Since childhood, I was always interested in playing cricket and luckily I was able to play the sport quite well without taking up coaching. However, I wanted to learn the sport perfectly, and so I joined a cricket coaching class in my city. I was also accompanied by one of my friends. My primary goal was to learn new ways of playing the sport as well as the techniques used.

LO1 – Identify own strengths and develop areas for growth
By joining cricket coaching I was able to identify my strengths and weaknesses because of playing with a variety of players and conditions. According to me the main strength that I possess was to judge the ball early. This strength helped me in picking up the lengths of different bowlers and play the ball perfectly. The skill I learned was to play the ball late against the spin ball which was previously my weakness. I feel good to know about my strengths and weaknesses because this will help me in understanding my game as well as improve it. I had worked on certain shots on the off-side when I realized that this is my weakness.

LO2 – Demonstrate that challenges have been undertaken, developing new skills in the process
The main challenge was facing all type of bowlers in different conditions. This was challenging because each bowler has a different mindset and also it depends on the condition on the pitch whether it favors me or not as a batsman. To overcome this challenge I first understood the pitch properly and then carefully batted to improve my game. I personally feel that it is important for everyone to take challenges in life because it will help one develop new skills. With learning new techniques in batting I also learned fielding skills. This skills will be useful if I want to play small cricket tournaments in the future. I felt confident to have learned this skill because knowing to play cricket, in any part of India is considered as a feature to gel up with people and quality in itself.

LO4 – Show commitment to and perseverance in CAS experiences
I used to for cricket coaching every day in the evening and on weekends in the morning. This was a commitment in itself because I used to come home at 3:45 PM and go for cricket at 4:15 PM. Moreover, with coaching, I also had to manage my submissions. Because of this, I was occupied by some work every day which helped me in learning time management skills. However this case, it was easy for me to commit to playing cricket every day because of the interest I had in the sport. While playing, quite a few times I got out but I never gave up and the next time played cautiously.

LO5 – Demonstrate the skills and recognize the benefits of working collaboratively
Because cricket is a team game it is likely that one must work as a team player. Generally, I don’t find any difficulty in working with people because I enjoy working as a team, especially in sports. Everybody there was very cooperative and most importantly made sure that everyone gets a chance to play. Working collaboratively, in this case, will help me in communicating easily with everyone as well as enjoy at the same time.

Overall, in cricket coaching, I learned many new things about cricket. I learned about new strokes, fielding techniques, and bowling skills. Moreover, I felt that my game had improved because after going to cricket coaching my overall game had developed. In the future, I wish to play small tournaments in my city to just keep up with doing some sport activity and maintain my fitness. If I had to do this same activity again I would do it in my vacations so I do not have to compromise on my studies as well as get some free time in the day.