Practice › Cricket › Back-foot defence
Cricket back-foot defence: check your form with your phone
Against a shorter ball the best defence is to get back and across, so your eyes are level with the line and the bat is in front of you. This one is in beta: it checks only the footwork, how tall you stay and the soft finish, and the ranges are guide values that have not yet been checked against real batters.
No equipment needed. Practise at home. Just do the movement properly in front of your phone: a shadow swing for racquet sports, a rep for lifting. No court, ball, shuttle or weights needed, and a racket or a bar is optional.
What good looks like
- Stay in your stance until you read the length, then move your back foot back and across toward the stumps.
- Stand tall over the back foot with your head still and your eyes level with the ball.
- Present the bat in front of you and let it meet the ball with soft hands, without pushing through.
- Hold your shape at the end, balanced, before you reset.
Common mistakes and how to fix them
Staying on the front foot
Playing a short ball from the front foot leaves you jabbing at it. Take the back foot back and across.
Leaning back or folding forward
A body that tips either way takes your head off the line. Stay tall over the back foot.
Hands carrying on
A defensive shot that finishes high has turned into a push. Let the bat stop in front of you.
What Formanti checks on your back-foot defence
Judged once the shot is over, with the hold of your finish timed.
- Finish: hands stop in front of you, no rise after impact. soft hands: the bat stops in front of you, no follow-through
- Finish: at least 0.6 s. hold your finish for a second
Your stance, stride and impact
Where the shot is played: is your head over your front knee, your front leg bent, your foot out to the ball.
- Impact: back foot goes back toward the stumps. back and across: the back foot goes toward the stumps
- Impact: within about 20° of upright. stay tall: no leaning back or falling forward
What you hear and see when you are off
Go back and across
The coach says: “Back and across”
On screen: Go back and across.
Drill: Back-and-across steps: from your stance, move the back foot toward the stumps and hold, 10 times.
Stand tall, don't fall back
The coach says: “Stand tall”
On screen: Stand tall, don't fall back.
Drill: Shadow 10 shots finishing tall with your head still, held for a count of two.
Stand tall, don't lean in
The coach says: “Stand tall”
On screen: Stand tall, don't lean in.
Drill: Shadow 10 shots finishing tall with your head still, held for a count of two.
Soft hands: stop the bat in front of you
The coach says: “Soft hands”
On screen: Soft hands: stop the bat in front of you.
Drill: Shadow 10 back-foot defences, letting the bat stop and holding it for a count of two.
Hold your shape at the finish
The coach says: “Hold your shape”
On screen: Hold your shape at the finish.
Drill: Freeze-the-finish: every shot, hold the end position for a slow count of two.
Drills you can do alone
- Back-and-across steps: from your stance, move the back foot toward the stumps and hold, ten times, then add a shadow shot.
- Stand-tall holds: finish each shadow back-foot defence tall with your head still and hold it for a count of two.
How to set up your phone
Phone square of you on the off side (where point fields), 3 to 4 metres away at hip height, so your chest faces it in your stance. No ball needed: shadow-bat. It reads you best without pads. It all runs on your phone and nothing is uploaded. Filmed from the front or from behind the phone can count your shots but not judge your feet or your head position.
Guide values, new and not yet checked against real players. It doesn't see the bat or a ball: it checks your body, with your hands standing in for the bat. It can't tell which shot you played. You pick it, and it checks that shot's basics. Impact is an estimate, taken from the lowest point of your hands. The cut, the pull, the sweep and leg-side shots aren't covered yet, and neither is bowling.
Frequently asked questions
Why is back-foot defence in beta?
Its footwork reads less clearly from the side of the batter than a stride forward does, and the ranges have not been checked against real batters yet. It is shown as a guide, not a verdict.
Does it judge how well I read the length?
No. It cannot see the ball. It checks your footwork, your balance and your soft hands once the shot is over.