Solo Batting Drills

[AngryRanga]

I want to put extra work into my batting, but often don't have someone around to have a net with. I've found a couple of solo drills, but I'd appreciate if anyone else could share any that they know of.



These two videos cover similiar things:
-Self fed top hand only drives
-Self fed bottom hand only drives
-Nestle ball in between chin and shoulder, let it drop in front of you to play two handed shots. Back footed shots can be done by dropping the ball in line with the back foot.
-Toss the ball in front to practice advancing down the wicket, while staying balanced. For all of these, focus on good positioning over the ball.

http://www.pitchvision.com/how-to-improve-your-cricket-concentration-in-20-minutes-a-day#/

This link talks about how simply tapping the ball on the bat for 20 minutes a day improves dynamic concentration (if that buzzword can help me make more than 0 runs, then great). Over a period of time you aim to only hit the sweet spot of the bat. It specifically says that they don't know whether this affects batting (but improves concentration), but I'm desperate enough to go it.

-Obviously you can also toss a tennis/hockey/cricket ball against the wall and hit it on the rebound, but I'm too uncoordinated to do this with much success. I find tennis ball is best because of the bounce.

-Mirror batting is also an option, to check that your technique has the correct form. Filming yourself would also work the same way.

-I've also been using a ball on a string with a half-width bat and trying to always get in optimal position for the forward defence. I don't really have any other goals in mind and this can get tedious. I guess I'll try working on the back foot defence/drives.

The majority of these drills are for the front foot drive/defence. If you have any other drills you know of chuck them in here, would be much appreciated.

 

[_Blackhawk_]

Buy or find a place that has a bowling machine with automatic feeder you can rent for an hour.

 

[micoach]

Great ideas here. I'd be interested in finding out how these extra drills fit into your overall plan. How much are you facing real bowling, throw downs and machine feeds at the moment? How much time are you putting into solo drills?

 

[AngryRanga]

Buy or find a place that has a bowling machine with automatic feeder you can rent for an hour.

Thanks, I wasn't aware an automatic feeder was a thing. I will look into it.

How much are you facing real bowling, throw downs and machine feeds at the moment?

Basically none. Probably about 40 minutes a week of real bowling, nothing else. This is nowhere enough for me to succeed, so I'm trying to add to my practice a little by utilising these solo drills.

How much time are you putting into solo drills?

About an hour per day. It's going to be a few weeks before I can judge whether this is a waste of my time.

 

[someblokecalleddave]

Great ideas here. I'd be interested in finding out how these extra drills fit into your overall plan. How much are you facing real bowling, throw downs and machine feeds at the moment? How much time are you putting into solo drills?

I've been putting a lot of effort into this over the winter. My son has been selected for South Essex, so in order to increase his chances of staying there we've both been working on our batting as its shocking. So for a start we've been having an hour or two every fortnight with a bowling machine and this week we've added the cheaper option of booking out an enclosed badminton court where we've been working with throw-downs on different strokes for an hour and we'll probably continue to do that. In addition - personally I've been doing the mirror type thing where you practice the top hand grip drive stroke trying to maintain good shape and nice straight movement along a line - keeping my head still getting it over a line where the ball would be. I've been doing upper body strength and conditioning exercises using terra-bands and it seems to me, the difference is very noticeable and I'm optimistic about the coming season. See what you reckon - here I am in Sept - nervous of facing my son Joe


And here I few days back...


If nothing else I'm less scared of the ball and have a couple of strokes I can play. I'll have to try and get some footage of my batting against my son, because I'm a lot more confident against him these days.

In relation to your question with regards to doing solo drills I guess over a week it must add up to about an hour as it is dull doing it - repeating it over and over and my wife thinks I'm nuts of course.

 

[micoach]

"Basically none. Probably about 40 minutes a week of real bowling, nothing else. This is nowhere enough for me to succeed, so I'm trying to add to my practice a little by utilising these solo drills."

You have put your finger on it nicely here. Solo stuff is certainly not a waste of time but it also won't improve your chances of success in the long run. The only way to do that is to practice against bowing (or throwdowns or a machine). But it seems to me that you know this and are putting energy into getting more balls faced.

 

[SLA]

-Obviously you can also toss a tennis/hockey/cricket ball against the wall and hit it on the rebound, but I'm too uncoordinated to do this with much success. I find tennis ball is best because of the bounce.

I would recommend you stick with this, its actually pretty easy if you find the right spot: you need a brick wall and a smooth, hard floor like concrete or tarmac.

Tennis balls are ok - but golf balls are better because they bounce faster and more realistically and provide more of a challenge. Stand about 5-10 yards away from the wall, stand in a batting stance with the bat in your top hand, and throw the ball with your bottom hand. You can practice any shot you like, front foot, back foot, depending on how you throw the ball.

I used to do this all the time when I was 13-14 in the long summer holidays. If you throw the golf ball pretty hard you can get the reaction times down to the point where its the equivalent of facing 90mph bowling.