Sports coaches are a leading positive influence on today’s youth.
The coaches at Cricket HQ believe their role extends beyond simply teaching players how to bat, bowl and field. While the foundation skills are important, coaching is also about building confidence and shaping children's perception of themselves. The approach a coach takes to correct a technical fault or reinforce a positive behaviour can have a big impact on the development of a young cricketer's self esteem.
Cricket is a game but it is also a microcosm of life. It develops life skills including concentration, confidence, resilience, how to cope with anxiety plus the importance of hard work and team work. Our panel of coaches also assist with mental preparation, goal setting and teach competition strategies.
The coaching role can be complicated and can include instructor, teacher, motivator, disciplinarian, substitute parent, social worker and friend. Cricket is a technical game yet the average volunteer junior coach has little formal training and usually became involved in coaching because their children played the game. They typically drop out of coaching when their children stop playing junior cricket. Our panel of coaches love what they do and are passionate about producing great outcomes for the boys and girls, on and off the ground.
As you would expect, they all hold current Working with Children Checks and are accredited coaches with Cricket Australia.
They are all involved in delivering coaching as part of our development program, the Victorian Junior Cricket Academy.
Pat is the architect behind Cricket HQ and has coached junior teams in the area for decades. He has built a reputation as one of the leading batting coaches in the region with players and clubs approaching him for assistance. In the past 9 years he has coached various teams in the SECA competition across all grades (A, B and C) plus all age groups including Under 12, 14, 16 and 18.
He is a multiple A grade premiership coach at both Under 12 and 16 levels plus he led Ormond Cricket Club’s Under 16A team into 3 consecutive grand finals (back to back Premiers in 2016/17 and 2017/18). He also took their Under 12A team to the grand final in 2017/18 and for the past 2 seasons he has also been heavily involved in Ormond’s back to back premierships in the Under 15 J G Craig Competition.
Pat was Ormond Cricket Club’s Junior Co-ordinator for several years and is now Club President. He sits on the South East Cricket Association (SECA) junior executive and established the Ormond Junior Cricket Academy a number of years ago. That program includes a 12 week winter batting program that has had a huge impact on the junior players involved. For example, four boys in that program played in the Victorian Under 15 metropolitan team in 2016/17 and three graduates played in the Victorian metropolitan team in 2017/18.
He is passionate about the game and junior development and says, “The game is a microcosm of life and teaches you the importance of discipline. There is no substitute for hard work and the game helps builds up resilience in players because the game can be full of highs and lows”.
Pat believes the foundation years are critical which is why he created the Victorian Junior Cricket Academy that caters for players as young as 8 that teaches them ‘senior’ cricket principles designed to set young players up for success.
On the ground Pat had a distinguished junior career captaining both his school first XI and the combined ACC team. He played Premier Cricket for several years before returning to captain/coach his original junior club. In 2016/17, after 20 years retired from the game, he made a comeback in his mid 50’s and managed to play a few games for Ormond (sub district) seconds.
Pat’s passion is infectious and Cricket HQ is the culmination of many years of dedication and hard work. He says, ” Helping ambitious boys and girls achieve their sporting dream is incredibly rewarding and I recognise the fact that coaches can influence more people in a single season than a lot of people do in a lifetime. Cricket HQ is my dream and hopefully we can make a lot of boys and girls achieve their cricket dream.”
You can book a one on one coaching session with Pat using our online booking system HERE
Recent Testimonials - read more..
Our newest addition to the coaching schedule and is a right-hand top order batsmen and bowls right arm leg spin. Below are links to
his cricket profiles for more information:-
https://shubhamagar.weebly.com
https://play.cricket.com.au/player/9612aee8-1916-46b4-a71e-666e50103265?tab=summary
https://www.espncricinfo.com/cricketers/shubham-agarwal-1079668
Shubhan is available for coaching Monday & Wednesday evenings from 5pm to 7pm and you can book sessions with Shubhan here:- Visit Booking Page
Miles Sellenger was added to our coaching roster on Sundays (11am to 2pm) and his batting and leg spin classes have been a massive hit.
