Cricket Huddle Insider🐧#76

This edition of the newsletter is so full of sauce, you might as well call us Ragu. I am sure you all are hooked onto what’s happening in Indian Cricket with SKY being new team management’s choice as captain for T20 and Hardik sidelined. But besides, that here is what we’ve got for you this week

• 🧠 Insights

• 🍪 Favorite Finds

• 🌐 Community

• ☕ Insiders of the Week

So, let's get right into it then - leg stump, please!

🧠 INSIGHTS

This week we had the privilege of talking to the former bowling coach of the New Zealand Cricket team. None other than Shane Jurgensen.

Shane is an Aussie who played first-class level cricket in Australia and then served as the coach of Bangladesh, Fiji, and Scotland New Zealand Cricket.

We talked to him about his foray into coaching, coaching a young cricketer in comparison to experience, working with the likes of Trent Boult, and advice to future cricketers. Shane is a thoughtful, humble, and forward-thinking leader - which is why we’re so happy to have him as this week’s Big Insight.

QUESTION

Welcome Shane! Did you always know that you were going to get into coaching after your playing days we over? Tell me about your early coaching years.

ANSWER

Yeah, I think for me, I was always gonna probably head down this track I think.

So I represented three states in Australia. I moved to Perth when I was 21 and then from there, I moved to Tasmania, another different environment, and finally Queensland.

When I played for Queensland, that was when I sort of started getting into coaching because I was used as a senior player who would play if needed, and I was contracted for years. But what I did was I coached my club, I was captain of my club. And I also started up my own business in coaching and I became a junior cricket club president. I did that for five seasons. And then when people found out that I was a junior career club president, a professional cricketer. Next, I was doing camps and private coaching. And I thought, Oh, well, this could be something for me to get serious about after, sort of after playing whenever that was going to be and I always thought I'd play until I was mid-40s. But I ended up retiring sort of when I was 31 or 32 to get into coaching and take advantage of the opportunity I had and that was the same year in 2008 when I met John Wright and started working with the New Zealand emerging players team in the middle that year and then all sudden, it was just the circumstances just lined up by accident and I ended up having to leave home and leave my wife and children and that's when I started coaching in New Zealand, so ever since then I've been coaching internationally and I just the way that it worked out in a lot of ways.

I think the grounding and the foundation I had as a coach, coaching at all different levels put me in a really good situation to understand people. And that's where I think I've been very fortunate to have three initial years in New Zealand then I went to Bangladesh and was a bowling coach initially and then head coach and then I went to Fiji for two years as a head coach and a different type of role but again, had a successful Under 19 team that went to the World Cup for the first time and then yeah for the last eight years New Zealand and you know, amazing stint there of white-ball formats and winning the World test championship with the Blackcaps.

QUESTION

What a resume. Thinking back to when you were starting as a young coach, what were some of the initial immediate skill gaps that stood out right away that you thought you had to focus on and which you thought needed improvement when it came to young cricketers?

ANSWER

Yeah, I think for me, as a young coach, I was quite focused on technique. So, you know, like with batting - Are you watching the ball out of the bowler's hand? Where are you focusing on when you come into the ball?

Everyone's different and I think as a coach you really need to provide two to three options around the technical side of the game for a player because it's such an individual game. It’s different when you become a team coach where I had to make adjustments and make an impact in changing the player’s technical aspects in the beginning stages and then on the relationship aspect later on.

QUESTION

How so? Coz, cricketers need feedback right away. With so many young cricketers shifting towards cricket, how are you able to deliver a piece of feedback to them when they ask you and need feedback immediately?

ANSWER

I think I can answer the question in a couple of different ways. I think it's really important as a coach that in lots of ways you're like a doctor, I suppose. You know, you go to the doctor and you might be feeling this pain and the doctor will go through a process trying to get a background check on not just the actual symptoms, but is there anything leading up to the event? So I think for me, as a coach, I've got to find out what's been leading up to the event when a player asks me a question. I've never really tried to say to a player, no, that's wrong.

I deliver at least one to three options to apply for them to consider rather than just telling you this is the way. As a coach, you provide 1, 2, or 3 different options. The good thing about the options I'm giving you, is they give players things to consider and weigh before making a choice. It can never be about the coach saying do this or not.

QUESTION

So, how do you work with Trent Boult or Tim Southee who are professional cricketers playing at the highest level?

ANSWER

Yeah, it's it's a great question and really important one. So at all teams I coach - I have to have robust discussions sometimes on what we think is the best way to align each other’s thoughts.

So when I was talking about my foundation of technical coaching, there might be three stages of a bowling action. So you've got the run-up, the load-up, jump, lock and release, and then you've got your follow through so they might be your phases of bowlers action. And there's there's different aspect points under each of those phases.

So for example, someone like Trent Bolt in 2019 was getting a lot of flak for being a little bit round arm. So we went away and decided to work on a long-term plan.

What we realized is sometimes in the run-up, you want to lean forward like a sprinter and have the shoulders in front of the hips. A slight lean forward, let the rhythm happen but what we discovered is that Trent is quite quick through the crease. If he's leaning forward too far, it stops him from getting through the crease. So what would happen because he was quick through the crease when he went to turn side on, his back foot was sliding underneath him. So what we found out from him, is that it's better for Trent to be more upright and only shoulders slightly forward just enough for him to make sure he's going forward. And that worked for him. And then he was able to be a lot more upright. Get through his action quickly. And still have a perfect release. So what I did with someone like Trent was to only fix a certain number of things not everything.

QUESTION

What is the one piece of advice you have for someone starting as a young coach ?

ANSWER

I think simply start small and do not try and give the player 10 items to work on after the session. Don't bamboozle them just literally try and find one thing for that player or even that one thing for the team to consider about how they can keep improving and moving forward. Keep the communication very precise, specific, and simple. I almost feel like when you communicate with the player that you are talking to a small child because you don't want to bamboozle them with fancy words and this and that but just give them one thing. Say something like - Please consider this. Here's the opportunity. There's something for you to consider. That’s all.

Thank you very much for this opportunity Shane. The Full interview is available on Cricket Huddle Private Insiders Community. Get full access here.

+ COMMUNITY

Several new individuals became Cricket Huddle Insiders. Got some great feedback from the Community. We are adding more and more things. Apply to join if you wish to get looped in.

🍪FINDS & PICKS

Read | England’s new bowling sensation Gus Atkinson speaks

Read | USA Cricket at risk of being put 'on notice' by ICC

Read | West Indies starved for Test Cricket in comparison to England

Read | ICC Officials resign after T20 World Cup in USA & West Indies

Read | How Great Britain claimed Olympic cricket glory 124 years ago

Read | South Africa living forwards, understanding backwards

📷INSIDER PIC OF THE WEEK

Are you enjoying your cup of coffee SKY now?

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