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The weekend of 25th & 26th March saw the first signs of summer, as a warm March weekend when the clocks when went forward coincided with the second ‘Gruppo Italiano Tecnici Cricket’ (GITC) Annual Conference.

Maremma C.C. in Grosetto hosted thirteen coaches along with ECC Coach Richard O’Sullivan who has made regular development visits to Italy over the last six years. He in conjunction with FCrI coaches Riccardo Maggio and Kelum Perera, (both of who have attended ECB level III courses in the recent past) delivered another ambitious and challenging two day programme.

Patrick Leech the GITC Chairman was keen to see coaches experience the ‘Games for Understanding’ approach to developing technical and tactical skills. He was not to be disappointed as the record for coloured cones used in any one place in Italy was broken as the FCrI coaches played the small sided games they had designed during the session with their usual enthusiasm!

After this very active session the coaches were reminded of the role and method played by observation and analysis in cricket coaching. Then using video clips of young players and comparing them with those of top performers the coaches tested their observation and analysis skills.

With an hour less sleep than normal speed was the definitely the order of the day as after revision of the key elements of overarm throwing and a few fun games the coaches used electronic speed machines to test their own performance.

The morning finished with an exploration of art spin bowling and after lunch it was time for the final theory sessions firstly on preparation and a secondly a review of the FCrI school/club development activities.

It is a measure of the success of national coaching associations that participants are already talking about the content they would like for 2007. The question is will the clocks and the coaches’ speed go forward for 2007?