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[jjelricksmith]

Morning,

Does anyone have any tips on drills to help keep your bat and pad together? Ive been bowled 6 times this season from bowlers getting one to nip back through the gate. They are balls bowled maybe 5/6th stump. Good length that im just looking to defend to mid off/ extra cover and they nip back through the gate to bowl me middle and off. It first felt like i was being cut in half by balls cutting back a mile but now theres a clear pattern. When I make a conscious effort to play the ball very late I seem to negate the issue but I'm yet to face a good nip backer ive kept out by playing late. Also by playing it that late i lose a positive mindset of scoring runs. I open the batting at a decent level so i am used to the ball moving around and have no issue with ones that nip away either leaving them or just guiding it down to 3rd man but the nip backer is causing me some serious issues.

Does anyone have any tips?

Thanks in advance!

[alexhilly1492]

play the ball late, dont push out in front of your pad there cant be a gap then unless you play the wrong line, really lean at the ball

[jjelricksmith]

play the ball late, dont push out in front of your pad there cant be a gap then unless you play the wrong line, really lean at the ball

I think this might be my issue, i never hit the ball in the air driving and when i do go for the expansive drives i always hit it very late as it goes straight into the ground but maybe on my defense im poking a bit too much. Any tips on drills i can do to work on this?

[SD]

There is one you can do with junior players where you use tape to make a white cross on the top of their helmets then tell them that the coach needs to be able to see that cross when they hit the ball.  The idea is that they make a conscious effort to play the ball late and under their eye line.

The other thing I can suggest is using one of the narrow training bats.  You naturally find yourself watching the ball better and playing it later to enable a decent contact with the ball