How often should a junior (let’s say 11-14) practice their skills during the week?

Hi Dave, I have two sons that still play cricket at 26 and 28 years of age.

During those years (11-14) they had a lot of energy for the game and for sport in general. I was concerned that doing too much deliberate practice at that age, might have a negative impact as they grew older. There is a known correlation between the type of practice young people do and them staying in the game when things inevitably get-tough if they are trying to progress through the pathway. No point doing thousands of hours of boring deliberate practice at 12 and then giving the game away at 17 because you didn't get selected in the side you wanted to! Seen that happen a few times.

My rule of thumb was they had to ask to practice cricket or initiate it by themselves. If they truly want to be really good, they will let you know.
In fairness we had a pitch in the backyard so the boys' played lots of games; I was always keen for it to be games and competitions, not so much deliberate practice.
The point of having skill is being able to use it when it counts, ... i.e., competition on the field. So the games can be established to create skill under pressure. One example of games we played was serving tennis balls at them. It was outside the box (therefore different a bit of fun) and the ball came quickly. They had to protect their stumps and not snick the ball. Every successful attempt scored a run. Every time they went out, they had to swap over. We did this many times but like all activities it had a life span. We then found other ways to play and compete.
Play other sports and create other opportunities. The boys knew that every time they played sport or were active they were getting better and developing their skills and problem solving.

My lived experience is only one version and no doubt you can consider others' ideas. For us it was make it fun, make it game orientated, let them ask for it rather than me setting the schedule. The more play they do the better, the more deliberate practice they do,... buyer beware. By all means some, but not all the time.
Most importantly, you know your child better than anyone, so no doubt there are many other factors to consider when working through this. Good luck and best wishes with it.

Hi Dave, I really like Bryan reference to allowing his kids to take the lead in wanting to practice.
Sure, a quiet word of encouragement is ok but ultimately, especially 11- to 14-year-olds, let the kids drive their desire to practice, have fun, hone their skills and learn new ones.
Some kids like to practice every day, others once or twice a week depending on what other things they have going on apart from school and other sports.
Practice doesn’t have to be formal with a net, bowling machine, wangers and so forth. Encourage the kids to think outside the square where they can still practice their skills but have more fun doing so. You can have a lot of fun making up games that’ll improve catching and fielding for example.
As the kids become older, say 16,17 and they have a real desire and passion to play first class cricket then their practice schedule might need to be 3 to 4 days a week.
If I could encourage you and all parents to avoid making the kids practice. If you’re making them do something they’re not passionate about you’ll take away the enjoyment and Bryan is right, they’ll end up giving away the game.
Yes, there’s a lot of money in cricket these days, but it’s only about 0.01% of all participants who make a living playing the game.
Let and encourage them to have fun. You just never know.

Hi Dave, love both the responses from Bryan and Paul...

I would suggest they practice as often as they want. As a former coach I was very aware that the more important thing to focus on during this phase of cricketers development was that the information they receive to work on their game was the best available.

Practice to me makes better. It we train things that will make us less effective we will get better at the things that make us less effective.

Here I am not referring to technical correctness, as I believe that technique changes and evolves all the time. Rather it is allowing them to engrain the fundamentals of the game, and learn to play the game (as Bryan above mentions), with quality feedback to guide them.

20 minutes of quality work can be better than 3 hours working away at things that don't make a cricketer perform better.

So instead of just counting the hours... count the quality of the work done ;-)

How much do they want to work on developing their skills as opposed to having some fun, being curious about their game and enjoying each other’s company?