Mickey Arthur inspires East Asia-Pacific coaches
The ICC East Asia-Pacific (EAP) has played host to some of the regions most talented coaches and development staff at an Advanced Coaching and Development Seminar in Brisbane.
The seminar was facilitated by Cricket Australia, who generously provided access to their high performance and development staff and presenters. Most notably were presentations and discussions with the Australian Head Coach, Mickey Arthur, Assistant Coach, Steve Rixon and the Executive General Manager Team Performance, Pat Howard.
"The idea behind the week is to bring together a diverse group of people from all around our region to share ideas from their own environments and also learn through best practice from Australian cricket," said ICC East Asia-Pacific Regional Development Officer Tom Evans. "Hopefully this week has given our regional staff some more ideas and methods for overcoming challenges and developing more and better players."
Participating in the seminar were representatives from EAP member countries including Fiji, Indonesia, Japan, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, South Korea and Vanuatu.
The seminar gave EAP member countries the opportunity to learn about the high performance and development structures and strategies that are present within Australian cricket, whilst also working on ways to use this insight to address cricketing challenges in their home environment.
A highlight of the seminar was the chance for the group to have an inside look at the Australian cricket team in their preparation for their test series against South Africa. The group attended a high intensity training session for the Australian team and observed a wide variety of team preparation techniques.
At the completion of the session, Arthur, accompanied by Assistant Coach Steve Rixon, joined the EAP group for an in-depth discussion on the processes and planning that is undertaken by the Cricket Australia high performance team in preparing and managing the Australian cricket team.
Throughout the week, participants had the opportunity to take a detailed look at the high performance strategy of Cricket Australia, the process of identifying and managing talent, the philosophies and principles of coaching, ways of maximizing skill acquisition for elite athletes and methods to engage coaches and volunteers in development cricket programs. The seminar showed participants how they could use the information on these topics to further develop themselves and cricket in their home countries.
High Performance Manager of Vanuatu, Peter Wooden, described the benefit that this seminar will provide for cricket in Vanuatu.
"The week has given us an understanding of the operations and processes required to maximize our potential in our high performance programs. We have been extremely fortunate to learn from some of the world's most knowledgeable and influential cricket coaches and administrators on an intimate level in a supportive environment."
The ICC EAP Advanced Coaching and Development Seminar will conclude tomorrow, with the group attended the first day of Australia's test match against South Africa at the Gabba.