Practice › Cricket
Cricket Batting Practice With a Live Form Coach
Batting is built in the nets and in the garden, in the hundred quiet shadow shots nobody watches. The missing piece has always been someone to tell you what your body actually did. Prop your phone up square of you on the off side, settle in your stance, play the shot, and Formanti reads it once you have held your finish: where your head was, how your front leg bent, how far you got your front foot to the ball, and whether you held your shape.
It follows your body on your phone, so your video is never uploaded. It does not see the bat or a ball, so it checks your body and your hands, not the bat's face or whether you middled it, and it cannot tell which shot you played, so you pick the shot and it checks that shot's basics. Cricket practice is new and in beta: the ranges are coaching guide values that have not yet been checked against real batters. Pick a shot below to see exactly what it checks.
No equipment needed. Practise at home. Just do the swing properly in front of your phone. No court, ball or shuttle is needed, and a racket is optional: the coach judges your movement, so a shadow swing at home in a hallway or garden is enough.
How to practise your batting on your own
- Put your phone at hip height 3 to 4 metres away, square of you on the off side (where point would field), so your chest faces it in your stance. Tell it whether you bat right-handed or left-handed.
- Shadow-bat with no ball and, if you can, without pads, which hide the knees. Settle in your stance for a moment before every shot, then play it at normal speed and hold your finish.
- Film from square on. From the front or behind the phone can count your shots but cannot judge your feet or your head position.
- Read the report: it names the one thing that kept going wrong and gives you a drill for it.
What to work on first
Get the front foot and the head right before you worry about power. A batter whose head is over the front knee, with the front leg bent and the weight going into the shot, can play the ball under their eyes; the finish tells you whether the shot was balanced. Play ten slow, clean shots rather than fifty rushed ones.
Shots you can check
- Forward defence: Play a sounder forward defence: head over the ball, front knee bent, soft hands.
- Front-foot drive: Drive with a better base: head over the knee, front foot to the ball, high finish.
- Back-foot defence: Stay solid on the back foot: go back and across, stand tall, soft hands.
Frequently asked questions
Can a phone check my batting technique?
It can measure your body: where your head is over your front knee, how far your front leg bends, how far your front foot travels, how you lean, and whether you hold your finish. It cannot see the bat, the ball or the face of the bat, and it does not judge the result of the shot.
Does it work for left-handed batters?
Yes. Choose left-handed in the settings and it flips which side is the front side. It works the same either way.