Kelly Rowlings, our first Coach of the Month, is captain-coach of Weston Creek Molongolo Cricket Club in the ACT Women’s Grade Cricket competition and works with the ACT Junior High Performance program.
Kelly, 21, also plays for the Campbelltown-Camden First XI in NSW Women’s Premier Cricket and is in the third year of a psychology degree at the Australian National University.
CA Coaching recently introduced the 4C framework for providing a fun and positive coaching environment emphasising Connection, Character, Competence and Confidence.
Kelly’s experiences and coaching philosophy have aligned naturally with this message.
Kelly believes Connection comes from building a broad relationship with players: “Interpersonal relationship and communication, knowing the players and how they interact with the world, is really important,” she says.
“I try to apply that in the way I interact with them and hopefully that makes them more responsive to what we are trying to achieve.”
Character flows from the expectations she has of her players: “I focus on building and developing a sustainable set of character virtues and values, including self-efficacy, authenticity, work ethic, resilience and confidence.
Confidence is established through trial and error: “It comes from the player’s belief in their ability not only to execute skills but also to bounce back from failures and setbacks, reach out and receive appropriate resources when they need to, and to continue to grow as players and people.”
Competence is a consequence of a response to the environment she has created: “I look to challenge them and target their individual, physical, technical and tactical areas of growth, while also having a long term framework of sustainable mental and personal development.”
Kelly’s introduction to coaching was not seamless. She took on a male primary school team in her town Goulburn when she was 16 hoping to gain some leadership experience.
“There was a bit of resistance,” she says of the boys’ attitude to their new female coach. “I had to bowl one of them out in the nets before they started listening.”
But Kelly has gained the skills and confidence to create enjoyable and productive learning environments for players of all genders without having to first demonstrate her own considerable ability.
Despite the time required to play coach and study, Kelly is also continually updating her official credentials and is currently completing the Cricket Australia representative level coaching course.
“I love learning from my experiences in the field and applying them to my players,” she says.
You can find the CA Australian Junior Coaching Principles here.