Interesting conversation with a couple of parents after our last coaching session before Christmas with one of their sons.
“My son annoys me so much – his grip is so low on the bat handle, and he won’t change it.”
[An acute, and accurate technical observation.]
– can he hit the ball?
“Yes”
– consistently, and with reasonable power?
“Yes”
– what do you want to change, then?
Wasn’t meant to be a ‘masterly understatement’, just a reflection of a group grapling with
a) the redefinition of technique – is Bell a better ‘technical’ player than Butler or just more orthadox?
and b) at what age / level of experience (if there is one) should we become more accepting of unorthadox / individual characteristics?
I think b) is a toughie and Steff Jones talks about looking at players with idiosyncracies vs flaws which can be a pretty grey area at the margins
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This can be such a divisive topic – glad to hear the discussion was constructive.
Re b) – has to accommodated from an early stage, I think, or the player will never develop his own technique – it must be very difficult to “unlearn” something, once it has been engrained over a period of years.
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Had an interesting discussion at the weekend at a county ECBCA ‘skills’ session on ‘method vs technique’. I think it would be fair to say there were a range of views within the group, perhaps a reflection of the fact that there were a number of experienced coaches in attendance who maybe have a slightly more flexible view of ‘technique’ anyway?
“…a range of views within the group…” – masterly understatement, Tony?
If we are now to define technique as…
“Coordinated body movements (hips/shoulders/arms/hands) to enable clean contact with the ball”
and
“Present[ation of the] full face of the bat to promote clean contact”
…does it really matter how the bat is gripped?
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The Teesra 
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