Case study update: Technical analysis | Cricket coaching, fitness and tips

Case study update: Technical analysis

This article is part of the miCricketCoach 2009 Case Study. To stay up to date with their progress get the free newsletter.

This update will focus on a technical analysis of Naz batting in the nets. Naz has sent in a video of him batting at Lords' indoor school. Here is what I have discovered.

Setup
 

As you can see from the first shot, his setup looks solid, but there are a couple of problems with it that I have highlighted. First, his eyes are not quite level. More importantly, his front elbow and shoulder is pointing towards mid off meaning he is picking his bat up over leg stump. I suspect it is because he trusts his off side shots more than the leg side and is looking to hit through the off side even in his setup.

This can lead to poor footwork as it is hard to get forward or properly back and across from this initial position.

The good news is that most of the time he readjusts both his head position and backlift as he steps forward to the ball on the off stump as you can see in the next picture:

 
Backswing

When playing shots Naz has a smaller hitting zone than he could have because of the way he lines up his bat. With pitched up balls on or just outside the off stump he lines up well as we have seen. When the ball is back of a length his backswing moves out to gulley and comes down and an angle meaning his timing has to be spot on to middle it:

I'm guessing he slices a lot of those shots and gets caught at gulley or cover point, especially as he has not moved his back foot across (a result of his closed setup).

For leg side balls he does the same thing. Here he can get away with it more as you need to be more open to hit through the leg side, especially the flick off the legs to a half volley. However it's still a little too wide for me here, he could tighten that up a bit to give the option of an on drive

 
Shape

The final thing to mention is Naz's shape as he drives. Take a look at these pictures of him driving:

Here the face and toe of the bat end up pointing in a different direction to where the ball was supposed to be hit. This is because he is closing the face of the bat and risking missing the drive or getting a leading edge.

The reason for this is that he is not getting forward enough and losing the shape of his arms in his downswing. Instead of letting his top hand and and high elbow control the shot he is trying to generate power by snapping his wrists through the ball. The toe of the bat ends up pointing down the white line instead of the yellow line in the picture below:

He would hit it a lot better by leaning into the shot more and swinging the bat in a smooth motion like a golf swing rather than an ice hockey slap.

Drills to improve technical errors

The key for me is to build up from a straight drive, front and back foot. This will teach Naz to line himself and his bat from his initial stance to moving to the ball. I'm going to ask Naz to do some drills with a tennis ball initially, moving on to throwdowns or a bowling machine when he is feeling more comfortable.

The idea is to 'shape' Naz to make some minor changes. There is nothing major about his technique that is flawed; he just could do better by lining up right and keeping his shape through the shot.

 



If you want to learn everything there is to know about technique, check out Gary Palmer's interactive coaching courses. Gary is a coach with over 20 years experience teaching players to become first class cricketers. For the first time he has put his drills online, only at PitchVision Academy.


 

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Comments

Good stuff David, you should do this more often, but maybe with a video not photos. Perhaps you should offer a technical analysis for a fixed fee and then put it on here for everyone to learn from?

Good idea about doing a video instead, that would be fun to prepare and pop up onto youtube. We are planning on offering batting and bowling analysis on PV Academy very soon as it happens. If you subscribe to the free newsletter I'll let you know when it's ready.

Thanks David this is really interesting! Will try the backlift adjustment at nets tonight and let you know how it goes.

Give me a ring when you get the chance Naz.

Hi guys

I tried the backlift adjustment tonight and the results were great!

I think this backlift issue has crept into my game and might have contributed to my poor form. Tonight everything was alot better though. Struck it well.

Thanks David!

Great site you have here!
I was just wondering if you can help me with a problem I have. I seem to find it hard in hitting the backfoot drive with any piercing power. I'm a very top handed player, is it something to do with this?

This is quite a common fault and can be corrected with the right drills. Drop me an email to find out more.

My email is gwern570@hotmail.com. Thank for your time

"When the ball is back of a length his backswing moves out to gulley and comes down and an angle meaning his timing has to be spot on to middle it"

Almost every world class batsman, most famously Don Bradman, does/did this exact same thing if you look closely. This is not a technical flaw (his complete lack of footwork is problematic, but the angle of the backlift in this particular shot is fine).

The main problem is that he doesn't utilise his hips on his front foot shots, meaning that he remains in a side-on position throughout the shot, forcing his bat to come through at an angle. Look at the relative position of his feet in the last photo. In a straight drive to a ball outside off both feet should be lined up on off-stump and pointing down the wicket. Here his backfoot is outside leg stump and pointing in entirely the wrong direction!

Well, bradman did have a wide backswing, but it was rotary - it adjusted itself at the top and came down straight. Naz doesn't make this adjustment like great players do. That's his flaw.

I agree about the footwork - he has lined up for a cover drive then played an off drive. Not the worst error ever but he could do with lining hiself up better, especially if his for is poor.

Hi David, thanks for replying.

The backswing should only adjust itself once the batsman decides to drive or defend. If he is playing a cross batted shot - the most likely outcome off the back foot - then the bat stays wide as the batsman maintains a more front on position. All the major shots off the back foot - the pull, hook, cut, and the turn off the hip - flow more naturally from a wide backlift. If he then decides to drive or defend, he will move into a slightly more side-on position and the bat should naturally angle back over off stump.

The delivery in picture 2 looks like a back of a length ball outside off. He should either be cutting this delivery or leaving it. Either way, there is no need for the bat to be in a position to come down vertically from offstump.

You are right about the last photo - his upper body and lower body are playing two completely different shots!