I didn't get to get my say in the "planting" thread before @Buzz locked it and created a total buzz kill...it is really my fault as I grabbed a bag of chips and a sodie and thought about the ideas shared.
It was a great thread! I really did enjoy it. And, that brings me to my question.
When I play my big shots, my technique is very different (grew thru experience and experiments) compared to defensive/opening batting which is based on "alignment" technique by this coach in England, let's call him Mr. Gee. I can hit big with Mr. Gee's technique but it is very deliberate ("pre-meditated"?) and not natural at all. I guess, I developed my game for challenging bowling based on Mr. Gee's technique and it is not intuitive.
Unless somebody records my movements from different angles and also shows the ball (from release to pitch) and my reactions (eye movements, body movement) in concert with the ball and ball path, there is no way to know what *I* really do when I bat. It is so instinctive and experiential. And, I keep tweaking it based on recent outs. I can slap whatever label I want on it (leading with head, body alignment, etc. etc.), what I actually do is not necessarily what I call it.
Here are my questions:
1. Should a batsman have different technique for different types of bowling? Eg: Swing v/s spin?
2. Can you use same technique to defend v/s power-hit a ball to another dimension? Reason I ask this is because there is some pre-meditation in my power shots.
3. Off-cutters at good length that get thru my defenses!?
4. I have been squared up by out-swingers pitching middle/leg and then barely missing my off stump. I have noticed that at close range, any sharp change in direction whether it is seam or swing is nearly impossible to track by my eyes. If I am anticipating that movement, then I can track it. If I am not ready for it, that (near) lateral movement is so quick that my eyes can't track it. What's the best approach for that?
Merci boku.
1. Rather than getting hung up on what is or isn't different technique, its more helpful to think about your muscle memory and your method.
You're going to have a variety of short sequences embedded unconsciously in your muscle memory. This might be your pre-delivery shuffle, they might be the way you move your body towards a full delivery, they might be the way your arms and hands coordinate to play a drive, or the way your wrists roll when playing the pull. It could also, for example, be the way that you automatically and unconsciously switch from playing a straight drive to a flick to leg when the ball suddenly swings into you. These are part of your "technique", but as they've been ingrained over many decades, they're not things you can change particularly easily.
What you can change is your method/approach, that is the way you apply the various unconscious muscle memory sequences depending on the exact circumstances. So the physical sequence of upper body movements you use for driving a spinner might be the same as for driving a fast bowler, but because of the different circumstances, you use them in different ways, eg you might have shuffled further down the pitch and waited a bit longer for the ball to drop against a spinner. You might also consciously "put away" some shots/sequences that you feel are risky, eg putting away your instinctive pull shot on a pitch where you can't trust the bounce.
2. It depends what you mean by "power shots" - its possible to hit 6s using an orthodox technique but just by increasing your bat speed and hitting the ball a fraction earlier, alternately there are specific movements that modern batsmen now use to hit 6s that are more akin to baseball or golf shots that are obviously very different in their kinetic chain to an orthodox straight drive.
3/4. The best ways to deal with lateral movement, depending on circumstance.
a) get further away from the point of the pitch to give yourself more reaction time
b) get closer to the point of the pitch to cover the movement
c) Get yourself outside offstump or outside legstump and use your pads as a 2nd line of defence.
d) anticipate the movement and play the "danger line" with the full face of the bat - ie if its outside off stump anticipate it will come back in, if its on your pads, anticipate that it will swing across you
e) As suggested in the previous thread, get yourself into a balanced flexible position with good bat access to a range of contact positions and bring the bat down as late as possible, trusting your eyes to be able to adjust to any changes in line.
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Topic: Batting Technique (Read 4976 times)