Episode 16 - Back Foot Drive - 29.05.2020

Hi friends,

Hope we are doing practice of previous episode tips and getting benefitted, with our past blogs, we have discussed about back foot batting skills , Back foot defense,

After doing practice of foot movement toward back side and towards off stump and learnt that how to defense a short pitch ball or short of length ball.

After doing a vigorous practice of this skill, we can do a good score with these kind of balls by punching into gap and that is called back foot drive,

We have to very accurate and focused while playing this shot, otherwise catch out will be the biggest risk.

So the basic requirement to play this shot are as under

“Watching the ball till the last moment, Body balancing must be intact, Back lift and bat flow should be quick, direction of bat flow should be in gap, and our best try to generate that much of power by which ball to be crossed to the fielder or to be out of his reach,”

Adding a video link for beginners to start practicing this shot. Hope it will help you out to understand the actual drill,

                            https://youtu.be/gXBPkSjQjs8

In our next episode, we will discuss about square cut shot which is most safe and most scoring shot after drive.

Episode -15 Back foot defense drill - 28.05.2020

Hi friends,

Hope we are doing practice of previous episode tips and getting benefitted, with our past blogs, we have discussed about back foot batting skills in our last episode,

After doing practice of foot movement toward back side and towards off stump. Now we will start practicing defense on back foot,

I am describing the back foot defense first-

To play or defense the short pitch or short of length ball, We have to push our self towards back side on back foot to make more space to handle the length and height of the ball, During this shot, our body will be balanced on back foot, head position towards the ball and will watch the ball till the end,

Body must not open to play the shot, Bat should be straighten and face towards ground, Bat will be lift up-to shoulders height,

Movement of body must be quick and focus on ball should be more than front foot.

This is all about description of the back foot defense in literal means but it is difficult to practice this shot without physical or audio visual mode, so I made a Video of this drill to make the things clear. Intially you will see the front front drill and than Back foot drill, So watch full video. 

Please watch this video to understand the foot movement, bat position, body balancing, focusing on ball, and I hope it will definitely work to you.

In our next episode, we will discuss about Drive on back foot or also called punching on back foot.

Episode 14- Back foot Batting drills - 27.05.2020

Hi friends,

Hope we are doing practice of previous episode tips and getting benefited, with our past blogs, we have discussed about front foot batting skills,

Now we are going to discuss about back foot batting skills, we can defense the short pitch balls, we can punch that balls too, and square cut, pull, hook, late cut, upper cut etc. are the shots which can be play with back foot skills.

Firstly we have to understand that what is back foot, how to do this, which are the directions and what is the correct technique to do this, So here is the answers of all your queries and anxieties

“To be on the back foot means to be put in a defensive position, to be in retreat, to be knocked off balance. Primarily used in British English, on the back foot is a phrase that is most probably derived from the sport of cricket.”

“It enables you to score runs in the area between mid-off and cover to a delivery just short of a length. As with all other back foot shots, you'll need good balance and quick feet movement. But unlike the hook or square cut, the back foot drive relies more on timing and placement rather than power”

Now for our kids, it’s a bit difficult to understand the foot movement and balancing our body while playing the shot, so we will go one by one, firstly we will practice foot movement only than gradually will go with other drills,

Simple steps to follow-

1.   Take proper stance

2.   Come to the One position similar

3.   Move rear foot slightly towards off stump in band position only

4.   Again come to one position.

Practice there simple four steps to make foot move in back side and in next episode we will discuss about defense on back foot.

Hope the information is worth to you and will help your kid to understand that what is back foot in cricket and how to do foot movement.

Episode 13 Drive Shot - 19.05.2020

Hi friends,

Hope we are doing practice of previous episode tips and getting benefitted, in our past blogs, we have discussed about front foot defense drill in all playing areas.

Now we are moving to little advance and will practice the Drive Shot. This side plays a vital role in every batsman’s carrier, Without playing this shot, we cannot built a long and big scoring inning, so we have to understand properly and seriously the tips of this shot,

Firstly will tell you that what drive shot is –

“A drive is a straight-batted shot, played by swinging the bat in a vertical arc through the line of the ball, hitting the ball in front of the batting player along the ground. It is one of the most common shots in a batting player's armory and often the first shot taught to junior cricketers”

How to play a drive shot –

I am attaching a video for your reference, first you have to watch this video so that you can check that what drive shot is actually.

VIDEO

There are three area to play a drive shot and it is similar to defense areas like Straight drive, covers drive and on Drive,

Before practicing the different areas, we will adopt the right technique first i.e. as follows

Take a correct stance, Bat should be towards off stump, front shoulder should little down towards ground, head position over shoulder and towards the baller or ball, When ball pitch near the front foot, we will allow down swing to hit the ball and bat will swing straight and power generating over shot, In written it cannot be understand properly, so I will make some video to get proper clarity on this,

Stay tuned and get benefited, Keep commenting and encouraging for further blogs.

