Stars come out for cricket coaching clinic
LOCAL boys and girls participated in Shaun Brown’s Cricket Coaching Camp recently at Bob Dowling Oval in Dubbo.
The coaching camps have been going strong for 35 years, with more than 50 Australian and international test cricket players helping to coach some 60,000 kids during the summer cricket camps.
The kids, aged from 7-15, learn through a mix of practical and theoretical training at each venue across the country, the team utilising the facilities kindly made available by Dubbo Touch Association for the two day camp. Coordinator Phil Turtle has been bringing the summer camp to Dubbo for five years, coaching the group of 44 boys and three girls this year through a three-station setup teaching them fielding techniques, observing their movements and reviewing them digitally in batting and bowling cages with video imaging technology Dartfish, and a station where they can practice their skills in a short game amongst themselves.
Turtle started playing cricket 30 years ago, going on to become a teacher later in life.
“I love coming up here, the kids always want to learn from us and have a good time. My brother did a clinic with Shaun maybe eight years ago (and) suggested I should join over the summer holidays.
“When I’m not coaching with Shaun, I get out and do some umpiring at the different carnivals around the towns.”
Shaun Brown, the mastermind behind the organisation, is based in Melbourne.
He started the camps when a few local teams in his hometown of Traralgon, in the East Gippsland of regional Victoria, came to him to ask if he could coach a few of the younger boys back in 1987.
Brown used to play Premier Cricket for the South Melbourne Cricket Club when he was young which, coupled with the primary school teaching skills he was learning at the time, ended up taking him to become a cricket coach hosting camps across five states in Australia, and even taking a few students overseas to England and New Zealand to play a couple games on the cricket grounds there.
The camps include the knowledge and expertise of selected International cricket players, with some of the appearances including Shane Watson, Merv Hughes, Len Pascoe who participated in the Dubbo and Orange camps this year, Nathan Bracket, Molly Strano, and even more big names.
To find out more information on the camps, and perhaps even sign your sons and daughters up for the next round, visit cricketcoaching.com.au.