Fascinating coaching method doing wonders
AN INTRIGUING coaching method is being used by Joseph Nqasa of Nomandi Junior Secondary School as he attempts to boost cricket coaching in the Kei region.
Nqasa uses KFC Mini-Cricket graduates to assist in coaching and scoring in the school as well as around the region and encourages players that play hard ball cricket to be scorers and coaches.
“We have only got one coach at our school, so when our players move on to high school and hard ball cricket I encourage them to become scorers and coaches in the school’s KFC Mini-Cricket programme,” explained Joseph.
“If a player is good in one of the cricket disciplines, I get them to help coach in that discipline.”
A couple of the top students were sent to the KFC MiniCricket provincial festival as coaches. Joseph said he chose them to go to the festival as a reward for the hard work they do at the school.
“If I am at a meeting or somewhere else and there is a training session planned, they just take over and run with it.”
The Kei cricket board is now also using them to help in other areas. They play an important role in coaching, Nqasa believes. “Small kids learn just as well from other kids as they do from adult coaches, so the programme is working well. Not only does it help the KFC Mini-Cricket kids with their cricket but it also helps them with their own game and teaches them how to be more responsible.”
Sibonda Pumela, one of the student coaches, is a Kei U19 batter and she is helping kids learn to bat better. When she spots a little kid with a batting problem, she looks at alternative ways to help the kid fix it, and doing so helps her study her own batting and to look at ways to improve herself.