Episode 12 Front Foot Defense Drill in three areas 19.05.2020

Hi friends,

Hope we are doing practice of previous episode tips and getting benefitted, in our past blogs, we have discussed about front foot defense drill. In this episode, we will discuss about from foot defense drill in all sides like straight defense, covers side and on side, So plz read the techniques properly and do practice.

Straight Front foot Defense drill – You can refer my Episode 11 which is align to this drill and everything is detailed over there.

Covers side Front Foot Defense Drill – Basics of defense will be the same,

Covers is an area to play the shot, so the foot movement will be towards covers, back lift and downswings will be the same. I will share the pictures and video along with this blog.

On Side Front Foot Defense drill –

On side is an area to play the shot, so the foot movement will be towards covers, back lift and downswings will be the same. I will share the pictures and video along with this blog.

After doing proper and independent drill, we will start doing frill in all areas one by one, means one defense in straight direction, one is on covers and another one is on On-side.

Episode 11 - Front Foot Defense Drill - 15.05.2020

Hi friends,

Hope we are doing practice of previous episode tips and getting benefitted, in our past blogs, we have discussed about various techniques of ball sense and batting, back lift, down swings, foot work, back foot etc.  In this episode we are going to discuss batting drills, For every skill, there is drill to follow for better results, so first we will start drills with very basic

Front foot Defense Drill –

There are so many techniques to practice the drill but I will tell you the practical one for small kids, Don’t go very technical in initial phase, it will be improved as the time passes. Now what we do is ……..

1.   Ask Children to hold the bat as told and practiced in previous episode,

2.   Take a proper stance

3.   Do the back lift and count (Sound) -1

4.   Move front foot towards ball and land it on ankle, and Count      (Sound) it -2 (Remember the foot should not move forward too much , be comfortable so that body balance can be managed during drill)

5.   Downswing of  bat parallel to front foot feet and face of the bat will be closed towards earth and count (Sound) – 3

Now this is the drill to practice, don’t panic if kid is not doing it in proper manner, Let them do this first for some time, so there muscles will work accordingly and alignment will automatically corrected as much they will practice.

Adding some pictures and videos to help you out, See the videos considering the age group not judge it perfectly because we are going to train the same age of kids and it is in similar way to other kids that days.

Episode -10 "Batting techniques" - 12.05.2020

Hello Friends,

Hope we are doing practice of previous episode tips and getting benefitted, in our past blogs, we have discussed about various techniques of ball sense and batting, in this episode we are going to discuss about following things.

Back lift

Foot work

Bat Flow

Middling of Ball

Batting is a combination of various techniques which has to be used or to be applied in a synergic manner, but to learn about these techniques, we can practice separately, so I am trying to describe the things as below

Back Lift - Taking the bat back and stepping to the ball sets the batsman up for playing the correct shot properly. The bat is taken back towards the stumps and at the top of the back-lift the face should open towards second slip. The front shoulder should roll down as the bat is lifted, with the head kept as still as possible.

The major role of backlift is to improve imposing the power on your control, to control your shot and to balance your body weight while playing a shot.

Start laying face down with arms above your head. Activate your lower back muscles, lift upper body and arms from the ground. Hold the position, work the upper back by squeezing shoulder blades together and contract all muscles in upper back as much as possible for 3 seconds. Release and lower slowly.

Foot Work- Moving of front and back foot according to the length of ball is called foot work, there are two ways i.e. Front Foot and Back Foot, There are several shots which can be played on front foot only e.g. Drive shot, Front foot defense, Seep Shot etc and some of the shots can play on back foot e.g. Back foot punch, Square Cut, Pull, Hook etc. So both the movement are important in cricket game.

Front Foot work – Moving your front foot forward towards ball to play a shot is called front foot work.

Back Foot Work – Moving your rear Foot towards stumps to play a shot is called Back Foot Work

There are several techniques to practice front and back foot movement and lot of things to notice, I will discuss these minor check in our next episode on foot work practices

Bat Flow – It is also called downswings of bat, So there are two things i.e. back lift means raising the bat back side towards stumps and flowing the bat forward to play the shot is called downswings,

Straighter the bat better the shot is the principle of good batting practice, So there are so many things to practice the downswing of bat like four stumps back side and two stumps front side to check the flow, hanging ball knocking, Cone Shots etc, As our kids start learning the batting tactics, I will make my blog detailed about these techniques.
Middling of Ball – If any batsman start hitting the ball with the middle portion of bat means he is moving towards perfection. Middlled shot delivers desirable direction and power over shot and gives you desired result, All the earlier techniques are to learn and to improve this practice means middle of ball is the most important thing in batting,

It can be improved by various ways like hanging ball knocking, One stump knocking, Batting of upper hand only, batting with one stump instead of bat or take a thin bat to middle the ball,

I have added a video also, in which all the techniques is been practiced by this little one. 

Hope the information is reliable and useful to you and in return as appreciation, please leave your comments in comment box to improve my content.

