Foundation Stage
This stage is for players under the age of 12 years. This stage is very much for giving the players enjoyment and experience within the game through a variety of formats.
Building good habits and solid basics of the game, finding out what players are capable of physically, technically and tactically, giving them experience of different roles within a team and understanding what aspects are required.
In this stage pitches are shorter in line with ECB recommendations. This is to enhance skill development and the player experience. With shorter pitches at these sages, batters have more balls to hit, bowlers can have a better trajectory of the ball with fewer wides and no balls, therefore more balls are in play for everyone to get involved.
This stage will include U11 development groups and a under 12 county age group team.
There will be three main phases to this stage:
- Winter training programme
- Internal development games - Game activity in a number of different formats. Emphasis on specific areas of player development, e.g. running between the wickets. Flexible rules to ensure player development is maximised, examples of this implementation maybe to support players having to problem solve and create extra challenge or success within a specific area, e.g. slips in place or a specific number of fielders on the boundary to create gaps in the field, bonus run scoring zones, etc.
- County Age Group development fixtures - A selected group of players from the previous two phases to take part in a number of fixtures against other counties in a mixture of adjusted and conventional format games, this will take place at U11 and U12.