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The National Coaching Workshops is the first time that the Coach Development Team have ever attempted a programme like this all around the country. We are essentially running 8 coaching workshops for coaches and players, simultaneously.
The National Coaching Workshops is the first time that the Coach Development Team have ever attempted a programme like this all around the country. We are essentially running 8 coaching workshops for coaches and players, simultaneously.
We’ve got six workshops taking place in the LCU, NCU and NWCU at the same time on Saturday, and two at the same time in the LCU and NCU on Friday evening. We’re running an event like this based on the feedback that we’ve received from coaches, from the annual surveys that they provide us with and also forums that we organise with them to talk directly to us at Cricket Ireland and local Coaches Associations like the LeinsterCA and NCUCA.

We’ve got some of Cricket Ireland’s leading coaches taking sessions on three different disciplines – John Bracewell (Senior Men’s Head Coach) is leading sessions on Spin Bowling in all three unions. Cricket Ireland Performance Coaches Ryan Eagleson and Nigel Jones are leading sessions on Batting Against Spin Bowling in the Leinster and Northern Cricket Unions and finally Cricket Ireland are bringing Simon Guy from the ECB to lead a workshop on Wicketkeeping for our coaches and players in all three unions.

Wicketkeeping Workshop with Simon Guy, ECB

Simon has worked extensively with Cricket Ireland’s last two groups of ECB Level 3 Coaches and he impressed all these coaches with his knowledge, experience and passion about Wicketkeeping. We are delighted to welcome Simon back to Ireland to work with our coaches and also our ‘keepers this time. Simon will be leading coaching sessions with our best young (and old!) ‘keepers in the country, whilst also helping answer any questions, coaches might have on what to look for in their ‘keepers or how to help them improve.

Wicketkeeping is an often overlooked area for coaching – they can sometimes be the people left until the end of practice, to stand behind a stump and get balls thrown at them from high catches that fielders have taken. However, these people are probably your most important player in the fielding unit. Therefore, as coaches owe it to these “mad-people behind the stumps” to up-skill ourselves and develop our basic coaching knowledge for such a specialist and important fielding position. Topics that we aim to cover are:

Basic stance, posture and hands
Movement
Standing back & Standing up
Drills and Games
Diving
The “5%-ers” – Leg–side takes and Retrieving Throws
Tactical awareness

Wicketkeeping Workshop Dates, Times and Venues
LCU area – Friday 28th October – 7pm to 9pm – St Marys College, Rathmines
NCU area – Saturday 29th October – 10am to 12pm – Wallace High School, Lisburn
NWCU area – Saturday 29th October – 3pm to 5pm – Bready Cricket Club, Magheramason

Spin Bowling Workshop with John Bracewell

As a former Test Spin Bowler himself, John is keen to pass on his wealth of knowledge and experience to all coaches and players in Ireland. We are delighted to be able to have John lead this workshop because it is important that all coaches whether working in Development, Club or Performance environments, get a chance to find out what Cricket Ireland Senior Mens Head Coach looks for in a spin bowler. John will be working with some of our best young spinners in the country, whilst also giving an opportunity for coaches to ‘problem-solve’ – to pick John’s brains about how they could help a spinner ‘get more revs on the ball’, for example.

Spin bowlers are becoming more important these days – rather than being ‘controlling’ or ‘defensive’ tools in a captain’s locker, they are becoming more attacking with both ‘offies’ and ‘leggies’ now being able to beat the bat on both sides. If you speak to any coach or player, who has experienced cricket in the Asian Subcontinent, they will tell you all about “that spinner that took a 5-fer… turning it square”. Nowadays with the amount of cricket being played in this part of the world, there is a need for Ireland to keep developing spinners of the future and look to improve the spin bowlers that we currently have in our ranks.
Topics that we aim to cover are:

Coaching Spin Bowlers
Basic grip and bowling action
Drills and games
Tactical awareness
The finer arts of Spin Bowling
Variations in flight, speed, turn, using the width and depth of the crease etc.
Problem Solving

Spin Bowling Workshop Dates, Times and Venues
NCU area – Friday 28th October – 7pm to 9pm – Wallace High School, Lisburn
NWCU area – Saturday 29th October – 10am to 12pm – Bready Cricket Club, Magheramason
LCU area – Saturday 29th October – 330pm to 530pm – North County CC Indoor Centre, Balrothery

Batting Against Spin Workshop with Ryan Eagleson and Nigel Jones

We are delighted to be able to call upon two former Irish International players and current Cricket Ireland Performance Coaches, Ryan Eagleson (Cricket Ireland Academy Coach) and Nigel Jones (Ireland Under 17 Lead Coach) to lead these workshops. We will also be bringing in some of the best batters in the country to work with both coaches to provide you with demonstrations on what they look for in players and they might try to get you involved in some of the sessions as well – for those coaches who learn by doing.

If you spend 5 minutes speaking to either Ryan or Nigel, who both took the Ireland Under 19 team to this years World Cup in Bangladesh, they will tell you how important it is to have batters who can play spin bowling and play it well. Most international teams will now have at least two or three spinners, as in modern cricket spinners are becoming more attacking with their variations of speed, turn and bounce. Therefore our batters need to be better prepared and have a clear game plan to counter-act it. Topics that we aim to cover are:

Coaching batters to play spin
Different plans of attack
Drills and games
Tactical awareness
The finer arts of batting against spin
Using the crease, forward-presses, variations on shots, controlling the field
Problem solving

Batting Against Spin Workshop Dates, Times and Venues
LCU area – Saturday 29th October – 10am to 12pm – North County CC Indoor Centre, Balrothery
NCU area – Saturday 29th October – 3pm to 5pm – Wallace High School, Lisburn.

Register for the Workshops and Costs

Places are limited to 25 per course (depending on numbers, we might also have to limit entries per club), so please reply back to michael.hingston@cricketireland.ie by return to register a place.

There will be a cost associated to attend these events to cover the expense of the venues and also the specialist coaches who are coming in:
£5 per person (NCU / NWCU CICA Members) or £8 per person (NCU / NWCU Non-CICA Members)
€7 per person (LCU / MCU CICA Members) or €10 per person (LCU / MCU Non-CICA Members)

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