In August, we held two Young Cricket Officials workshops for children aged 14 to 18 who wanted to gain the skills and confidence needed to umpire and score in cricket.
Two successful courses were held at Dorridge Cricket Club and Leamington Cricket Club, and they included face-to-face training in which participants learnt how to umpire and score before putting their knowledge into practice by playing matches.
There were 29 participants over two days, with an equal split between the two courses.
Participants completed Activator training in the morning, involving coaches demonstrating best practices followed by conversations about the roles of the assistant coach and coach.
Participants were given the opportunity to coach in pairs or small groups and deliver to the rest of the group.
Sam Wyles, Workforce Development Manager, said “Delivering back coaching sessions to groups of people can be a difficult task, especially for people with limited coaching experience.”
“The quality of coaching we saw at various points throughout the course was equal to what we would expect at Foundation level. There are some competent young coaches for the future.”
During the afternoon, Rob Evans from the Warwickshire Association of Cricket Officials explained to the participants the basic rules of running pairs cricket.
Rob gave participants the opportunity to play cricket, whilst some of the group took key roles such as scoring and umpiring.
Both days were a huge success, with attendees saying they enjoyed the content and found it informative and useful.
We hope that those who attended will take their confidence and knowledge shown on the day back to their clubs and support All Stars Cricket and support with the umpiring or scoring of junior games.
To ensure the long-term sustainability of Cricket in Warwickshire and Birmingham, the Foundation plans on hosting similar courses in the future.