FOG Michael Crocker starts his own Academy inspired by what he did not know as an NRL veteran
Ex-Queensland Origin star and NRL premiership winner Michael Crocker has started a junior academy after being inspired by the stunning realisation he survived half of his top flight career having not learnt some basic skills.
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Former Queensland State of Origin star Michael Crocker has started a junior academy after being inspired by the stunning realisation he survived half of his top flight career having not learnt some basic skills.
The Michael Crocker Academy was held last week at Purtell Park in Brisbane and on the Sunshine Coast.
More than 100 young Queensland league players have not gone through The Michael Crocker Academy on their the Gold or Sunshine Coasts, or in Brisbane, since he started the training camp earlier this year.
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Last week at Purtell Park, Queensland coach Kevin Walters was special guest, while dual international Lote Tuqiri also provided expert coaching.
Crocker said the academy’s philosophy was simple: “We don’t teach plays, we teach you how to play. Skill development, vision, reading the play and a whole heap of fun and fitness through games,’’ he said.
He said her was inspired to teach kids basic skills after he realised he played some of his career without holding the ball correctly.
“The main thing was just nailing how much I wish I had known as a kid,’’ Crocker said.
Crocker, a Norths Devils junior who played first grade at Redcliffe, had successful careers with the Roosters, Storm and Souths, played for Queensland and Australia, yet he was surprised to be still learning simple things when he arrived at the Melbourne Storm.
“Even in first grade, I went to Melbourne as a 25-year-old who had played Origins and for Australia and I was not holding the ball properly,’’ Crocker revealed.
Coach Craig Bellamy said Crocker was holding the ball with a “teddy bear grip’’ and as a result, if a defender came from below and up, the ball popped our easier.
So Bellamy taught Crocker to hold the ball differently and now he teachers juniors at his Academy the correct way to carry the football into defence.
“There are things you don’t even think about but they make a big difference,’’ Crocker said.
“Catching ball on the chest and passing it can be a struggle for some kids who come into the Storm system.’’
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He said how coaches treated junior players can also make a huge difference to performance.
Crocker said he recalled walking through Sydney one afternoon and seeing an under 11 coach ripping into a child who had dropped the ball on his big set play the coach had formulated. “The poor kid walked back with his head down,’’ Crocker said.
He said at his Academy “everything is about being positive’’. “It is not a tough time for them,’’ Crocker said.
But he did say players were also taught resilience and “to play to the whistle’’ if they made a mistake.
“If you drop the ball, jump on it because the referee might say it came off your chest,’’ Crocker said.
“You just have to encourage them to play the whistle.’’
Crocker said another aspect her learnt during his career which he now used in his Academy was the art of understanding different personalities.
He said the best coaches understood how to deal with different personalities.
Crocker said he also wanted to remind kids that training and playing rugby league was fun, not serious.
He said he would never forget joining South Sydney and at his first training session with the Rabbitohs, players were huddled in the dressing room and grandstand area saying what a hard day they were about to have because they had to train in the rain.
“I said we have the best job in the world, kicking a footie around in the sun or the rain, so lets go and have some fun,’’ Crocker said.
“If it becomes a chore, then you will not play your best footie if you are in that mindset.’’
Originally published as FOG Michael Crocker starts his own Academy inspired by what he did not know as an NRL veteran