taking guard

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notrunout

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taking guard

Four areas of questions immediately spring to my mind about this: can anybody answer them?

1) How important is taking guard?

2) Do I put my bat or my toes into the guard hole I have just marked at the crease?

3) Guard is only one point along the axes in a four-dimensional batting world (forward/back, up/down, on/off, early/late). Can I take guard or orientate myself in the other dimensions and how would I do it?

4) Particularly if I can't follow the ball all the way down with my eyes, is there anything wrong with my guard? Would I be better standing up straighter or crouching down to see where the bowler releases better? Does that mean that I need to modify my stance?
 
Re: taking guard

well, im not sure if the gaurd effects the sight of the ball, i myself being a number 7/6 dont take a gaurd and have only found that it just effects your movement and shot selection, but i know nothing lol.
 
Re: taking guard

1 - it can be very important if you rely on knowing where your stumps are, less so if you just like to go out, close your eyes and swing. Personally, I like taking guard for a number of reasons but mostly because it helps me to get an idea of where the stumps are and what line the ball is on.

2 - Your choice, some people will bat behind the crease, others in front. It is also your call on how to make the 'guard', be it with a bail, edge of your boot or bat. As long as it's not causing undue damage to the pitch.

3 - Not 100% sure what you mean here, but yes, you can move in/out of the crease or rotate yourself so that your on an angle to the bowler (I can't say I'd advise this, but it could be handy if only to try to upset the angle of the bowler). This would be up to you to do, as most umpires will only tell you where you are in relation to the stumps (e.g in front of middle, off or leg).

4 - No, not being able to follow the ball has little to do with the guard. However, you may find that adjusting your stance a little helps with your head position, which may help you follow the ball (the key thing is to keep your head as still as possible).

If your having trouble following the ball then it's something you need to practice. Try batting with stump and use that to help improve hand/eye co-ordination. Remember, humans are not built to track objects coming at them, so it's something we have to practice.
 
Re: taking guard

Taking guard is not an exact science. In my belief there are a couple of fundamentals, and a couple of optionals to consider when taking guard.

1) width of feet; how far your feet are seperated will effect your balance and, to a degree, dictate which shots you are able to play. To narrow and your balance becomes inhibited, and you lose the capacity to transfer weight back or forward effectively; it is a similar story for a stance where the feet are too far apart.

Many coaches, as a fail safe, suggest feet be about shoulder width apart - which, I believe, is almost right but not quite - I would be suggesting that the inside of your heels be tracking the outside of your shoulders (assuming that you don't have absurdly large shoulders). I'd also be suggesting that this is the stance you use fielding!

2) Head up and eyes level - Naturally, you want to bend at your knees. A lot of people bat with their heads wayyy outside the line of their toes, meaning that their first movement is going to be, almost definitely, a falling away to the offside. Ensure that your head is somewhat in line with your knees, and midfoot.

Also, you want your eyes to be level. That's the easiest thing in the world to fix.

Trigger movements, weight distribution between feet, the line of the bat, backswing, height of the hands, is all relatively personal- while there are certainly more biomechanically efficient ways of doing these things, i don't believe they are AS important as points feet and head/ eye positions.
 
Re: taking guard

taking guard also shows the bowling side that you are a competent batsmen, it shows your not just out there for a swing at number 6/7.

If any batsmen does not take a guard i cant take them seriously or respect them.

Although on the other hand why do people insist on retaking their guard when someone has already clearly dug half the way to china (from the UK) or is it just to dig up our pitch!
 
Re: taking guard

swghayward79;30087 said:
dose anyone ever take guard outside either leg or off stump?
Click to expand...

You can hear it now, " Yeah, umpire, could I get minus 1 please?"

Seriously I remember Edladd mentioning in one of his blogs about someone who took guard outside leg, and then he bowled him!
 
Re: taking guard

wolf;30090 said:
You can hear it now, " Yeah, umpire, could I get minus 1 please?"

Seriously I remember Edladd mentioning in one of his blogs about someone who took guard outside leg, and then he bowled him!
Click to expand...

That was in a taverners game - marked his guard on leg and then stood about 5 inches outside that! I don't think he knew what he was doing somehow :rolleyes:
 
Re: taking guard

we had a batsmen the other day he asked for 4 leg guard, the umpire pointed out that he could only see 3 stumps!

the funny thing was after marking his point he shuffled backwards exposing even more of the stumps!
 
Re: taking guard

I`m no batsman, but I would suggest try different guards in the nets. Whichever position you feel most confident with, take that as a start in the next match.
I take middle and off purely because I`m not as strong on the off side by starting more to the off I can play more balls to leg or straight without moving my feet too much and over complicating things. KISS or Keep It Simple Stupid was made for me!!
 
Re: taking guard

edladd;265456 said:
That was in a taverners game - marked his guard on leg and then stood about 5 inches outside that! I don't think he knew what he was doing somehow :rolleyes:
Click to expand...

a taverners game? Lord Taverners?
what school did you play with and when?
 
Re: taking guard

taverners, isnt that the really wierd rules like 2 20 over sides and you get bonus runs depending on how big of a partnership you make

taking guard for me is tking middle, then imagineing a line on off stump all the way up, so i know where i can and cant play from, it all depends on the batsmen, if i stand up on leg i tend to play at more balls and lose track of my off peg
 
Re: taking guard

I tend to take middle stump and then place my toes on that line in line with the bowler. For bowlers that move the ball and bowl fairly full I like to bat out of my crease to cut down the angles and reduce the chance of LBW, whilst for the quicker guys that bowl fairly short and occasionally throw in a bouncer or two, I prefer to bat in my crease to give myself more time to play a shot.

For a left arm over bowler, I generally take leg stump (leg to leg) and open up my stance slightly, so that I am still aligned with the bowler. Many cricketers will tell you that this causes problems because it increases the angle across you, however this angle is only perceived. If you face the bowler, the bowler can only create angle across your stumps, not across your stance. The way I see it, if a bowler is bowling from square leg (hypothetically of course), then everyone will turn to face the bowler, so not opening up your stance slightly to a left hander doesn't really make any sense.
 
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