Lives in Cricket No 52 - Schooled in Cricket (2nd edition)

191 on his hands in unwitting memory of the mornings we spent with Johnny Lawrence at Rothwell. “Teaching cricket is an art as well as a science: there are plenty of people who know the game inside out, but not many who have the knack of passing on their expertise and experience in a way both interesting and intelligible to youngsters. Johnny Lawrence had that gift. “Johnny is a kindly, uncomplicated man with an enormous fund of knowledge and the paramount virtue – as far as coaching kids is concerned – of endless patience. Kids as young as I was when I first went to Johnny’s coaching school simply do not have the ability to grasp more than one point at a time. The message has to be simple and the purpose has to be clear. “On top of that, Johnny had the knack of making everything we did enjoyable. He used to stress that cricket was primarily a relaxation and a pleasure. Playing well added to the enjoyment, but simply playing was the point of the exercise. Naturally, since we attended his coaching sessions voluntarily, he had some pretty receptive raw material but he still went out of his way to make sure that nothing became a chore. It’s an attitude I try to recreate when I coach children today. My approach may be different to his but the underlying philosophy is the same. “Johnny was never negative with us. He would rarely tell us why we should not do something – rather he would emphasise what we should do to make the most of our ability. Youngsters, for instance, tend to want to hit the ball on the leg side all the time; it is the most natural stroke. ‘That’s fine,’ Johnny would say, but that’s the easy way. Let’s see if you can do something a little bit harder . . .’ “We were learning all the time, stretching ourselves, trying to master a technique which, though difficult and in its own way manufactured, would make us better players in the long run. Johnny began with the premise that we should go forward and play straight. It sounds very basic and pretty obvious but it was not the natural reaction of a youngster. Johnny’s most famous protege – Geoffrey Boycott Speaks