The Merwe Genis Krieket Skool
THE CRICKET SCHOOL
During your coaching placement, you will be under the guidance of our local team, the Merwe Genis Krieket Skool. ( pronounced ' Merv ' )
This is a well run and long established organisation that is the largest private cricket coaching school in the Western Cape.
You will be part of the team that provides coaching each week in Schools, Clubs, Rural Clinics and Townships within the Boland Province.
The main focus of our cricket projects are to give youngsters the chance to play the game in a fun and structured environment. We welcome volunteers with any level of cricket experience, be it playing socially with friends, representing your school, club or university team or even as far as holding coaching qualifications. The emphasis is on children from less-advantaged backgrounds and building friendships on a common ground. Whatever your background, be assured that you will be able to offer something positive to the children and cricket projects you work on.
YOUR COACHING ASSIGNMENT
The first stage as a coach is to help organise and run training clinics and matches for the children. This will be a great experience for forming relationships with the players and also for developing your own confidence and life skills training.
The second stage will be planning and running cricket tournaments that incorporate both matches and team-building activities.
Being a cricket coach in South Africa will mean you will be running and supervising all training and matches for the young players. This may sound daunting but you will soon realise that you have an understanding of cricket that the players are so desperate to acquire. The rewards are great because the players are enthusiastic, but they rarely get to experience a team structure.
Mbekweni Township
click to enlarge pictures...
You will also have solid support from the other volunteers, our local staff and coaches from The Merwe Genis Cricket School. They will give you all the training methods and ideas that you might need. From technical bowling theory to beach cricket, you will soon develop your own coaching style, unique to you and your players.
RURAL CLINICS & TOWNSHIP COACHING
Although most of your time will be spent on your town-based project, depending on when you travel, you will be encouraged to take part in sports camps organised weekly in the rural villages and small towns such as Ceres and Malmsbury. Holiday courses in Mossel Bay are also arranged so that you can travel & see some of the countryside.
In recent years Merwe Genis has developed a Cricket School at Mbekweni, a local township. In contrast to some of the locations that you will coach at, the facilities are minimal reflecting the deprived area. One thing is for sure, you can be assured of over a hundred smiling children's faces at each session and a keenness to take part and learn that is truly humbling.
