Watching the ball onto your bat???

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Palley

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Watching the ball onto your bat???

How many batsmen/women out there actually watch the ball onto their bat? I find this absolutely impossible. Only once have I ever accomplished this and that was during a practice and I concentrated that hard I didn`t play a shot just moved the bat a bit. I see the ball hit the deck and by then I am usually on my way into what I would call a shot, but what is probably just a hoof.
I`ve asked a few of the lads who are more proficient with the bat but never had a definitive answer just wondered when you guys "lose" the ball.
 
Re: Watching the ball onto your bat???

It helps to keep the head still and over the bat (where possible). I tend to watch it as far as possible but like you probably never get watch it all the way onto the bat.

A lot of batting is down to instinct and learned response. You haven't always got time to watch the ball 100% of the way, so you fall on previous memories and play it that way.
 
Re: Watching the ball onto your bat???

If you aren't watching the ball onto your bat then you might be having a real problem. It is one of the basic fundamentals about batting and I can't stress enough how much importance it has on your ability to score runs.

I wouldn't say I lose the ball at all. When you are batting with your head over your foward shoulder, staring down the middle of the pitch this is where it all begins. When you watch the ball released out of the bowlers hand and adjust you at all times are watching the ball (not the ground where your feet are moving, you will have lost the ball). You are able to adjust to any movement of the ball right up until it is under your chin and you are making contact.

SO IMPORTANT!!!!!!
 
Re: Watching the ball onto your bat???

D.K;267812 said:
If you aren't watching the ball onto your bat then you might be having a real problem. It is one of the basic fundamentals about batting and I can't stress enough how much importance it has on your ability to score runs.

I wouldn't say I lose the ball at all. When you are batting with your head over your foward shoulder, staring down the middle of the pitch this is where it all begins. When you watch the ball released out of the bowlers hand and adjust you at all times are watching the ball (not the ground where your feet are moving, you will have lost the ball). You are able to adjust to any movement of the ball right up until it is under your chin and you are making contact.

SO IMPORTANT!!!!!!
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Beat me to it D.K.

It is the same when fielding you need to keep your eyes focussed on the ball at all times.
You don't want to get hit in the nuts by the ball.
 
Re: Watching the ball onto your bat???

Palley, this is very closely link to the muscles thread so my reply there may help:

Liz Ward;267953 said:
You will find that although the skills of a professional cricketer, a minor counties player and an amateur enthusiast vary hugely, their overall visual strategy is similar. They all fix on the ball as it is delivered, then switch to the anticipated bounce point, then track the ball's trajectory for 100-200 milliseconds after bounce.

However, their respective abilities reflect slight differences. The pro generally uses more pre-bounce pursuit tracking, whereas the amateur would take longer to respond and anticipate bounce point, therefore, he would just not be able to play the faster balls. To be able to do so, your eyes would really need to reach the bounce point 100m before the ball does.

It would appear that, with respect to batting performance, the main aspect of oculo-motor behaviour is the speed and variability of the initial saccade [a brief rapid eye movement between fixation points]. It is a subtle combination of pursuit tracking and saccadic movement as you locate the bounce point that will determine which of the three categories you are destined to fall into :)
Click to expand...

The only difference between the two replies would be that in your case it should be said that during many, many studies, there appeared no systematic difference in the way the three batsmen track the ball after the bounce.

As mas says, it is down to instinct and learned response, though I would give it another name ;) At the level I work with, it would be impossible for even the super humans to keep their eye on the ball, so the batsmen need to work on the other qualities.

I can only liken it to learning to drive in London whilst turning the radio on and making room for an emergency vehicle bearing down on you as pedestrians are running across the road. Ten years on, you do it without thinking!

I should say that the above only really relates to pace bowlers. With spin bowlers, you need to look elsewhere altogether. :)
 
Re: Watching the ball onto your bat???

i'm exactly the same as you palley can't watch the ball onto the bat, i'm hoping to improve it over the off season though after yesterdays nets i seem to be getting worse not better
 
Re: Watching the ball onto your bat???

