I made this video with my dad when the weather was a bit better! I am standing facing a net, my dad is feeding the balls to me between ankle and knee high in the “V”, so I can practice getting my weight onto my front foot and through the ball.

Hope you like it!

I really enjoy my batting practice. This is a video of me getting some practice in against the bowling machine with my coach Carl

I posted recenty on a practice I picked up when I went to the South Africa and England Lionds game. Here is the full video of the drill I picked up for forward defence. My dad is feeding the ball at just above knee height, I am hitting the ball back into a net behind him.

This is Cricket: The Basics of Batting

Found this video, aimed at US cricketers, but some quite good ideas. I think I will stick with my coach for now though, theres no substitute for good net practice and someone watching hwh oknows what they are doing.

Duration : 0:6:7

[youtube JipHEn63bWs]

In the Nets:

Last Friday I had a net session at the Leicester cricket academy with a coach named Carl. He started up the bowling machine at a steady pace of 60mph to break me into the session. The balls that came down were mainly full, or at least full enough to straight through cover with some straying onto middle stump which I whipped through mid-wicket or drove straight down the ground

After having done this, he quickly saw that after making my pre-movement or “trigger”, which is shifting my weight on my back foot with a small step backwards followed by a front foot small step forwards pointing my toe towards the ball, I am not so willing to press to far forward making me push at the ball or play back to full balls the means my knee is very locked up when I play a shot. He then told me to, after this press with my front foot, really try and get forward and bend my knee so I get right over the ball and if it is a short ball push off the front foot and play off the back foot. The improvement was unbelievable!

He then sped up the bowling machine and bowled shorter as I told him before the session of my trouble with picking up length, he then realised the on shorter balls I square up more where I should stay side on to play the shots, also that my back foot moves towards leg stump when it should go towards off stump which would enable me to play off my hip towards the leg side if needed.

Carl’s verdict of my performance was generally good, just saying that I need to after my front fott press, try and get forward to the ball with my pad rather than just jab at the ball locking my front knee.Also that on playing back foot shots, to stay side on and get my back foot across to off stump. As a result of this net Amir Mahmood of Kibworth decideed that I was good enough to play for the all english youths on monday at Kibworth against the all Asian youths.

The Pull

The pull is a very tempting drill in this case, a full toss in a great slogging area, but the main point of this drill is to watch the ball and roll your wrists right at the last moment making the ball go down into the floor.

Feeders if the batsman is able to smack the ball everywhere speed up the feed rushing him in the shot which practises more control in the shot.

The On-Drive

The on-drive is the hardest drill for me because in real time games I like to whip the ball through midwicket by just flicking my wrists when the ball is bowled onto my legs and that is definitely not the aim of this drill.

With the same feed as the forward defence but more on the legs of the batsman and the main aim of this drill is keep your wrists going through the line of the ball which is a very repeated phrase on this website it is true but it is so important.

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The cover-drive

This is another great drill I got from the England lions, the main objective is to watch the ball and practise the technique in the shot and not to hit it as hard as you can.

The cover drive is a great shot when is comes off but to practise it well the feed needs to be precisely in the right place so feeders the ball needs to be the same height and speed as the forward defence but wider so you can unleash your arms and get your wrists through the line of the ball.

The Forward Drive

This is the same drill as before; low and straight full tosses, with the same aim to watch middle and time the ball to perfection.

The feed needs to be the same as the forward defence but this time you really unleash your arms bringing your wrists right through the ball with power but timing.

How to play cricket and practice like the professionals

I saw some good practice drills when I went to see the England A v South Africa game. One batting drill I picked up on straight away was with the batsman getting underarm throws from a partner at different speeds with the batter facing a net. He just played his shot one after the other trying to get the technique right.

I went out the next day to try this with my dad, he was throwing the balls and I was playing them back toward him in a mid off to mid on arc.

Here are some pictures of me practicing forward defence like this.

This is me setting up to receive the ball

This is the moment I played the forward defence shot

This is the ball travelling away from me along the ground, so hopefully I did something right!

I must have played about 100 forward defence shots in a very short space of time. My dad took these still shots from a video of the session, so you will get to see that soon.

I would really love to know what you think, so please leave a comment, and look out for the other drills we tried out coming up on the website in the next few days

Here is the video