Monday, February 16, 2009

Last Thursdays Nets with G&CCC

Eventually I figured out how to transfer the massive 1.6GB file from my camera to the computer and then was able to edit it and cut it up into small bits. Having done that the majority of the clips I've got are me facing 'Colonel' and having varying degrees of success. But to be honest in comparison with my 10 year old son who I teach how to bat I'm awful and I need to take a different approach to it otherwise I'm probably going to be looking at 11 being my highest score again for the 3rd consecutive season!

It's obviously extremely complex batting - you've only got to watch the likes of Matthew Hoggard and Monty Panesar who obviously get coached by the best and are surrounded by the likes of Strauss and Pieterson and yet still are useless, to realise it's not that simple. Looking at my vidoe clips it's obvious that I wasn't really applying any technique other than 'Hit it anyway - anyhow' and most of it was with a big sideways swipe. One of the things I noticed was if the ball was coming down the middle I was stepping sideways out onto the legside so that I could hit the ball with the middle of the bat sideways in front of the stumps. The only real improvement I can identify is the fact that because I now have a arm guard and a hip guard I'm no-where near as nervous about facing the ball. Having said that I also get the impression that the blokes slow their bowling down for me a bit as I am a learner?

I've been looking at my batting again. I had a look at a few internet resources - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=izSF5couS-A being one of the better ones that I came across. I've looked at the Bob Woolmer videos on youtube, but I can't watch him - he's just too 1950's public school conservative. Anyway that aside having watched the cloverdale clip I went back to the clips I shot of myself that I've now edited from the last nets sesion and evaluated what I've been doing wrong and there looks like there's a lot. I think I need to adopt a strategy whereby when I'm in the nets I do something more akin to looking to survive without being bowled rather than try and get the bat on everything as they patently doesn't work. So maybe I should be looking to defend against balls that are threatening the stumps, leave balls that require that I swing at them and try and implement the front foot drive when the delivery is right? Although watching an Alastair Cook video on-line he says that the drive shot is only really applicable if the ball lands in a certain area? It's complex stuff this and makes me think that maybe I should be thinking about making the nets for outside use as well for summer practice?

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