Ya, same here - it's like the ball disappears once it gets too close to me! I'm getting better though, this time last year I would have lost the ball before it pitched - now at least I can get in line with the ball after it bounces. With a bit more practice and experience I might manage to track it all the way.

I'm with Palley in the sense that I lose the ball earlier when playing a shot - I guess once your concentration is split between the two processes it gets harder. Which is why batsmen play themselves in before hitting out I suppose :)
 
Re: Watching the ball onto your bat???

this last is an interesting point.
I've found that if I am making no effort to play the ball- for example just watch it go by, then I can see it all the way. But it's when I try to play a shot that I lose it. But I lose it when playing only certain types of drives and forward shots. I don't seem to lose it so oftn when playing a cut.
So what is it about playing a shot that makes you lose sight of it ? Is it the fact that I am moving my head into a forward shot and therefore destroying fixation? Is it that we can't track objects coming towards us( as people have stated in previous threads)? Is it that the ball enters a blind area - either blind from habit/posture imperfection or blind from retinal blind spot? Or is it that it is too much to think of: being an underlearned skill and a highly attentional task is required at the same time?
 
Re: Watching the ball onto your bat???

Sorry Notrunout I have no answers hence the thread. Although I do play off my front foot as much as possible perhaps thats why it`s a big problem for me.
 
Re: Watching the ball onto your bat???

I don't know if it was Greg Chappell that mentioned this or if it was in Bob Woolmer's book, but they do stress the importance of 'watching the ball' as such. However, they also make a point that batting and playing shots is solely about prediction (Well it is at international level anyway). As soon as the ball leaves the bowlers hand (Or even before sometimes), the batsman picks signs to judge the line and length of the ball, and after it pitches and as it nears the bat, it is almost impossible I would say to watch it all the way on to the bat. But as you train in the nets and work on your shot selection for a variety of balls, it would get trained into your mind and next time during a match, you'll be 'seeing' the ball guaranteed. Also, one of my mates had the same problem as you, but his solution was getting glasses cus his optometrist reckoned his eye sight was pretty shocking, hence why he couldn't watch the ball from the bowler's hand. If either of them don't help, it must be because your head isn't still and is probably moving which is why it might be harder for you to pick the ball up.
 
Re: Watching the ball onto your bat???

Yes Kevin, Watching the ball very closely is important but having still head and balance are basics of batting.
One thing is that to practice as much as possible in the nets and if u still feel to practice more than get yourself a lot of knocking pracitce with a team-mate or have the ball-on-string practice-u can use a golf ball and a stump to practice.
U should practice more and more so that ur bosy gets use to the cycle and then u can perfect it.
Sachin Tendulkar had once mentioned in an interview on ESPN that when a bowler is running from his run-up from that time he start to pick some clues about his coming deliveries,his mind programs in such a way that he is able to judge the next delivery and accordingly adjust himself and that was possible with more and more batting practice in the nets.
He was lucky to have a coach to get him a lot of net practice and lots and lots of match pracitce.
But some cannot so the knocking and ball-on-string practice is an another alternate.
 
Re: Watching the ball onto your bat???

as strange as this might sound, i find i "lose" the ball once it bounces, be that halfway down the pitch or just infront of me (yorkers being the except, i wouldn't let those bounce).

Spinners are completely different and i do have time to watch it and wait for a good shot but thats about it. Or maybe thats just a fondle of memory and but i know i lose it before it hits the bat

THis is he major problem i have with tonking it. I cannot tonk it because my head is up and obviously if my head is watching the clouds i can't see a red ball on the ground
 
Re: Watching the ball onto your bat???

C_N,

U can refer to my earlier post and check for yourself in the nets for balance and head position.

Practice and lots of practice is very important.

Virender
 
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