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[yvk3103]

Taking off  from CricTech's post - http://custombats.co.uk/cbforum/index.php?topic=19108.0

What are peoples opinion on this - middle position does not make a difference its your playing style that is important.

From my experience, I feel their is merit in what CricTech has said. I play on both slow/low and fast/bouncy wickets in our league. I have always felt that, being a driver of the ball, hitting mostly in the "V" and playing on slow/low wickets I needed a bat with a lowish middle. I experimented this year with a few diff bats - I have used a Salix Prestantina (mid-low), Puma Bionic (low middle), GN Powerbow (mid middle) and a couple of TK (low middle) made bats and found that the middle position really did not matter. It did take me a few balls to get used to the difference in the middle, but once I adjusted, I was able to play all my shots and middle the ball without much effort. It was more about getting my timing right.

Open to debate.

[SaadIjaz]

A very interesting subject.. I was left pondering myself after CricTech's post and actually wanted to get hold of one of these sheets to see where I was hitting the ball..

My recent Experiences are slightly different, I was using a Pakistani Bat all season with a high swell and scored a few runs. The bat is pretty heavy too with more chunk on the middle and larger hitting zone.. After recently purchasing my Puma Calibre 5K (very Low Middle) I used it in the nets for the first time yesterday..

Despite having knocked this bat in for over 5 hours, and using an old cricket ball in nets for some throwdowns, I could not feel the middle at all! Made me quite upset at first, as I spent a lot of money on the bat and expected it to PING instantly..

MY observation in the end was, I might be making contact too high up on the wood, hence not finding the Sweet Spot and losing power... It is an interesting Debate, and one which I can shed more light on after using this new PUMA of mine in a few more sessions.. Maybe i will naturally get used to it like you said.

[Vantage_Cricket]

Overall I believe we do need bats with different middle positions, as Crictech's posts have stated - everyone is different. However for a personal POV, I wouldn't think having bats with different middle positions that you personally use on different tracks (dry, wet etc) makes a difference as I have found that I normally hit the ball in the middle of the bat, so I do not have any bats with low/high middles really.

[trypewriter]

I'm inclined to wonder if this isn't a bit of over complication, and in some respects you might be talking very small margins. To further confuse it, one guy's high middle might be another guy's standard middle - and the same with a low middle. Similarly, manufacturer's concepts of what is high, low or central might differ. Obviously if you get a bat made to your own spec and are present for part of the process, and can maybe take along an example of a bat that has the type of middle you require, you should be able to get some comfort from the result. On the other hand, if you had tried to open this debate with some of the great batsmen of yore (or even average batsmen of yore) they might have raised their eyebrows.

[procricket]

big hype but i doubt it most of us can not find the middle to worry about high or low

a good middle is the middle people thinking too much

[tim2000s]

Having found that the shape of bat that suits me best has a mid-low middle (and we can go back and talk about the Hunts County Insignia, the Newbery Zeus, my Instinct, H4L and my Hades) all of which have roughly similar middle positions, I'd say that Richard's Hypothesis is pretty good. I've tried using bats with higher middle positions and failed miserably to hit the ball comfortably with them.

[tushar sehgal]

I think its good to know where you as a player hit the ball on the bat most frequently but other than that i am not informed enough to contribute much here...

personally i find abt 3-4 inches from the toe up and then another 5-6 inches from there is my zone (which i suspect is same for lot of others), even when i pull and feel in control that is the area of contact with the ball for me...mind you sometimes when i feel i am done by pace i feel the ball impacting much higher on the bat but that is not what i do on purpose...

[procricket]

Having found that the shape of bat that suits me best has a mid-low middle (and we can go back and talk about the Hunts County Insignia, the Newbery Zeus, my Instinct, H4L and my Hades) all of which have roughly similar middle positions, I'd say that Richard's Hypothesis is pretty good. I've tried using bats with higher middle positions and failed miserably to hit the ball comfortably with them.

agree here tim find what suits and go with it

[jimba101]

I'm not sure whether this is the case with bats in years gone by but many of the bats produced today, particularly by the brands represented on this forum are so good that it doesn't matter where you hit the ball on them as much, the ball will still fly off the face. A lot of it will be about timing.

[Tumo]

I either don't hit the ball, or use the edges, so it doesn't really matter to me!

Okay, but seriously, I don't buy too much into having different middles on different bats. I'm not a scientist, but I choose my bat on pick-up, and most that I have (or have used) seem to have a decent enough amount of wood further up the bat as well as in the middle itself, so I just bat with it, and don't let the bounce of the track affect me (like it would, I ain't hitting anything!)

[Buzz]

Ok, my thoughts on this are based on some experience with many different bats and looking and the impact marks made by dirty balls on a scuff sheet!

Firstly I think that the pitch you play on and the bowlers you face are irrelevant. This slightly controversial statement is based on the view that you face fast and slow bowlers, tall and short all of whom make the ball bounce in different ways, so you need to be prepared for all types of bounce and speed.

As a result the batsman will play shots in his favoured areas and should adapt them to the pitch and the bowlers.

This leads me to my next point the batsman and the weight of the bat.

A batsman will have certain favoured shots, these should determine the middle position on the bat. When the ball is bouncing more you need to play the shot when the ball is more pitched up to you than when it isn't bouncing so much. The cross bat shots become a matter of timing.

The weight could vary, lighter bat for longer forms, heavier for clearing the ropes, but the middle should be in your favoured hitting point on the bat.

My suggestion is therefore that I agree with the corollary of Richard. However, I also believe you can, with practice change the way you play, the shots you like to hit and thus the middle position you want for your bat. But this would take too long for most people.

The reality is there is a reason why mid-low middle bats are the most popular because that is where most people are used to having the middle of their bat and their game adapts accordingly.

So all that waffle is short says.. you need to know where you hit most balls on your bat and it helps if the middle is in the same place.

[shazz]

A tall front foot batsman who gets right to the pitch of the ball would prefer a lowish middle as opposed to a high one.

[crictech]

some interesting points brought up here. yvk3103 and Buzz both questioned if a batsman can get used to a bat with a different middle. so you go from having a low middle bat to a high middle bat. do you start hitting the ball higher up on the bat? I can't say it would be a no in every case but from the impact sheet results I've seen the answer is no. A lot of the guys who I did the initial testing with were using bats that they had been using for a few seasons. at least half of them were consistently hitting the ball away from the middle of their bat, some higher some lower.

[Mr Cricket]

just go with the bat which feels best, there doesn't have to be a reason for it!

[Buzz]

some interesting points brought up here. yvk3103 and Buzz both questioned if a batsman can get used to a bat with a different middle. so you go from having a low middle bat to a high middle bat. do you start hitting the ball higher up on the bat? I can't say it would be a no in every case but from the impact sheet results I've seen the answer is no. A lot of the guys who I did the initial testing with were using bats that they had been using for a few seasons. at least half of them were consistently hitting the ball away from the middle of their bat, some higher some lower.

my view is that if you can rebuild a golf swing, like Nick Faldo did, you can change the way you bat, thus you change the individual optimal middle position on the bat.
I also suggest that this would take ages and isn't worth the time in most cases. this is different to Yash's suggestion which implies you can adapt depending on the bat you use, which I don't agree with.