Coaching Deaf Cricketers - December 2007...
My name is Ron Young and I am head coach for the ECAD squad.
Just a little background to how I became involved with deaf cricket. I have played cricket all my life as a reasonable club cricketer, opening the batting and as time went on becoming a useful off spin bowler. My eldest son Ben became deaf at 3 as a result of having meningitis, quickly lost speech and went to a school for deaf in Newcastle where his main form of communication became British Sign Language.
He came and watched dad playing cricket with his mum and younger brother and at the age of six/seven he wanted to play cricket the same as dad and his uncle Derek. Having played all those years I just couldn't think how to get back to the basics and so I took my first coaching award to be able to teach him the basics.
Ben went on to play for the Durham County Schools at all age groups and at 15 was invited to a trial with the England Deaf team. I think they thought he would be one for the future but he was a strapping six footer and more than held his own and even at that age he became a member of the team and scored 178* not out the following year against the Australian Deaf in England.
Once I started coaching I found that I did enjoy it and went on to become a Staff Coach for Durham County. Through Ben I became involved with the team and have been the coach for about 15 years.
There are some deaf players who communicate orally and pick up information through lip reading and others who learn through the aid of sign. In the England Deaf team we have to employ an interpreter for this reason.
With the lip readers it is important to make good lip patterns, speak clearly and a little slower than perhaps one would in normal conversation. It is also important that the deaf person can see clearly ie the sun is not behind you or it is dark and I have found it is also important to check that the player fully understands the information that is being imparted. Visual aids, videos etc are also useful and of course good demonstrations of cricket techniques.
With someone who uses sign, in an ideal situation it would be good to have an interpreter, but failing that keeping language very simple in written form or use of texts on the mobile phone, again making sure that good demonstrations are used (clear picture) and asking the deaf person to shadow repeat what the coach has done.
The difficult thing for deaf players in hearing teams centre around communication. So at team meetings, tactical discussions it will always be important to check that the deaf person has understood. It may not be advisable to over egg it in a team arrangement but by reinforcing on a one to one afterwards. Many deaf players find it difficult to conceptualise and again the language used will need to be kept simple and as far as possible visual.
The one big area we have had to work on is the running between the wickets. Obviously calling is not an option so players have to work out a form of hand signals for YES and NO and then the real problem one of WAIT. You will find that eventually as they get to know each other it gets better but we still have disasters even in Test matches. However having just watched England's sorry attempt in Sri Lanka it can happen at the highest level.
I hope this has been of some help and hope you find some deaf kids who you can help get involved in cricket and who knows in the future they could be taking part in a Deaf Ashes series in the future.
If you feel I can be of any more assistance do not hesitate to contact me on my e-mail here or on my works address which is ron.young@durhamccc.co.uk
In the meantime have a Happy Christmas and a Merry New Year.
Ron Young
ECAD Head Coach