The phases of training part 1: Training To Train

Phase 1: 3mins reading

The Phases of Training

Training To Train

Introduction

During my playing years, I went through several training phases, each meaningful in its own way and beneficial to what I wanted to achieve at the time. In my coaching and mentoring journey, I have also learnt the importance of understanding these phases as they are vital to keeping players engaged, enjoying the sport and most importantly, playing a pivotal role when it comes to player retention.

Not every athlete will go through all training phases but at some level is it important for every cricketer to understand the phase they are in. This will help with accountability, proper planning and keeping everyone on the same page.

Phase 1: Training To Train

This is probably the most common phase for the majority of cricketers and generally associated with those who play purely for the enjoyment of the game. In a separate post I will expand on the various reasons why people play the sport. For the purposes of this post however, training to train also encompasses most programs aimed at a participatory level of competition where winning is not the only acceptable outcome.

It is important to note however, while the canvassing approach suggests that this is associated only with social cricket and below average performances, this couldn’t be further from the truth. Every athlete at some point will train for the sake of it and we’ll look at both the scenarios where this might occur, some positives and negatives to this approach.

Useful Scenarios

When a player is in peak performance condition, they sometimes need to take a relaxed approach to training in order to stay fresh for competition. Batters can easily hit themselves into a bad run through over training and therefore, it is important to occasionally take a relaxed approach, hit a few under-arms, one bucket on the machine and just walk away from the nets.

Similarly after bowling long spells or playing back to back matches, bowlers can afford to just roll the arm over at a session to just loosen up the body in preparation for more intensive sessions. Other scenarios where this might be useful include:

Introducing new players to the sport.
Easing players into the pre-season training before ramping things up.
Breaking up intensive sessions and giving players a break.
To reduce the performance pressure and allow room for mistakes.
To retain participants especially those who play purely for the social aspect.

Negative Scenarios

These comes into focus when this is the only phase of training available to a group that is requiring a lot more. Some junior development programs are prone to getting stuck between this participatory phase and an over complicated one thereby leading to reduced interest, low retention and player loss.

The common themes are:

Remaining stuck in the communal approach, ie all about participation and fun when players are losing constantly and wanting to improve certain elements.
Consistently having no person in charge of training all the time.
In expanding the previous point, sessions with no specific purpose ie no physical skill or game sense development. These are usually characterised by regular Bat v Ball with no consequences or targets.
Continuous employment of monotonous drills that are outdated providing no challenge to the players especially fielding drills.

Conclusion

There will be times when you start to notice a decrease in the level of engagement and enthusiasm. As a coach, this could be players pulling out and not turning up regularly. As a player, this is when you start to feel like cricket has become a chore.

That is the best time to intervene and assess the demand levels as well as identifying which training phase you are in. Sometimes less is more and there is nothing wrong with the odd relaxed approach to training especially to break up intensity. Go and check out the next blog in the series to learn more about the second phase of training that I observed.

About Sol Mire

The former Zimbabwean Test, ODI and T20 international batting allrounder, is the founder of Advance2Play. He has plenty of experience in player development and high performance programs with a combined 22 years of playing, mentoring and coaching around the globe. He has worked with players from grassroots to international level, developed training programs for academies, schools and presented on various cricket topics at different levels.

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