Thank you for being here,
But before we begin, 
We need to get absolutely crystal clear as to our vision, 

Yeah, I said ‘our vision.’

Over the last 21 years of coaching young athletes, 
And upskilling my players, 
There has always been a devastating stark contrast, 
Between my players that perform,
And those that do not…

Starting early, 
Loads of talent, 
Technical skill, 
Incredible athleticism, 
Unbelievable coordination,
Strong work ethic, 

You might be guessing that may be the trick?
I would have assumed the same thing to be honest,

However, that has not been the truly transformative factor, 
(in my humble opinion and experience)
The truly overwhelming gob-smacking reality is,  

How much pressure is applied at home?

Amazing players with all the ability in the world, 
Stuttered in performance when (in particular) dad got overly zealous, 
Regardless if it was positive or negative zealousness.

In plain English, if an athlete felt pressure in anyway from a parent or coach, 
They paid the price on the field – every single time…

We are not looking at international cricketers here, 
We are looking at small children, ages of 4 – 11.
Most of the dads didn’t even know their athlete was feeling pressure from them, 
There was no bad intent, 
But only the perspective from the athletes in question.

This was a major problem, 
A massive hurdle, 
We needed a complete overhaul in approach, 
So I created the ‘Trifecta coaching model’ 

A Child lead, 
A Upper hand parent, 
An outsourced technical mentor.

First and foremost, you as a parent are here because cricket is life for your youngster?
It cannot be because you love the game and have aspirations for your athlete…
That has to be super duper unbelievably clear, 
(and if that sounds offensive to you, I am happy to take that risk)

Then we need an encouraging and supportive parental figure that is completely stress free in the process, 
And this is achieved through the outsourced technical mentor.
When a parent tells a young child what to do, 
More often than not, there is an objection as the counter will in the child comes to the fray,
But the same set of instructions from a different authority figure is met with acceptance.
That is the one key, 
The other, is that with a mentor, you have a secure technical foundation, 
You have the support, the accountability, and the opportunity of reward.

The parents that had the most to say about coaching, 
Had played the least, and the parents that let me do my thing, 
Were previous first class and on 2 occasions previous international cricketers.

The process is clean, 
And performance sours as a result over the long term.

So I created resources, eBooks, development charts, programs and technical videos for parents that caught my vision, that got the concept.
Instead of talking technique to a child, 
A parent had the opportunity to point the child to a resource, 
And get out of the way. 

This started a snowball effect, 
We were not just creating a better technical cricketer, 
We were now creating a leader, an athlete with intrinsic motivation, 
Problem solving skills, they could take on the info and accept it as theirs.
We brought focus to a training session, and we created a pressure free zone.

Magic! 

Ultimately we are about the growth and well being of our children, 
We want to watch them succeed, in cricket, in school, in life, 
Regardless of the ability or talent of the athlete, 
We want to fuel into flame their passion, 
Performance is not about the lofty goal or end result, 
It’s about getting increasingly better every time we play, 
We want to learn every time we play.