By Kris Bayne
Chiba Sharks joined forces with a crew of juniors from My-Ys, IIJS and Inba Pinecrickets for the first joint Hamano training on Saturday March 14, 2012. We had a great turn out of 17 players!
| Sharks | New Sharks in 2012 | Juniors |
| Dave LKeiichiChris T
Anton Tommy Koji Kris B Sumon |
RumanSushantMurad | Tsubasa (My-Ys)Rui (My-Ys)Kentaro (My-Ys)
Neel (IISJ Atharva (IISJ) Waka (Inba Pinecrickets) |
Before starting practice we took time to recognise the significance of the day, March 11. Today marked one year since North Eastern Japan was devastated by earthquake, tsunami and nuclear crisis. Ishimoto-san and Kris both said a few words in memory of those events and we held a minutes silence.
Nets
The Hamano nets provide a much larger area than Kashiwa, so much so that we decided to try to split the pitch into two ‘nets’. This was accomplished with some practical thinking and a trip to a garden centre (Anton) and Daiso (Kris). With permission granted we moved the futsal goals side-by-side between the batting areas and Anton supervised affixing some netting, and after a bit of experimentation, we had our two nets. Meanwhile, Kris measured out two pitches exactly, using masking tape (￥105) for the creases. The foam furniture safety disks (￥105) marked the pitch sides. Instant indoor nets!
Practice
The bowlers – and we had quite a few of all shapes and sizes – were divided up into two groups. Halfway through each batter’s session (10 minutes) they changed nets. With different people taking the role of ‘keeper for both nets, each batter got quite a bit of ball. Kris, in his new role as Skills Officer, directed bowling traffic, set the time to Yamanote-perfection and generally ran a tight training schedule.
Bowling
The youngsters showed a lot of promise with the ball. Some of the juniors had the senior players in trouble a few times. Rui and Atharva looked very sharp with good length and swing. Neel was always running in and doing his best to hold an excellent line and length. Tsubasa and Kentaro have great pace but need to work a bit on their “Malinga” action. And Waka grew in confidence with each ball she bowled – keep trying Waka!
Batting
In batting, the juniors also did very well. Having two nets we could take some time for closer coaching and throw downs with one batter and the bowlers could still operate in the other net. Batting against all kinds of bowlers will be very good practice.
Fielding
We finished the practice with three different fielding drills in the wide spaces of Hamano.
First some reflex/slips catching in pairs. Pairs started close together (2 metres), then after a set of ten catches each, they moved back a little farther (3-4 metres) for another set of ten, and again (5-6 metres).
Pairs then practiced fielding ground shots of various types and some catching. One person would throw the ball and his/her pair would field it. They would then do the same. At all time the correct form was important. Getting behind grounded balls, cupping your hands for catches. For catches it is important to let the ball come to you and move your hands with the ball. Finally, Kris hit a variety of balls, which players fielded, then threw back to Chris T as wicket-keeper.
The two hours went very fast. We had seventeen players so it was very busy, but we could all have a good practice and meet each other. It was a great promotion for the game in Chiba and we were able to see some significant young talent coming up and some new Shark players in action.
Thank you to Ishimoto-san for all her hard work as usual, and thank you to the many parents who came to watch and support their children. Let’s hope this is the first of many fun and useful practices.
