ActiveSport
Not out! Kate Maxim watches budding cricketer James Clarke getting the Tom Flowers treatment
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HERE ARE PLENTY of private golf and tennis instructors around. Lots of riding instructors too. But interestingly there are very few cricket coaches around. Ex Leicestershire CCC, Loughborough University and Dorset player Tom Flowers is filling that gap. His expanding team of ECB registered coaches teach players across Rutland, Leicestershire, Northants, Cambridgeshire and Lincolnshire from beginners to advanced. His aim is to give local cricketers access to high level coaching locally. Tom is a level 4 ECB coach and specialises in batting and fielding. He has four full-time coaches, two male and two female and then a whole raft of staff he calls on to provide coaching at more than 20 cricket clubs in the area including Medbourne, Oakham, Burghley Park, Uppingham and Bowden near Market Harborough. He runs club nights and weekend coaching at the different clubs, generally delivering a 20-week programme for the participants to work on their batting, bowling, keeping and fielding skills. And he runs at least one holiday camp for children at each club throughout the year. He offers residential camps too, at Oakham School and one at Medbourne cricket club
from August 15-19 which is also approved for the gold Duke of Edinburgh award. And the team can assist with PE including GCSE filming footage, following the syllabus for all major exam boards. Also popular, particularly with adults, are his one-to-one coaching sessions. One man who was just about to start his coaching session told me he was fed up with getting out the same way every Saturday and then sitting around for two hours watching everyone else play. Since starting his coaching sessions with Tom he’s grown in confidence as his technique improved, particularly with his footwork. It’s often just a simple adjustment that needs to be made, then practiced regularly until the player is able to really hit their stride. I had come to watch James Clarke, a business and economics student who plays for Sheffield University’s second team and Medbourne Cricket Club when he’s home. He’s played cricket since he was very young and is proficient at it, normally batting at number three. But he knew he could improve and had come to Tom to work on his technique. Normally Tom suggests a course of four or more sessions on a one-to-one basis so he can fairly assess and unpick each aspect of a person’s game, before then building it
back up whilst giving them a chance to embed the information. In James’ lesson Tom noticed immediately that his head position was out. As the heaviest part of the body it’s crucial that the head is correctly aligned and balanced. James’ head was falling across his body causing Tom to remark that ‘if his head goes early, his hands will go early too.’ Tom also wanted James to show him the full face of his bat giving more chance to hit the ball straight; cricket being all about straight lines. It’s not just the technical aspects of play Tom addresses, he’s keen on getting to the heart of tactical issues too. If they have two things to work on: technical, for example head position, and tactical, such as working on intent to hit the ball straighter then there’s more chance of getting one aspect right, thus finding potentially multiple solutions to one problem. This takes the pressure off the inevitable and unachievable idea of ‘perfection’ every player dreams of. Getting to know the player is important to Tom as is stopping them overthinking their game. He checks in constantly, asking the player how they perceive their game, keeping the dialogue going, building up trust. James had known something was not quite right with his technique, but it took a session with Tom to address the problem and as soon as his head was correctly aligned, the rest of his body followed in the right place too. For full details of summer camps, one-to-one and club coaching visit www.tomflowerscricketcoaching.com
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