Episode 9 - Essential thing to know about batting 04.05.2020

Hi Friends,

We are now ready for the skills with the correct accessories we need, there are so many technical points to understand for proper batting and same will be discussed in this episode.

How to Grip the Bat – Proper gripping can only allow you to play proper shots, so make sure and make a habit to hold the bat with proper grip only, may be kid will not feel ease in early days but it will adopt very quickly, So below is the technique to grip the bat and I am showing some pictures also.

 Check both your hands are fairly close together on the bat, towards the top of the handle. Form a "V" by pointing your thumb and forefinger down between outside edge and center of back of bat. The top hand rests comfortably on the inside of the front thigh (left thigh for a right hander).

What is stance and how to take correct stance? - 

Stance is the position in which a batting player stands to have the ball bowled to them. ... Additionally, the front shoulder should be pointing down the wicket, the head facing the bowler, the weight equally balanced and the bat near the back toe.

But, how to take proper stance cannot be understood for children’s by reading the lines, I Will make a proper video to guide about it in my coming blogs.

Tapping of bat – After a proper gripping of bat and taking a proper stance, we have to tap our bat to take a feel of our standing position, balancing of body weight, banding position etc. it gives a confidence to player to feel he/she is ready to face the ball.

Now we are ready to face the ball but how to play the ball or hit a ball, we need to know the following techniques. This will be discussed in next episode.

Back lift

Foot work

Bat Flow

Middling of Ball

 Hope the information is useful to you and will work for you, for practical clarity, plz stay tuned with us for video guides in our coming episodes. Your suggestions and comments are highly welcomed. 

EPISODE 8 - BATTING SKILLS AND REQUIREMENT OF ACCESSORIES 03.05.2020

Hi Friends,

Hope you are doing well and enjoyed the journey till yet with me, Till last episode, we have learnt about the most basic tactics and requirement to be a sportsman, Now we are moving towards skills of batting,

Before starting skilling, we should know about accessories used in batting.

Choosing of Bat – Most important factor of batting, choosing of good and right bat is first key to be a good batsman, it should be of proper size weight and handle grip made of good willow with minimum 6 grains, If the length of bat is more or less to the actual requirement will restrict you to learn the proper skilling, similarly the weight is also impacting the vital role, it should be according to strength of the player, Lighter or heavier Bat will not work to the desired result. We are discussing point wise below..

Size of Bat - Choosing the correct size bat is vital for the proper technical development of young cricketers. It is important that the bat is not too long and more importantly not too heavy to hinder correct stroke play and good technique. Junior bats are scaled down in size and weight to meet this important requirement. Below is an accurate guide to help you choose an accurate size for a junior cricketer.

BAT SIZE	APPROX. AGE	HEIGHT OF BATSMAN	BAT LENGTH	BAT WIDTH
1	4-5 Years Old	Up to 4ft 3inches	25 1/4 inches	3 1/2 inches
2	6-7 Years Old	4ft 3" - 4ft 6"	27 3/4 inches	3 1/2 inches
3	8-9 Years Old	4ft 6" - 4ft 9"	28 3/4 inches	3 3/4 inches
4	9-10 Years Old	4ft 9" - 4ft 11"	29 3/4 inches	3 3/4 inches
5	10-11 Years Old	4ft 11" - 5ft 2"	30 3/4 inches	4 inches

Weight of bat- There are so many guidelines of correct weight of bat, But in a simple way and based of my experience and based on age of our kids, proper weight should be like as below

4-5 Years – Between 500-600 Grams

6-7 Years – Between 600-700 Grams

This weight will not do muscle damage while playing as our kids are too small to play with full strength, so the first priority to keep them safe and injury free gaming.

Type of Bat – There are so many types of bat available in the market, but we will on need bases basis.

Take two bats – One is made of good plastic and one of lighter wood, Benefits of two different bats will be discussed in our coming blogs.  

There are many more accessories required for batting like, Batting Pads, Thigh, Gloves, Hemet, Adult guard, Elbow guard etc., But as of now we don’t need these accessories and will told you when all this will be needed,

Ball – Cricket is a game of cricket ball made of leather but we are in initial phase so our balls will be different and keeping in our mind about the age of player, so there are some balls to prefer for different skilling

Foam Ball – Very lighter and soften ball to practice catching, no injury will be impacted if hit any part of body

Tennis Ball – Most light weight tennis ball to be choosen first, it will not impact jerk feeling when hit by bat and will also not harm during miss shot by player

Light weight plastic ball – Up to 40 grams of plastic ball is suffice to play, It will give a hitting feeling to kids and shot will sound like pleasuring and soothing effect.

Stumps – Feeling of game is most important, to give the real sense of game, keeping the stump behind the player is very important to know about getting bold and pitching of ball, taking proper stance etc., so Purchase a plastic set of inbuilt platform of stump set.  

So these are the accessories requires as of now to start skilling of batting, Hope this information is useful and helpful to choose the correct accessories, Would like to have your comment as token of appreciation and also invite you to ask any specific or customized requirement.

Thank you.