Cricstars Under-10 Cricket Starter Plan · Lesson 7 of 8
Lesson 6 built speed and communication. Lesson 7 gives those skills a purpose.
Children learn to attack a target, protect a zone, work in roles and understand simple team strategy.
Where this lesson fits
Give children simple attacking and defending roles. Rotate those roles so everyone gets a chance to make a choice.
Session snapshot
- Best age group: Children under 10, especially beginners aged 5 to 9.
- Session length: 45 to 60 minutes.
- Best equipment: Soft balls, cones, junior bats, tees, buckets, stumps or simple targets.
- Coaching style: Short cues, lots of turns, praise effort and keep the session moving.
Minute-by-minute session plan
Use this as a guide, not a strict script. If children are learning well and enjoying one activity, stay with it a little longer. If energy drops, move quickly to the next game.
- 0-8 minutes: Guard the Castle warm-up
- 8-22 minutes: Bombard target game
- 22-36 minutes: Defend the Zone
- 36-48 minutes: Bowl to Protect challenge
- 48-56 minutes: Attack v defence mini game
Main activities
Drill 1: Guard the Castle
One team protects cones while another team tries to knock them down with soft balls.
Drill 2: Bombard
Teams throw soft balls at a larger ball to move it across a line. Accuracy and teamwork matter more than power.
Drill 3: Defend the Zone
One team tries to roll or hit balls into a scoring zone while defenders stop and return them.
Coaching cues to use
Ask each group who is defending the target and who is collecting the ball. Change roles often; a quiet player should have an important job too.
- Protect the target
- Aim before throwing
- Work as a team
- Defend the space
- Attack with control
Make it easier or harder
Make it easier: Use bigger targets, shorter distances and fewer defenders.
Make it harder: Make the target smaller, add time pressure or require bowling action instead of throwing.
Common mistakes to avoid
- Letting children throw wildly
- Making competition too serious
- Allowing stronger children to dominate
- Forgetting to rotate roles
What progress looks like
Children are learning when they guard a space, share roles and help each other reset after a missed target.
- Aims before throwing
- Understands attack and defence
- Communicates with teammates
- Protects a zone
- Accepts a team role
Parent home version
Set three cones as a castle. Take turns attacking and defending with soft throws and bowling action.
Guard three cones while your child aims a soft ball at them, then swap roles. Keep turns short and friendly.
Coach reflection after the session
Did everyone defend, collect and attack during the session? Check that confident children did not take every turn.
From individual skill to team purpose
Lesson 7 is important because it gives skills a purpose. Bowling, throwing and fielding are no longer isolated actions. Children are now trying to protect something, attack something or help a teammate succeed.
This is how cricket starts to feel like a real game. A throw is not just a throw. It can defend a zone, hit a target, stop a run or help the team reset.
Giving every child a role
In target games, confident children can take over. Prevent this by giving roles. One child can guard the middle, one can collect balls, one can aim at the target and one can call instructions. Rotate roles every round.
This helps quieter children feel included and teaches stronger children that leadership means helping the team, not doing everything alone.
How to connect the game back to cricket
After children understand the target game, slowly make it more cricket-specific. Ask them to bowl instead of throw. Ask defenders to gather and return. Ask attackers to aim at stumps instead of random cones.
This keeps the fun of the game while helping children understand real cricket situations.
How to stop stronger children from dominating
Target games are exciting, but confident children can quickly take over. A simple way to prevent this is to assign rotating roles. One child aims, one defends, one collects, one calls and one resets the target. After every round, rotate.
This keeps everyone involved and gives quieter children a meaningful job. It also teaches stronger children that cricket is not only about doing everything themselves. Leadership means helping the team work better.
You can also use team bonus points. Award points for communication, fair turns and good defending, not only for knocking the target down. This changes the mood of the game from individual domination to shared success.
At under-10 level, that lesson is just as valuable as the cricket skill itself.
Small coaching detail that makes this lesson better
Use short rounds. Two-minute games are usually better than long games because children stay alert and roles can rotate quickly. Short rounds also give more chances to reset teams, explain one cue and restart with better focus.
This keeps the target game fun without allowing one child or one team to dominate for too long.
More help from Cricstars
What comes next
Previous: Read the previous lesson
Next: Continue to the next lesson
Full plan: Back to the Under-10 Cricket Training Plan