Kids Cricket

For Coaches, Parents and their Kids

How to Develop Coordination in Kids

During my school years I always wondered why it was that some kids were good at most sports whether it be cricket, football, tennis, hockey, badminton etc. I believe that this may have been due to them having further developed coordination.

The development of coordination plays a major part in Kids Cricket and the LTAD Fundamentals Stage. The younger the person is, the more able they are to develop such skills. However, the LTAD cricket model suggests that the best time to introduce cricket coordination is between the ages of 6-9 (boys) and (6-8) girls.

Coordination is concerned with the brain relaying information to different muscle groups, which work together to execute a specific action. Cricketers need coordination in order to catch, throw and strike a moving ball. This relies significantly on good hand to eye coordination, which is the ability to coordinate hand movements with what the eyes see.

Here are a few exercises to help improve hand to eye coordination in kids cricket:

Catch

This is probably the simplest way of improving hand to eye coordination in kids. Get players to throw cricket balls to each other, varying the distance between them in order to make it more challenging.

Catch and Clap

Whilst the player throws a ball in the air, the coach asks them to clap 1, 2 or 3 times before catching it. This teaches kids to watch the ball carefully as their hands are performing a seperate action.

Catch and Move

To further develop hand to eye coordination we should introduce catching practice whilst the player is moving.  This will teach kids to watch the ball carefully and get their bodies in the right position to catch.

Colour Coded Catching

The coach shouts a colour and then proceeds to throw different coloured bean bags into the air. When the player sees that colour bean bag they should catch it, again this gives kids something extra to think about.

General Practice

Practicing cricket scenarios will inevitably help to improve coordination. Bowling, batting, fielding and wicket keeping all require the skill and specific drills will help to reinforce any coordination training. Generally, creating a sense of confusion in drills can help to improve coordination. For example, as with the catch and clap drill above, players can be made to think and execute more than one action at a time.

If you know of any more cricket coordination drills then please feel free to leave a comment.

Image Credit: lrargerich