National Cricket Academy: The ‘art and science’ of cricket coaching has undergone a sea change over the past decade and National Cricket Academy (NCA) has incorporated in its curriculum the understanding of many aspects of modern day game, like how the psyche of star players works, said ‘Head of Education’ Sujith Somasunder. Follow InsideSport.IN For more updates
The 49-year-old former India opener, who was also one of the mainstays of a star-studded Karnataka side of ’90s alongside Rahul Dravid, Anil Kumble, Javagal Srinath, Venkatesh Prasad, has in past few years played a pivotal role in trying to create a supply line of quality coaches across the spectrum.
National Cricket Academy: NCA coaches turns FOCUS on MIND COACH, to redesign coaches’ education program to aid in players with mental coaching
Somasunder, who played two ODIs for India in the 1996 Titan Cup, has also been an acclaimed ‘Mind Coach’, apart from being the man who has redesigned the coaching curriculum at NCA.
So, is communication with elite players, which can help them change their technical or mental approach, a part of coaches’ education programme?
“Absolutely yes. We touch upon and work on their ability to understand, acknowledge and appreciate the different preferences and personality traits of individuals and bring in flexibility in their behaviours and communication to be in sync with the players,” Somasunder told PTI during an interaction on the sidelines of Ranji Trophy final.
Somasunder was appointed NCA’s Head Of Education in 2019 as BCCI wanted to revive and restructure its ‘Coaches’ Education Programme’.
“I took over this role at the end of 2019, with a directive to revive it. I had experience of working in a ‘Learning and Development’ function of a very successful MNC, which helped me re-design the whole programme with a new perspective to Coach Education,” the soft-spoken Somasunder elaborated.
National Cricket Academy: NCA coaches turns FOCUS on MIND COACH, to redesign coaches’ education program to aid in players with mental coaching
Someone with an academic bent of mind, Somasunder is currently doing research on an interesting topic – ‘Development and validation of a Model for Coaching Cricket in India’.
“Doing research on this topic held me in good stead to implement the findings. Therefore, we can say that the current design, development and delivery of our courses have evolved as per the times and requirements,” he said.
With the advent of IPL, the shot-making grammar has changed a lot and Somasunder had no bones in accepting that coaches will now have to speak to youngsters about when and how to play various types of instinctive shots like lap-scoops, switch hits which one might not find in MCC manual.
“It is the need of the hour,” said the man, who has more than 5000 first-class runs and was part of Karnataka’s Ranji Trophy winning squad of 1998-99.
“Coaches and leaders in all domains will have to change in accordance to the present styles, needs and the advancement. Relevance has always been the need of the hour,” he added.
There are “negotiables” and “non-negotiables” but Somasunder said that NCA’s endeavour has been to bring a certain amount of uniformity in how they are coaching U-16 and U-19 players coming through the system.
“There definitely has to be uniformity in what coaching is imparted to the players especially at the grassroots and age-group categories.
“…at the same time we need to have flexibility. This we try to achieve by defining the non-negotiables and the negotiables.”
For Somasunder, an ideal coach is one who can strike a perfect balance between technical and mental aspect of the game especially as the player graduates through the ranks.
“Coaching is both an Art & a Science, which means that a coach must be well equipped in his/her knowledge, skills and behaviours that are very essential to be effective as a coach.
“The coach must have a deep knowledge about the technical, tactical/mental aspects of the game as well as the knowledge and skills of how he brings in the right leadership behaviours to deal with so many unique individuals with varied personalities and preferences,” he explained.
National Cricket Academy: NCA coaches turns FOCUS on MIND COACH, to redesign coaches’ education program to aid in players with mental coaching
At elite level, it is more about helping athletes deal with mental adjustments but at times they do need technical guidance too.
“At the elite level, we can safely assume that the athletes already possess higher levels of technical & tactical prowess and that very little technical coaching is needed, and that the job of the coach mostly is to manage their mental condition so that they are in the most resourceful state of mind to perform.
“However, we must not forget that even the elite athletes require and expect to be coached/managed at different phases, with a certain amount of minor technical inputs or tweaking for them to keep excelling in all conditions and situations. Balance is the Key.”
The ‘Mind Coach’ and how ‘Mental Health’ is still a taboo:
Before joining BCCI, Somasunder has also worked as a professional ‘Mind Coach’ and has studied and understood what an athlete goes through when chips are down.
“The job of ‘Mind Coach’ is to help the player, first of all, get present to the way in which the player is choosing to see or represent various things around them, including themselves, such as the situation and their ability in that situation. The very same things would be occurring differently when they are in form.”
He feels that frank discussions on the mental health aspect is still a taboo in our society.
“Anything related to the mind … becomes a taboo. We always tend to brush aside any conversation which points a finger towards our mental side… we are pretty lopsided in our efforts to take care of the mental and the emotional side of things.
“We never try to address it with care and openness. But it is definitely getting a lot better and players are reaching out to the Sports Psychologists a lot more in the current scheme of things,” he concluded.
National Cricket Academy: NCA coaches turns FOCUS on MIND COACH, to redesign coaches’ education program to aid in players with mental coaching
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