Message from LCCC Senior Coach - Tim Boon

Message from LCCC Senior Coach - Tim Boon

I want to personally thank all the parents that have religiously supported their sons and daughters by attending the Leicestershire Cricket Coaching sessions this winter.

I recognise that in the current economic climate parents have made a considerable effort and by doing so are subsequently supporting our aim to produce more home-grown cricketers.

I spoke about our philosophy at the Leicestershire AGM which is to create independent thinking young cricketers by raising self awareness in a stimulating and enjoyable environment through a player focused coach led approach.

We have a seamless structure from ten to the first team and offer a series of drills for players to explore and understand the structure of their skills and stamp individual character on performance.

My aim is to make sessions available from the age of six in the future. In recreating match situations in the nets young cricketers will be encouraged to learn about tactical awareness, decision making, concentration and performance routines.

I felt by introducing the fun based kickboxing and skipping routines we addressed the issue of athleticism, strength, flexibility and mental toughness.

We purposely delayed bowling to ensure the major muscle groups were strong to develop sound techniques without injury in a fun environment. Previously we found lack of conditioning was holding players back.

During the interviews on video with the young cricketers last year it was apparent they could see the connections between the training exercises and how it will assist in improving areas of their game - their answers were varied but the sentiment the same. We will produce more interviews and transfer one or two onto the new club website.

I have seen passion, commitment, resilience and enjoyment as young people meeting their challenges. These are some of the values we want to see in our future Leicestershire cricketers.

I have also seen the bar raised at District level in winter 2008 and the way the District players competed during the summer and feel certain they will challenge again for places in the County team during the summer. The system has to allow movement between the two and there is no guarantee that a player attending winter nets will play for the County.

David Smith, our new CEO, and I are confident in the medium to long term that more local players will play for the senior team and we are totally committed to this outcome. In the short term we will still employ the very best role models to accelerate this process whilst recognising the backbone of LCCC players will be home grown.

Finally I want to thank my Team of Coaches, Phil Whitticase, Lloyd Tennant, Russell Cobb, Junior Age Group Coaches, Managers and administrators for the hard work and dedication in moving Leicestershire Junior Cricket on to the next level.

Merry Christmas and have a prosperous 2009

Tim Boon