Online Profile: George Henderson
RA Seam / RHB
Millhouses Works CC
12/2/17
Batting
George has a comfortable and stable looking stance and setup, slightly open front foot which can sometimes lend itself to head being a little more off-side than his feet and thus create a falling affect and encourage working straight'ish balls through mid-wicket area. Front foot feeds analysing George's initial stance/setup and then positions he looked to get into on the front foot including ball striking. George clearly has good hand-eye coordination, likes to play positively and put his hands through the ball. He is capable of gaining a good, positive stride out towards the ball which is great and will allow him to get out close to balls of a good to full'ish length and therefore less likely to get caught on the crease being indecisive. We spoke about how playing positively is what batting is about and it should have an air of freedom about it. On occasions George tended to play a fair way away from his body outside the off stump which relies quite heavily on his hand-eye to make good contact, and this could mean the percentage of balls he hits and hits well may not be as high as if he were closer to the ball with his front foot nearer the line of the ball and head further over. Due to being keen to look to get his hands through the ball positively, George has a tendency to lose the shape of the bat on contact and can create a 'slicing' affect now and then. Encouraged him to be really strong with his top hand and relax his bottom hand a little more to enable his hands to remain in rthymn and offer the best chance possible of timing the ball and with this approach it would likely increase his ball striking percentage, enabling him to focus on getting in good, strong positions and not necessarily throwing his hands through the ball quite so hard. |
Opportunities for improvement:
- Try to allow hands to work together a little more, aiming to time the ball effectively and resist the temptation to force bottom hand through quickly and lose the shape of the bat upon contact. - Stay strong on back leg (can sometimes collapse sending weight downwards instead of through the ball on contact) to create a strong, stable position to allow head to get over the ball and weight to transfer through. - Balls outside the off-stump, try to work at getting closer to (increase likelihood of hitting & hitting well). This could be done by drop feeds and then bobble feeds, not worrying too much about ball striking but the mechanics of building muscle memory to get closer to the pitch of the ball. - Manage head position, stay upright with head/eyes remaining level to provide the opportunity to play down the ground (less risk to straight'ish balls - than working through mid-wicket which head falling off-side can encourage). |
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Bowling
George can bowl at good pace for his age, but is heavily reliant on the force generated by his arm speed as opposed to more of his entire body. His alignment at present tends to stay out in his approach and then jump inwards sharply making life quite difficult to drive through the crease with purpose and although his front foot rotates on delivery, he will still be putting a little more strain than ideal through his lower back. Spoke about the benefits of trying to ensure that at least the last few strides into delivery are straight, to enable weight to drive straight forwards (simplifying things working in a straight line) which will encourage him to gain more from his entire body, not just the speed in which his bowling arm rotates. |
Opportunities for improvement
Alignment drills focusing on approaching the crease straighter and gaining a better feeling for being able to drive through the crease (gaining more from his entire body and in particular enabling his right hip (power) the chance to explode through on delivery and follow through). This can be done by bowling from back foot contact and creating a better feeling of him delivering the ball without the weight shifting inwards (towards the square leg umpire if he were bowling to a RHB). This could then be progressed into walking through his action, and then progressing into a very steady canter into and through the crease, slowly building up muscle memory through repetition and gaining a better feeling of driving into and straight through the crease on delivery. His run up is a manageable distance and can build up momentum, but doesn't really gain as much from it as he could (if working on the above first). He can tend to slow up into the crease when he should ideally be doing the opposite and building his momentum up, attacking the crease into delivery. He has a slight stutter at times when he is almost at the crease and if the above alignment work can be carried out, he has the potential to gain a little more pace and will likely ease the load on his back and side (by not jumping inwards then having to ask his body to rotate back out to straighten him up - which his foot does assist him with at present - but things could be simplified by working in more of a straight line). |