Yorkshire Cricket Board

As you may be aware, ECB ACO has introduced a new suite of Education Courses for the 2017/18 training season. As well as the well publicised Stage One and Stage Two, there is also a new Stage Three Course.

One of the themes behind the new suite of courses is ‘Education for all, Accreditation for those who want it’. The reason for this is to make the Education Courses available to anyone, not just those who have ambitions to progress up a pathway to the higher echelons of the game.

The Stage Three Course is open to anyone who has taken a minimum of the old Level 1 and Level 1A Courses (or their equivalent under ACU&S) and is concerned with sharing ideas about improving aspects of umpiring.

Anyone who has done Level 1A in the past few years and wishes to progress their qualifications needs to do this course and follow the accreditation process associated with it. However, anyone can simply do the course, if they wish, to, hopefully, make themselves a better umpire. Even if you have done Level 2 recently, you will, hopefully, still find parts of this course useful.

The course lasts for two days and will, most likely, be run over successive weekends (Saturdays or Sundays). The cost is £30 (participants applying for the accreditation process will have to pay extra) which includes materials and lunch on both days.

There are 6 modules on the course and they are briefly:

• Limited Overs Cricket – the extra challenges involved in T20 and 50 over knockout regulations
• Further Match Management – a look at a selection of Laws
• Mental Strength – A look at the mental challenges of umpiring and how to deal with them
• Observation, Concentration and Focus – From the old Level 2, how to improve these areas
• Nutrition and Hydration – Specific challenges faced by the demands of umpiring
• Self-Reflection and Analysis – Why it is useful and how to go about it

Rob Smith, County Education Officer for Yorkshire, is currently organising courses to suit the demand with a view to arranging courses in Leeds, York and Sheffield if there is sufficient interest in the near future.

If you are interested in attending a course, please let Rob know by the end of January via email at therobsmith@hotmail.com. Details will be published on the YCB website and Rob will contact everyone who responds with the details.