Heinz Kruger
Coaching Staff / Head Coach MBCC
TEL: 072 485 4025
FAX: 086 678 9670
Email:[email protected]
BATTING ESSENTIALS FOR SEASON
Repetition of perfection is the key!
Repetition develops the following key areas of
batting:
 Muscle Memory – Know what perfection feels like
with ability to reproduce it.
 Prolonged periods of focus.
 Patience.
 Concentration
 Discipline
 Work Ethic
 Mentally tough training environment.
 Attention to detail and an understanding of your
own technical development
 Finally the ability to self-correct your own faults
 BACK SWING SHOULD GO BACK OVER OFF-
STUMP OR SLIGHLY WIDER
 ULTIMATELY THE HEAD SHOULD LEAN
TOWARDS THE BALL.
Back Swing should NEVER go back over middle
or Leg stump.
Leading shoulder should NEVER point directly
towards the ball.
TECHNIQUE IS THE KEY TO DELIVERING A WIDE VARIETY OF
GAME PLANS SUCCESSFULLY
 Technique gives you a wide variety of game plan options.
 Technique is the key to surviving challenging spells of bowling.
 Technique helps you play the swinging and turning delivery
effectively
 Technique is the key to consistency
 Technique is the key to match-winning innings
 Technique gives you confidence and self-belief
The good coach: listening to the ‘voice’ of the cricketer. When I had
my first voice lesson I was 15 years old. And I had a really good
teacher. This is what made all the difference. A good teacher will
teach you the technique, but also how to listen to your voice.
Stance: bat position towards 2nd slip, grip is relaxed, shoulder
open, head straight, body in vertical lines. HEAD STILL.
BACKLIFT: Face of bat towards point, elbows
close to body especially bottom hand elbow – DON’T FLY, vertical lines,
shoulder dipped, eyes motion tracking ball, HEAD STILL AT ALL TIMES, late
contact, head towards the ball.
When you're in a bit of bad form it's easy to be negative. When it comes to
facing each delivery (in practice and match) it helps mentally to think about
what you want to do out there as oppose to what you’re trying not to do.
Think about it. If you keep saying to yourself "don't flash outside off", you are
keeping that very thought in your mind. The chances are you will end up
flashing, and nicking off. Perhaps worse; you will be so distracted by that area
you then get done by one that comes in and gets you LBW.
Here's a batting tip that works a lot better.
Repeat in your mind what you want to do.
For example, when I find my mind drifting to negative thoughts I think, "Play
straight, leave the good ball outside off, hit the half volley."
Picture the scene: You walk in to bat. A medium pace bowler stands at his
mark while you take guard. You look around and see the classic ring field.
It's a wall on both sides.
How are you supposed to rotate the strike?
How can you hit boundaries when there are fielders bearing down on all
sides?
When you realize there is much more green than there is white, you can aim
for it. Wait for the half volley and aim to hit it between mid-off and extra cover,
or midwicket and mid-on rather than through them. You might not do it as
often as a great player, but the shift of focus is enough.
There is always a gap

A single to fine leg for a sweep or leg glance.

A drive to mid-on or mid-off is almost always a run.

If the bowling is quick enough you can work it easily down to
wide man for a boundary (and if it is slow there is the reverse
sweep).
Hit over the top
Don't slog.
Here are your options:

Backloading

Lofted drives (with or without moving out of the crease)

Hook and ramp over the slips against faster bowlers

Slog sweep against slower bowlers
Cricketising the back-load: Backloading
Here the body weight is loaded onto the back leg ready to launch
forward and the front foot is largely un-weighted in the set-up.
From this position, the aim is to move forward into the ball.
The easiest balls to hit were the low full toss to the ball bouncing
up into the top of the bails. You can strike the ball in an arc
anywhere between mid-off and square-Leg.
In our experiment, the ball would disappear to various parts of this
arc. Direction was determined by the height and line of the ball at
ball contact:

Outside off stump at mid stump height - either a full toss or
bouncing - would fly over mid-off

Outside off stump at waist to chest height ball would be hit
between mid-wicket and square leg.

