Hampshire wicket-keeper Lewis McManus sets up own coaching clinic to help players during lockdown

And the Ageas Bowl wicketkeeper is building on his past by offering sessions to the next generation during his enforced break from playing.

McManus has become a regular at Hampshire over the past five years, making 39 first-class appearances alongside 72 white-ball outings – which produced a Royal London One-Day Cup winners medal in 2018.

In his 111 first-team appearances since making his first-class debut in 2015, he has scored more than 2,200 runs and made 146 dismissals.

The Dorset Academy product, 25, has now set up ‘Lewis McManus Coaching’ during the Covid-19 lockdown to provide the type of early advantages he received, while following the ECB's strict social distancing guidelines.

Poole-born McManus - currently on furlough along with the rest of his Hampshire colleagues - said: ‘People who play cricket are going to be short of practising and may not get any game time this season.

‘So I thought it would be a good opportunity to start this up to give people the chance to develop their cricket skills, despite everything that’s going on.

‘I had some great coaches at Dorset at a young age. I had a guy called Rob Newton, and then Matt Keech who used to play at Hampshire and Middlesex. Those guys ran the Dorset EPP at the time.’

Keech played 49 first class games for Hampshire between 1994 and 1999, having previously made his first class debut for Middlesex in 1991.

‘I was lucky at school that in the second year I was there we had Tom Flowers, who was an ex-Leicestershire professional, and then Dan Conway, who had been on the staff at Yorkshire,’ McManus continued.

‘They'd experienced and played in the first-class cricket environment and just gave me that next step up and that insight into what second-team cricket was like.

‘I am grateful to those guys for giving me a head start for the intensity of professional cricket before my time.’

McManus, an ECB Level 2 qualified coach, has previously spent winters coaching on a more informal basis at the Dorset-based Clayesmore School, where he is an alumnus, among other clubs and schools on the south coast.

Those experiences helped McManus discover the type of coach he would like to be – with Hampshire batting coach Tony Middleton a particular inspiration.

‘I don't think that you can be too rigid as a coach,’ he said.

‘I would always try as much as possible for a player to lead a session for where they want to go.

‘I think that that's one thing that coaches at Hampshire are very good at, especially Tony Middleton, who I've worked with for a number of years.

‘That's the best way for players to learn.

‘The best advice I always give people is to ask questions and try and build your game as young as you can.

‘You want to pick the brains of people that you respect, and coaches that you like working with, but not everything they say will work for you.

‘There'll be a number of things that maybe I say to two players that they'll like, and now they'll add to their game, but there will be other bits where they’ll say, ‘I like that but it doesn’t work for me’.

‘That's fine, as long as I've given them that exposure to that and then they choose whether to take it on or not.’

McManus is still fully focused on his playing career, but a dip into coaching has the potential to set-up a second wind in the sport once he retires.

‘If it went well, then it is something that I can potentially move into when I finish playing,’ McManus said.

‘But it's not something that I set-up because I'm anywhere near finishing.

‘I’m fully involved in my playing career and I still have huge ambitions which I want to achieve.

‘At the moment it is something to keep me occupied during the lockdown and then if it goes well then I'll look to grow it as and when my playing commitments allow me to do so.’

McManus, like some of his county colleagues, has not played a competitive match in any format since last September.

While the likes of James Vince, Liam Dawson and Chris Wood competed in franchise games around the globe, and Sam Northeast and Mason Crane played for England Lions in Australia, McManus’ last taste of action was Hampshire’s final Championship encounter of 2019.

Keen to experience different team environments, he did put himself forward for selection for the inaugural Hundred tournament which was due to start next month.

He wasn’t picked up by any of the franchises, though, with the Ageas Bowl-based Southern Brave picking Lancashire wicket-keeper Alex Davies and Surrey batsman Ollie Pope, who has kept wicket occasionally.

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Lewis McManus’ top 3 coaching tips

1. Enjoyment

‘You want to work hard but ultimately you want to have fun. If you are having fun then the hard work doesn’t feel like hard work. You don’t want it to become a chore especially at a young age as it will just fizzle out.’

2. Motivation

‘When things do get tough, which they do, or you don’t feel like training, you need to find motivation to get yourself out the door. It isn’t all playing on a nice sunny day at Lord’s, that’s not what happens day in day out. Those moments are great but you need to find a way to get through when it gets tough.’

3. Aspiration

‘You always need to chase your goals. Set yourself big goals with small goals in between. You never want to be happy where you are at. For me, I love playing for Hampshire, and I want to do that for a very long time, but I’m always looking at how do I play international and franchise cricket.’