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By Peter Della Penna

ICC Americas Performance Officer Andy Pick concluded a two-part cricket coaching course on March 22 for the New York PSAL at Aviation High School in Queens. About 20-25 teachers turned out for a two and a half hour session. Pick feels that the teachers were quite receptive and hopes that the sessions will pay off for the students and players over the course of the upcoming PSAL season.

“I think the guys have done well,” said Pick. “They’ve embraced it well and the proof will be when they take it back to their schools and see whether they can set it all up and keep it going.”

The second session was conducted at Aviation’s indoor gymnasium. During the session, Pick discussed the importance of focusing on technique and using measurable evaluation tools to track the progress of players. He also stressed sticking to the basics for some of the coaches who are new to cricket, rather than getting overwhelmed with the many nuances of the game.

Image (right) - Andy Pick drops a series of tennis balls for a PSAL coach to practice his drive during a rapid fire batting drill. For efficiency and repitition, Pick demonstrated that a player could hit 20-30 tennis balls in one minute using this method. [Courtesy: Peter Della Penna/DreamCricket.com]

“This helped specifically understanding what the basic fundamentals are,” said Joel Troge, coach at Lafayette High School in Bensonhurst. “What he was saying was if you are able to do the basic skills well, you can put the puzzle together and I think that was probably the best advice he had given.”

Originally from Wisconsin, Troge teaches American history at Lafayette, where he says there is a sizable student population with Pakistani and Bangladeshi heritage. He had no prior knowledge of cricket but volunteered to help out when his students wanted to form a team last year, the third year of the PSAL cricket competition. Even though he admits his players may know more about the game than him, Troge feels that the training he received from Pick during the two sessions will help him improve as a cricket coach because he has a better idea of where he should be focusing his efforts.

“Last year, I’m trying to understand what the basic rules were and where everyone needs to be and how you can score, but I think this really helped in terms of actually what makes a good solid fundamental player and ultimately that’s what you want as a coach is you want someone who knows the fundamentals.”

Recognizing the challenges posed by not having enough dedicated cricket facilities in the New York area, Pick introduced ways for the coaches to adjust to their surroundings so that the players can still be learning effectively.

Image (left) - Pick answered questions and gave tips to the PSAL coaches throughout the session. [Courtesy: Peter Della Penna/DreamCricket.com]

“I’ve just tried to show them some different drills and different ways of practicing certain techniques that don’t necessarily need a sports hall or a cricket field,” said Pick. “Hitting the ball off Styrofoam cups, hitting the ball at dustbins or at chain link fences or whatever it might be, you can set up any sort of practice anywhere really with a little bit of imagination. I think some of the times coaches can be a little bit hamstrung by the fact that they think that everything’s got to be great and everything’s got to have all the right equipment and all the right space and everything.”

“When you haven’t, the one thing I stressed to them at the end of the day was to be creative. Ultimately, it’s only practice after all and so long as they keep one eye on technique, then how they practice that technique and in what surroundings and in what conditions is fairly irrelevant really.”

While there were some coaches present like Troge who are fairly new to cricket, other coaches that previously had a good understanding of the sport also found Pick quite helpful. Aviation High School coach Wesley Henry grew up playing cricket in Guyana, but says that he thinks his practices will become more efficient because of the tips he received.

“Something like this with what Andy has taught us, just the drills, the speed drills, the throwing drills, the batting drills, the bowling drills, this is something that every coach, even if you are a coach in who has been in the league for four years or you’re a new coach, you will take something from it,” said Henry. “What I noticed, there were a lot of new coaches that were taking notes, which is good. Some of the stuff Andy instructed today and last week, I used and I’ll keep using.”

Image (below) - Pick used the coaches to demonstrate how separating players into different skill stations is a good way to maximize practice time. [Courtesy: Peter Della Penna/DreamCricket.com]

For coaches who are new to the sport, Pick also stressed that they should not feel intimidated if a player knows more than them. Instead, the player should become a resourceful asset to enhance the coach’s knowledge base.

“There will be occasions when there will be the odd player who may know the game a little bit better than them and I think that’s inevitable,” said Pick. “I would hope that as teachers, their control of group is good enough to take care of that anyway. The key to that will be for them to accept the fact that some people [will know more than the coach] and to bring those people to the front of the group and use them rather than fear being undermined. If there are things going on in their practices or in games that they find difficult to understand or difficult to explain, then make use of the knowledge in the group so that would be my advice to them about that.”

Pick’s coaching course was facilitated in part by New York Cricket Region director Selwyn Caesar, NY PSAL Cricket Commissioner Bassett Thompson and NY PSAL Cricket Coordinator Lorna Austin. The fourth NY PSAL high school cricket season begins on Monday, April 11. The league began in 2008 with 14 teams, but there are now 26 teams split into five divisions – one in the Bronx and two divisions each for Queens and Brooklyn.