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First of all sorry for not posting in a while, I have been a bit busy with GM 2013, which got me thinking about how you the cricketer select a bat? When designing a new bat its important to think who (what type of player will this bat suit) and what does that player want, but when I asked the question “what do you look for when choosing a bat” on twitter recently, bat profile came way down the list…….. This surprised me a little as to optimise the performance of your bat you really need a bat with the swell in the right place (where you hit the ball most often) – see my last blog. If however, you are like me and a good shot is that you hit the ball, then you want a bat with a long middle and big edges, my point is that I would still choose a profile that suited my style of play (just wished I could get one the width of the stumps). For the better player, you should really look at where you hit the ball most often and try and match that to the profile of a bat. This way you will really see a difference in the performance of your bat, and hopefully an increase in performance in your game.

The Pro’s have specifically designed bats to suit how they play, a good example is Shane Watson -to cut a long story short, he came to Nottingham and I designed a bat to suit how he played based on a 30 minute conversation and looking at his bats. This bat is the same shape he has used for the past 2 – 3 years (the Flare was based on his design), but during a recent tour of I think Sri Lanka, Shane wanted a bat with a slightly lower middle (a massive 15mm lower), as the wicket was lower than in Australia. He has then used this in the T20 format and prefers that shape to his older shape which he uses in test matches therefore optimising the profile for where he hits the ball in the different formats. Although this is an extreme example, and this level of service is not available to the club cricketer you should really select your bat to optimise your performance and to do this you need to match the swell to where you most often strike the ball.

The Bat selector (http://www.gm-cricket.com/pages/bat-selector/) predicts where you hit the ball by asking questions on how and where you play and what type of wicket you play on, and recommends a GM bat.

This blog is about the design rather than the weight/ pick up / grain quality of a bat, as every model from every manufacturer will be available in a variety of weights/pick ups and grades.

So here’s your chance to let me know when you buy a bat ( in a shop/ factory or online) what do you look for?? post your responses by posting a comment here or to my twitter account Dr_DBacon https://twitter.com/#!/Dr_DBacon

What would be your ideal bat – great thread on the forum at the minute about this - http://www.cricketinsight.co.uk/forum/index.php/topic,1090.0.html

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