Low, straight full tosses would be dragged wide of mid-on
and go a long, long way
After striking the ball, the player’s weight ended up fully on the
front foot irrespective of pace or height of the delivery at contact.
Stride length was the only varying factor in the bottom half
mechanics of the sequence with the stride being shorter on
bouncers and short balls.
The swing path of the bat using the back-load went from low to
high, from outside the line of the body (offside) to high and fully
extended above your eyes on the on-side. Sometimes the batter
would end up with only the top hand on the bat at full extension
after making contact with the ball with both hands on the bat. This
showed a full Swing through the ball.
Players found that they could shift their swing path if a bowler sent
the ball outside off-stump. The batter would swing more
conventionally through the ball, aiming through the Off-side.
We had significant numbers of off-Side boundaries from backloading. Don’t feel that this is only an On-side way of playing. It’s a
power resource you can use to hit both sides of the wicket.
Counteracting the short ball
The obvious thought was that - unlike baseball - a bowler can
deliver a much shorter ball to prevent the swing. So, then we
experimented by delivering random, shorter balls to counteract the
back-load concept.
However, the batters committed forward, established a base earlier
with a shorter stride and pulled the ball off of the front foot, Ricky
Ponting style.
The result was the ball going way in-front of square and flying over
the boundary.
All these shots are, with practice, safe and effective when the field
is up. You don't need to clear the boundary; you only need to get it
over the fielder's head.
Once is usually enough to get a player or two out of the ring.
Two good shots are always enough.
And that is the real secret of batting when the ring is bearing down
on you: All you need to do is play a couple of effective shots past
the fielders. You see wider gaps opening up as the captain decides
to protect the boundaries.
Take Singles to Spin:
Have you ever wondered how the best players of spin seem to
score off almost every ball that they face?
Players such as AB DE Villiers, Virat Kohli and Hashim Amla rarely
face two balls in a row unless they score a boundary. The board
keeps ticking over with little or no risk.
These players have mastered single options to never get tied down
even against high quality spin.
Here are the things you can work on to up your rotation skills:
Single down the ground
This is a vital shot as most limited over cricket against spin is
played with either one, or both straight men back on the fence. The
ability to "beat the bowler" on either side is crucial.
Kohli has learnt that to beat the bowler on deliveries landing
anywhere from back of a length to half volley.
Remember, that the goal on the bowler's side of the wicket will be
slightly smaller than the batters side. This is because excellent
players of singles down the ground use the non-striker as a blocker
to prevent the bowler from cutting the ball off.
Single offside drop
This is a low risk option, which often causes the fielding side to
argue and bicker when played regularly against them.
Michael Clarke is magnificent at this. He either plays forward with
the intention of dead batting it just beyond the keeper's reach into
the vacant space just in front of square on the off side or he pushes
back off his left foot into leg stump and nudges the ball into the
same area off the back foot.
The keeper and fielders all converge on the same ball and the
batters complete a simple run.
Common batting warm up mistakes

Avoid the full toss. Practice hitting throw downs where the
ball bounces rather than on the full as that's what will happen
in a game and is therefore the most relevant thing to do.

Take your time. Don't rush your shots, try to hit them with
relaxed flowing enhanced technique.

Keep cuts and pulls to a minimum. If you need to cut and pull
then do so, but don't spend the bulk of your time doing this.
It's risky.

Avoid irrelevant practice. Avoid blindly copying others as it
may not be the right way to prepare: Be single minded and
specific to your needs.
Are you ready to bat?
Dealing with anxiety at the crease
Emotions and anxiety come into play at all stages of an
innings. Here are a few examples of potential high anxiety
points that can impact upon batting performance:
1. Making a début
2. Facing your first ball
3. Approaching a milestone
4. Refocusing after reaching a milestone (like Brendan
McCullum on 302 against India at Wellington).
5. Chasing a target down.
6. Batting with the tail.
7. Batting to keep your place in the side during a poor
period of performance.
Encourage your players not to breathe into the chest (as
many normally do) but deep into their tummy or diaphragm
which is below the chest. The important thing here is that
the out breath must be longer that the in breath.
This process causes stimulation of the part of the nervous
system responsible for relaxation. This is a basic law of
biology and if someone breathes in this way then their
body will have no choice but to relax.
If you can pass this lesson onto your players, then you
might be giving them the most effective piece of coaching
advice ever.
Decision Making:
Sachin Tendulkar gets only fraction of a second when
Brett Lee is bowling at him. Within that fraction of a
second, he has to take a decision as to which shot to play
and execute it.
The shot to be played depends on factors which can be
summarized below:
• The pace of the ball.
• The line of the ball.
• The length of the ball.
• The age of the ball.
• The state of the pitch, and if it has deteriorated
noticeably, producing irregular bounce.
• The known style of bowling used by the bowler, including
any variations to that style.
• Whether the batsmen can pick the particular variety of
ball being bowled.
• The placement of the fielders.
• The batsman's estimation of his own skill.
• How played in the batsman is - whether he is beginning
his innings or has settled into a comfortable batting
rhythm.
• The state of the game, and whether it is more appropriate
to take risks in an attempt to score quickly, or to defend.
• Instructions from the captain on whether to bat
aggressively or defensively.
• The time of day, in terms of how much play is remaining
in the current session of play.
• The batting skill of the non-striker and the number of
balls remaining in the over.
“90% Of All Batsmen Have Never Scored A Hundred!”
Here is surefire advice that will make YOU reach your
GOAL
The secret to becoming a great batsman lies in a number
of things:
1. Understanding and doing the basics right
2. Understanding the psychology behind batting
3. Knowing how to build a big innings
4. Knowing what to do when the situations do not suit the
batter
5. Moving with the times and know how to score big and
score quickly
CONSISTENT AND POSITIVE PERFORMANCES DEMAND MASTERY OF
THE CORRECT TECHNIQUE TO PRODUCE THE BASIC SHOTS
Once technical mastery is achieved it must be regularly serviced and
maintained.
Only when this is done does the mental side of batting become of paramount
importance
The mentally strong players who can handle pressure will become the best
players.
“In extreme situations, the entire universe becomes our foe; at such critical
times, unity of mind and technique is essential - do not let your heart
waver!”
Perfection
 If you are always searching for perfection, it’s
never going to be far away.
 Aim for perfection, but don’t expect to achieve
it completely then you will stay motivated.
 If you expect total perfection all the time you
will be setting an unrealistic goal that you will
never achieve and this will lower your energy,
enjoyment levels and overall motivation.
 Aim to be close to perfection but don’t touch
it, keep a very small distance.
 The best chance of Achieving perfection is by
not aiming for 100%