About Us

I have been teaching sport and fitness for over 30 years and like to think that I have improved every year! That sounds a bland thing to say but I’m sure many of us know coaches who say things like “I’ve got 20 years’ experience”, whereas in fact they have one year’s experience that they have repeated 20 times. The opposite of constantly reviewing, doing more training, learning from mistakes; and then becoming a better coach with X years’ experience which you have used to make you a better coach. I hope I am one of the latter!

 

The Past

As a child and young adult, I played and enjoyed many sports, particularly Cricket, Rugby, Tennis and Squash; all to a decent level but nothing outstanding. At some point I discovered that my real interest and talent was in helping others to learn and improve their sport. This has developed over time into my overriding passion.

 

Whilst a student at De Monfort University, Leicester, I took a part time job at a local Community Sports Centre in Wigston, Leicestershire where I developed a Mini Tennis programme.  This eventually operated in four local primary schools as well as the centre and over time evolved into The Guthlaxton Junior Tennis Club where I was the head (only) coach. Two years after forming we were very proud that our players won every category, Boys, Girls, Under 8, Under 9, Singles and Doubles at the Leicestershire

Mini Tennis Championships; beating players from all the big tennis clubs!

 

I was approached by the local tennis club in Wigston and asked to take my operation there. This developed very well for several years with Wigston players attaining County Level regularly and winning Junior County Titles. But, as always it wasn’t just the cream that I was interested in; I wanted every player to develop to her/his potential. This culminated in a programme of over 100 juniors from 4yrs – 16yrs, all playing a good level of tennis for their age. We ran 4 junior teams and had a pathway for the older juniors to progress into the senior teams.

 

One year at the Leicestershire County Trials, out of 70 juniors selected for County Squads across all age groups, u10 – u18,  50 came from my club! Unsurprisingly, I was asked to coach at County Level and coached The Leics. Boys u10 and u11 squads for a couple of years.

 

I was recruited by The Nottingham Tennis Centre to take charge of the u10 Performance Squads and Mini Tennis Programme. I reorganised the way Mini Tennis was delivered at NTC and I believe they still follow my programme today. After four years the funding for my post ran out and after spending a couple of enjoyable years developing the Adult Programme I decided to give Tennis and Sport a rest for a while and return to my Fitness roots.

 

I discovered Pilates and recognised it as” The” exercise regime that everyone needs, from geriatrics to elite athletes. I pursued, very successfully, a Pilates business for 15 years until…

 

The Present

Just about post covid in Winter 2021, my Pilates business having taken a massive hit as a lot of what I did was in Community halls etc; I decided to return to coaching sport.

 

I had been assisting with coaching juniors at Radcliffe on Trent Cricket Club and West Bridgford Rugby Club for several years and decided to develop this on a more professional basis.  I began by having conversations with prominent members of East Bridgford Cricket Club, discussing why the club didn’t have a Junior Section. It transpired that there had been one many years ago and over the last few years there had been one or two attempts to get going again without any long-term success. I offered to put a proposal to the club to start a brand new junior section.

 

In November 2021 I was invited to put my proposal to the committee at East Bridgford CC. The proposal was accepted by the committee and I was invited to present it at the club’s AGM in January 2022. Once again, it was accepted and I set to work!

 

I already had a good relationship with the local primary school where I had previously taught PE and run various sports events. In conjunction with the head of PE we set up some introductory cricket sessions for the children. This was followed up with some free “come and try it sessions” at the club in Spring 2022.  After all this we had acquired 6 juniors! However, we persevered and with some more promotion had a squad of 12 eight to ten year olds by the end of the 2022 season. We found a suitable indoor venue to coach our “original” squad through the winter of 2022/23 and emerged in the spring of 2023 with our first hardball team and entered The Newark and District League for the first time.

 

With further promotion and the growing reputation of our coaching programme, during the 2023 season our junior membership gradually grew to just over 50, covering ages 5-12.  We had progressed some of our younger recruits to a level where we were able to arrange some friendly kwik cricket matches with local clubs.  Again, we organised some winter training to keep our young players progressing and arrived at the 2024 season, already with a strong base, and looking to progress further.

 

In 2024 without need of further promotion now that we had established a strong junior section with progression at every level and clear pathways for the players to develop their cricket, we eventually closed the junior membership at 86 for the season. We ran 5 junior teams:

U12 Hardball Mixed

U11 Hardball Mixed

U11 Girls Softball

2 x U9 Mixed Kwik Cricket

 

The teams all fared differently, largely according to the experience our players had (eg our U11 players had a maximum of three years cricket under their belts whereas most of their opponents had five or six).

 

Our U11 Girls fared very well considering they had only started playing six weeks before the start of the Girls League and that they were predominantly U8s! By the end of the season they were winning as many as they were losing.

 

At U9 level we are clearly now up with, or beyond, the pace as our teams were competing well and winning many matches against some of the strongest clubs in the area.

 

EBCC put some players forward for County Trials in 2024 and as well as a couple of near misses, had their first player, one of our girls , selected for Nottinghamshire Girls  U11 County Training for Winter 2024/25.

 

This all shows that the progressive coaching at the club is not only producing a good standard overall but at the high potential level is able to develop players to County level and we hope, in the future, to professional level!  However, we will never lose sight of our mission:

 

“…to give as many children as possible the opportunity to learn to play sport and to have the opportunity to receive the level of coaching and experience to achieve their maximum potential within the limits of their ability and aspirations.”

 

This means that we value every player equally, from the high-level achiever to the player of limited ability but who enjoys playing the sport! All we ask is that, whatever the level, our players show a good attitude and try their best!

 

The Future

To Be Continued…

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Robin Baxter Simms