Batting Techniques for Cricket

Video Transcript

"We're going to talk about the cricket batting technique. As compared to baseball of course you're using a flat bat so you're looking at your body and your whole direction changing with the ball that you're hitting. It starts off taking a guard so you know where your stumps are behind you. Every time you play a shot you know if the ball is going too far from you on the off side or on the leg side. Once you have that you hold the bat that makes you feel comfortable. Some of the batsmen, they hold the grip from the top to hit long shots and some of the batsmen, for timing, they will hold it from the bottom. And if you increase some distance between the two hands then you're looking at nicking the ball or playing a little more flexible. Speaking of batting, you have different techniques of course just like golf playing. When you're putting you have different putters and you have different techniques. Everybody looks at something different and the idea is to make that shot. So in cricket it's pretty much similar. You want to feel comfortable with your stance. You want to feel comfortable with your bat, the weight of the bat. It can come in different pounds. And there are many companies that make the bats that'll be just perfect for you. So once you have the right bat and you take your stance and the stumps are covered and you know exactly what's going on with the pitcher and everything you will put your bat down so you know how far down it is. Because of course when the ball comes at you it's bouncing off the ground. So you have to have a sense of how far down you need to get down to hit the ball. You put the bat down on the ground and keep your head still. And sometimes some of the batsmen they will hold their bat up because that's just how they feel comfortable. Because the ball can come and bounce as high as your shoulder, so you want to be ready for that. So whichever technique you want to take your stance at what happens afterwards is pretty much similar that all the players follow strictly. So let's say for example we take a stance to start batting. Your elbow needs to stick out because that gives you extra room to swing at the ball. There are many different shots that you can play of course. We'll talk about that in a little bit. Once you have your bat down and the ball is right in front of you, which is called full length, and it will bounce right in front of you, you basically put your foot forward and put your bat down. That would be a defensive shot. Your bat is down, and instead of coming forward with your foot you will stay where you're at and you will swing. And hopefully nobody will catch it and you'll cross the boundary and get good runs. So that's one of the forward shots. And of course on the off side you can cut the ball. The idea is to cut it downwards so it doesn't go lofting up in the air so it's not a catch out. And if it is up to your shoulder coming right behind you, you want to play on your back foot. So in cricket there is front, forward shots and then there are back foot shots. So for the back foots shots you will basically go behind the ball, it's not on your body anymore, and you will turn, which is called pull shot. And if you connect good, by the way, all the bats have a sweet spot, and it's from the middle lower area, so if you connect on that you'll make it. If it touches any edges or lower of the bat or higher it wont go that far and most obviously you're going to get a catch out. So those are a few things about the batting techniques."