What does a coach do?

When we were throwing around ideas for Series One of Reports from Arbroath, one suggestion was that we explore the question, ‘what does a coach do?”

The question resonated, especially as it came a from a guy who was on the MCC groundstaff and then the playing staff of a county club. He wasn’t sure!

We hear about and from sports coaches all the time. But what do they do?

Jim Troughton is supremely-qualified to consider that question. He is part of the coaching team that has steered Surrey to three successive county championship titles and it was effectively ‘his’ Warwickshire side that won the 2021 title after he was bizarrely sacked in 2020, so you could say that’s four in the trot.

Jim’s thoughts on the subject are fascinating and revealing. Coaching is about so much more than telling a batter to get behind the ball or a bowler to aim for the stumps. Tweaking players’ techniques – and, crucially, knowing when not to – is what good coaches do but the biggest factor of all is working out how to get those messages to land: reading the person, understanding them and judging the best way to help him or her be the best they can be. Troughts delves into the subject in typically articulate and thoughtful fashion.

He also considers whether Surrey can make it four on the trot. After Warwickshire won the championship in 1951, Surrey won the next seven. Warwickshire won the championship in 2021. Can Surrey….

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