Hit the Top helping young students to become more confident.

Most recently two classes from the Paddock Secondary School in Wandsworth, where young children with physical and learning difficulties attend, had the opportunity to learn cricket for the first time ever.

Luke Muir, a teacher at Paddock Secondary School said “[The] school was lucky enough to have Alex Bassan from Cricket for Change to come in and coach a series of lessons over the first half term of this year, teaching the students cricket.”

In the first week, the students participated in simple catching and getting used to what the ball felt like in their hands. So for the first few weeks, the coaches continued to concentrate on the skills of catching then introduced batting and fielding and before long, everyone started to improve and grow in confidence (in particular with catching doing it comfortably with both hands and on some occasions, one!).

Finally, they were introduced to bowling and then the game of ‘Pairs’ cricket.  The coaches began making some of the activities a bit harder, such as having to hit target areas in their batting and bowling.

This was a big step for the team but they had all progressed very quickly by using good listening skills to understand the instructions they were given and it showed as the young team played some really good cricket.

Once into their stride, they not only began scoring runs galore but were also fielding excellently; stopping, throwing and catching well.  To finish off, in the last week we played a big match where everyone could showcase the skills they had been learning.

Luke (Muir) added “The students, to begin with, had a limited understanding of cricket and only basic skills that they had transferred from other sports. However, they improved dramatically over the course of Alex's weekly lessons.

They were able to go from barely catching a ball to being involved in a modified game of cricket where they were able to incorporate all the skills they had learned over the previous weeks.”

None of this would have been achieved without the great support of the staff (at Paddock Secondary School), which enabled the students to learn more efficiently. They helped everyone out when needed and were excellent around the young people, in turn developing a strong respectful relationship.

One of the most notable changes was in the attitudes of the students and the way they listened. After the six weeks they were communicating better with each other and understood the game of cricket.

Luke (Muir) also said: “The children looked forward to their cricket lessons each week, becoming more and more enthusiastic and attentive, clearly enjoying themselves- it was fantastic to see.”

From them being very shy and quiet to playing Pairs cricket without instruction It was fantastic to to see their progress but mainly to see how they grew in confidence from their amazing achievements.

This Paddock School cricket team are on their way to Lord’s!

(By Alex Bassan – C4C Development Coach)