Square Cut and rollong the wrists

[ludhianvi]

As a player pulls or square cuts, I often hear the commentators and coaching manuals refer to the act of " rolling the wrists" to keep the ball down on ground instead of in the air. My question is how does this help? Because you roll your wrists "after" making contact with the ball. And it is when the ball has left the bat? Or do you start rolling the wrists slightly prior to making contact with the bat. And with rolling the wrists, I suppose the batsman is simply closing the face the bat. But is it not done after making contact with the ball. Check the following slo motion video RSHHGKRTssw 3x72rFy1YmU

[Ram]

I understand it this way.. To keep the ball down , the bat has to hit the ball at a certain angle. It seems as though, for the batsman to rotate the wrist AFTER playing the shot , he must have met the ball at that particular angle, i.e- You can rotate the bat/wrist after playing the shot, ONLY if you had met the ball in that angle. Obviously it wouldnt possible to instruct the batsman to "keep your bat in this angle and play the ball along the ground" . So , the general practice is to tell the batsman to rotate the wrist after playing the shot. When the batsman sees the ball short and visualizes the cut in his mind , he shapes into the shot WITH the intention of rotating his wrists as the shot progresses. The batsman now comes "over" the ball , rather than try to undercut it up and above the infield.Consequently, the bio-mechanics of the human body kicks in , making the bat meet the ball at such an angle so as to keep it down. To make it a little clearer , lets take Sachin/Sehwag six during the WC 2003 match against Pak. Then , they didnt rotate the bat/wrist simply because they couldnt since the "angle of incidence" of the bat wouldnt have allowed them to. However, it has to be said , their intention was nver to keep the ball in the turf anyway ! KPP89axrP7k

[Predator_05]

It's a follow through movement - similar to how one finishes a golf swing or volleying a football. The follow through is used to generate power. I don't think it has any bearing on whether you keep the ball on the ground or not. What keeps the ball on the ground is how softly you play it. You will often see batsmen immediately loosening their grip on the handle when they nick a ball heading towards slip. That ball falls instantaneously.

[King]

As a player pulls or square cuts, I often hear the commentators and coaching manuals refer to the act of " rolling the wrists" to keep the ball down on ground instead of in the air. My question is how does this help? Because you roll your wrists "after" making contact with the ball. And it is when the ball has left the bat? Or do you start rolling the wrists slightly prior to making contact with the bat. And with rolling the wrists, I suppose the batsman is simply closing the face the bat. But is it not done after making contact with the ball.

As for hitting the ball firstly there is now way you should roll your wrists even before the impact is made or at the time of the impact. The ball needs to be hit "ALWAYS" from the middle of the bat prior rolling the wrist. At time time of impact to keep the ball down the the back of the palm of the right (for a right hander) goes on top while the back of the palm of the left hand faces the ground. Although this sounds a bit complicated this is a way to keep the ball down when playing pull, cut or hook. The commentators refer to this act as "Rolling the wrist". When you make the impact your right hand takes over the control of the shot and will roll over the left hand. This helps in keeping the ball down. The best is to get one of you mate to give you a throw down and you predominantly try to keep the back of the palm of the right hand skywards right after the impact. If you want to keep the ball in the air i.e going aerial the act is to keep the back of the palm of the right hand facing the ground while the back of the palm of the left hand facing skywards will take the ball aerial. The video you have uploaded is not the better example of rolling the wrist. I reckon the ball would have carried quite a distance after Ponting played that pull shot. The trajectory of the bat was facing upwards and it is possible he tried to keep the ball down but did not succeed.

[Donny]

My question is how does this help? Because you roll your wrists "after" making contact with the ball. And it is when the ball has left the bat?

One could also apply this thought to a batsman having 'a lovely follow through', when playing his cover drive (for instance). The follow through is also a big part of other sports like golf, baseball etc. How can this effect the trajectory or speed of the ball as the follow through takes place "after" it leaves the bat ? Similarly, with the cut and pull/hook shots, the action of rolling the wrists is already taking place when bat and ball connect - however slight. Mentally and physically, the effect of rolling the wrists or following through is already happening before leather hits willow.

[King]

A better example of rolling the wrists is in the below video :

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