are a football loving nation, those are the tickets that have been hardest to shift.

                Other critics argue that we simply could not fit it into the calendar. Cricket already has an extremely hectic schedule, and the ECB would not be very keen on another Twenty20 tournament taking up valuable time in the international schedule during the English Test Match summer. Another issue might be the problem of whether we have enough high quality teams. The West Indies would all have to compete as individual islands and the Scotland would have to contribute to Team GB.

                Despite all this however, I think the time is just ripe. Not for a full international men’s tournament though, but a women’s only competition. For me, this Olympics has been the Games of the girls. How many of you can deny feeling huge amounts of pride as Jessica Ennis won her Gold Medal. Then there was the brilliant performance of Katherine Grainger et al. on the rowing lake and Laura Trott in the Velodrome making this a perfect opportunity to capitalise on the high profile of female sport.

A packed Park Live where people have been celebrating men's and women's success in equal measure

                As someone who coaches a lot of female sport with my hockey commitments in the winter, it has been fantastic to see girls sport finally on a level footing in the way it is presented and reported. You could not even get into Park Live, the big screen at the Olympic Park, to watch Victoria Pendleton riding in the Sprint Final and I found myself spying through a hedge to get a glimpse of her epic final with Anna Mears. If cricket, as a sport, could tap into the Olympics to raise the profile of the women’s game, in doing so it would not only demonstrate to the widest female audience how good a game cricket is to get involved with, but it would also start to help cricket get access to funding streams in associate nations. This will result in better facilities, larger participation and hopefully, over time, more teams competing at the top level. Not only that, we should have a good chance of a medal! I know that our female cricketers would relish the chance to participate in an Olympics and for all of them, winning a Gold Medal would not doubt be the pinnacle of their careers. Then if it is a success, which it undoubtedly would be, a men’s competition could follow in time. So here’s to Women’s Twenty20 in 2020!

Negative splits and hockey sticks

Well after all the hype and build up, the Olympics are finally here, and so far, they have not disappointed me. All the sport on this week has been able to distract me from thinking too much about our sub-standard showing on Saturday. You could dissect each element and look for what exactly went wrong, but fundamentally, we were well beaten by a better team.

                This weekend we have a chance to right some of those wrongs by offering up an improved performance against another of the title challengers, Nottinghamshire Academy. They will no doubt provide us with a stern test, but often it is easier to follow a poor performance with a big game as it forces you to raise your performance levels even more.

                In watching the sports-fest that is London 2012, I have decided to look to see what ideas, approaches or tactics could be applied from other disciplines to improve performances in my own chosen sports. As a hockey enthusiast, I have been delighted to see the sport getting a good TV billing, and I recommend you to tune in for a GB match this week where you can expect to see a fast paced, entertaining and highly skilful game.

                What has really caught my eye so far though, and is something that I first heard while watching the Tour de France last week, is the concept of ‘negative split’ times in cycling, swimming and running. The principle is simple. You want to try and go faster in the second half of the race or time trial than you did in your first. In essence, it is a simple concept, and one that I am sure many athletes and cyclist have done before. However, it is something that Bradley Wiggins swears by and has become an important part of his success as a rider. The key is this, you need to find a pace in the first half of the race which places you towards the top of the leaderboard, but then have the ability to surpass that pace in the second half of the race to accelerate, not decelerate to the finish.



Daily Telegraph (c) - Bradley Wiggins is the perfect exponent of the 'negative split'

           

              In cricketing terms, it is exactly what Cuckney did to us on Saturday when batting, and in doing so blew us right out of the water by tea. As a result, we then felt we had to go at a fast pace in the first half of our innings (time trial), and in doing so we burnt ourselves out! The art of chasing a score should be the same as winning a time trial. You need to be in it at half way. Sometimes that might mean being close to the split time of your opponent at the midpoint, but if you know you can go fast at the end, it is not always the case that you need to be following the course of their innings.

                I also see this mentality applying to a bowling mind set too. Why should we not try as a fielding side to restrict the batting team to fewer runs in the second half of their innings than the first? OK, so they might have wickets in hand and bat with fewer inhibitions against a softer ball, but if we can aspire to keep them to less in the second half, and in doing so produce our own negative split, it might just help keep our focus in those difficult final 15 overs when attention and discipline can sometimes wane.

                It can also work on an individual basis. Why not try to bowl tighter in your last five overs than your first or try to score you next twenty runs in fewer balls than the last. It is just the case of focusing the mind on the task at hand while keeping your eye on the broader situation of the game.

                Hopefully we can respond it the right way this weekend and I will be able to travel down to the Olympic Park, for my own taste of the games on Monday, with a smile on my face and 20pts in the back pocket.