I posted a couple of months ago about my cricketing 50th anniversary — 50 years since I first played, back in 1973. And I have just realised that I am using a bat that is modelled on one I bought 40 years ago.
Not quite Trigger’s broom (or Plutarch’s Ship of Theseus, for the more Classically-minded), but there is a direct lineage from my old Gray-Nicolls GN500 to the bat(s) I have used this season with the Essex Seniors over60s.
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In the middle of last season, I was asked to move up the order to push the scoring rate along. I knew that I could not do this by batting conventionally — I do like a stodge!
So I resolved to apply (my interpretation of) Julian Wood’s theory of power hitting for cricketers — not slogging, but a technique to put bat on ball, consistently, and with force behind each hit. And it seemed to work.†
Whilst it is far from fully thought through, yet, there is some theory behind my switch from “batting” to “hitting”, and the practice (that clickbait “drill” in the title) to develop the technical and mental approach needed to implement the switch.
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I like to use the “pairs” format as a basic structure for SSGs — batters in pairs, facing a fixed number of deliveries, if you are “out” you lose runs, but carry on batting.
But the immediate penalty for getting out can make some batters overly cautious, and we do want them to still play their strokes.
So this week I tried out an alternative sanction – if you are out, you have to swap to using a thin/practice/technique bat!