It's very rare that you get instant results in life or sport. In fact, in cricket coaching circles we often say it takes 10 years to become
an overnight success. Our spin coach Miles Sellenger worked with a 14 year old boy (Senin Seymour) during October & November of 2020
and in December 2020 he took 5/0 in the Under 16A SECA competition and then the next day he took 5/13 in the seniors in the VSDCA 4th XI
competition. Senin is a dedicated hard working cricketer but small technical tweaks can make a big difference in batting and bowling. Here
is the article that appeared in the Glen Eira Leader newspaper regarding Senin's extraordinary weekend.
https://www.heraldsun.com.au/leader/inner-south/sport/legspinner-senin-seymour-takes-50-for-ormond-juniors/news-story/a2a728b800f9da748c61284614ee0cf6
Miles captained the Victorian Under 15, 17 and 19 teams and coached the 2 boys that made the Victorian Under 12 Primary Schools team in 2022 as leg spinners so he is able to coach children and adults alike in both bowling and batting.
If you are looking for a spin bowling class, Miles works on Wednesday evenings (4.30pm to 6pm) and occasional Sundays (depending
on his other rep coaching commitments) and you can book sessions with Miles here:- Visit Booking Page
Recent Testimonials - read more..
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Zac Sleeman is our specialist wicket keeping coach and his batting and wicket keeping classes have been received with very
positive results.
Catch it like Slee-man! Zac Sleeman pouched a screamer as Richmond beat Essendon https://fb.watch/sd2rBYZwny/
If your child is looking for a batting or wicket keeping class, Zac is your man. Zac is available Saturdays 10am to 1pm with his
Wicket Keeping Skills & Drills classes (1 hour $66 each with 2 participants max) running at 10am, 11am or 12pm or for one-on-one
coaching
Please Note: - Zac is currently unavailable due to commencement of cricket season, we will update booking page when he has some
availability
Visit Booking Page
Recent Testimonials - read more..
Matt Wilcox was added to our regular coaching roster in July 2023 as part of our Winter Programme and his batting coaching has been receiving rave reviews. Matt is a Cricket Australia Diploma Teacher with the SEDA Group (as well as a teacher with the education department) so he is able to establish rapport with young people very quickly. Matt is available on Monday & Wednesday evenings and some Sundays.
Please Note: - Matt is currently unavailable due to commencement of cricket season, we will update booking page when he
has some availability
You can book a time with Matt here:- Visit Booking Page
Recent Testimonials - read more...
Thank-you Matt for your amazing coaching of *** this morning. Your ability to teach simple and repeatable technical improvements to an U/12 girl who has only played one season at stage-1 was incredible. For the 30-minute drive home I had *** repeating verbatim everything you taught her. Once we were home, she rushed into the house and explained all the tips to her mum (who has zero interest in cricket). This explanation came with her demonstrating with bat-in-hand her new forward defence, off-drive and pull shot. She then wrote all your tips down so she could remember them before practising shadow batting throughout the afternoon. Thank-you for taking such great care of *** and providing such a great experience. |
Matt is amazing! He has made my son feel comfortable and more confident batting just after 2 sessions. |
H*** absolutely loved it |
Matt is great with jnrs .. |
Matt was great with M****. Couple of subtle changes to his technique and lots of positive reinforcement. Very good coach.. |
Matt was very knowledgeable & gave great tips to 14 y/o son. He thoroughly enjoyed session.. |
Matt is a fantastic coach and has a vast knowledge of the game. My son enjoys every lesson. |
Matt is a fantastic coach. My son S**** loves the way Matt trains him. One of the few coaches I’ve seen who focus on keeping things simple and avoid over coaching which allows kids to hone their natural instincts and way of playing.. |