Coaching Pages BY JOHN HARRIS BECOME A CROQUET ENGLAND COACH! Have you considered becoming a Croquet Coach? The time to enrol on a Club‐Level Coach training course is now. Becoming an effective Club‐Level Coach is not about having a low handicap. Indeed, fresh memories of one’s own early learning in the game help coaches appreciate the situation faced by those beginning their croquet journey. Much more important is a warm, welcoming personality. A good coach will be ready to meet students where they are at, and help, support and encourage them to develop their skills and understanding. The Coach Training Course is in three parts: a preliminary pack to help orientate prospective Club‐Level Coaches; a two‐day course led by an experienced Examining Coach; and, to follow, five coaching sessions at the candidate’s ‘home’ club. All three Academies are running Club‐Level Coach courses in the spring, and bookings are open now. Croquet England offers subsidies towards course costs, as do many Federations.
USING AN IMAGINARY BALL by Stephen Custance‐Baker | StephenCB@MyCroquet.me
The Imaginary Ball is an extremely useful concept whenever a target is to be struck off‐centre. The essential concept is that it is easier to aim at the centre of a target than at a position to one side of the centre. If you ‘place’ an imaginary ball overlapping the target ball and fix its centre in your mind, it’s possible, with practice, to aim at that centre and ignore the actual target ball. I’ll illustrate three uses of this idea, all of which are equally applicable to AC and GC: the cut rush, clearance from a hoop and running a hoop. THE CUT RUSH This is the most common application of an imaginary ball and will occur many times in a game.
In this case, Yellow is be cut so that it finishes in front of hoop 5. In GC this would be so that it could run hoop 5 on its next turn; in AC it would be so that Red could take croquet from a simple position in front of its hoop. The actual stroke is the same for both.
To identify the correct position for the imaginary ball, picture where you would place a ball, touching Yellow, so that you could hit it in the desired direction. Your imaginary ball must then be placed beyond the target ball, but along the same line from Red. If there is any imperfection on the surface exactly along this line, then it can be used as your imaginary target. When playing the stroke, try to ignore the Yellow ball completely and aim at the middle of the imaginary ball. It is important to avoid the passing thought ‘I must hit Yellow to the left’, particularly during the final swing. HOOP CLEARANCE It’s easy to allow the mallet to swing in a curve in an so that it is driven cleanly back through the hoop. Steering will result in the mallet swinging in a curve towards the direction that the target ball is to go, and your ball will hit the near upright of the hoop, with little or no effect on the target ball. You can avoid this by using an imaginary ball. ‘Place’ it beyond the hoop and overlapping the target ball by a small amount. Now forget the hoop and forget the target ball; play your stroke firmly towards the imaginary ball and, if you have placed it correctly, you will get exactly the impact you need on the target ball. HOOP RUNNING attempt to ‘steer’ the target ball in the direction you want it to go. One very frequent version of this is when the opponent’s ball is in the jaws and your ball is behind the hoop but in a very angled position to one side. You need to play your ball straight across the back of the target ball The first step is to identify the perfect line for running the hoop, which is as close as possible to the near upright, without touching it. Then place an imaginary ball behind the hoop, by a yard or two, exactly on the line through the perfect position in the jaws. The player plays straight at the imaginary ball as though to clear or roquet it, which results in a firm, rather than tentative, hoop shot. As with the cut rush, the brain must accept that it is the imaginary ball that is to be ‘roqueted’ or ‘cleared’, rather than the hoop that is to be run. This thought, if kept clearly in the mind through the whole stroke, will give a clean strike in the right direction. In this situation, the idea of the imaginary ball allows the player to ignore the hoop itself during the final swing and increases the likelihood of a clean hoop run.
Coaching new coaches: James Hawkins passes on tips and tricks of the trade at a Coach Training Course (photo: John Harris)
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