This week we were fortunate to have some of our Colts and SA tour squad cricketers spend an hour with Craig McMillan – the Blackcaps batting coach. North Harbour Ford donated his services to the school.
The session was excellent – it was inspiring, interactive, and informative and most pleasingly in the 60 minutes he spoke to the boys there was no talk of grips or stance or back lift, but rather he focused on the key qualities and behaviours of top batters – the importance of work ethic, being a learner, being coachable, retaining individuality, being patient, taking ownership and having the right mindset. The glue of batsmanship as he called it.
The only time Craig touched on anything technical was to say that all batting is built around a strong and dependable defence. He asked the boys questions such as do you practice defence? Do you train like you play? Because if not you are setting yourself up to fail.
Craig finished by describing how their philosophy in the Blackcaps is to be there at the end – to be able to pull a stump out of the ground having won a game for their country. To dream about that.
We are very grateful to North Harbour Ford for donating the services of Craig to Westlake and affording this opportunity to our boys to learn from someone who has done the journey.