Knocking in

[SJS]

Hehe, yeah, plenty.

Be care ful to hold the sock close to the ball inside it. If you hold it to far, making it a long bba;; hammer' you may find the ball recocheting off the surface and hitting you somewhere. I dont mean it will come out of the sock (which it will once the sock is torn, but that a shorter length will allow greater control over the balls rebound.

 

[Shounak]

^.. That's conjuring up painful images.. OWWW

 

[SJS]

^.. That's conjuring up painful images.. OWWW

Taking care of your cricket gear, particularly breaking in a new bat is one of a young cricketer's greatest pleasures. Whats a bit of a knock on the fore arm with a cricket ball ?

 

[Don]

i bought a GM purist not sure if it was pre knocked in but i used a fairly old ball on it but i didnt do it properly and now it doesnt hit very well in some areas but then again i dont really hit the ball nemore so it doesnt matter

 

[Shounak]

Taking care of your cricket gear, particularly breaking in a new bat is one of a young cricketer's greatest pleasures. Whats a bit of a knock on the fore arm with a cricket ball ?

Quite right.. But it drives the rest of the house crazy.. When I bought my last bat, a constant knocking sound was resonating throughout the house, all hours of the day and night. I use a wooden bat mallet, the Gray Niccols one.. Works awesomely..

Oooh the feeling you get when you knock in the meat of the bat..

One thing though, don't neglect the other parts of the bat. Knock everything in. Unless you're a Bradman, chances are that not every ball you face will come off the middle. I was told to pay particular attention to the sides..

 

[Shounak]

Another thing is hitting a ball in the air. Try to keep the ball in the air for as many hits as you possibly can. That's a really fun way of knocking a bat in.

When it gets boring, use your opposite hand. So it also builds dexterity.

Throw downs are also pretty good.

 

[SJS]

i bought a GM purist not sure if it was pre knocked in but i used a fairly old ball on it but i didnt do it properly and now it doesnt hit very well in some areas but then again i dont really hit the ball nemore so it doesnt matter

Even before you buy a bat, you can knock a cricket ball on it and feel the 'quality' of the 'throw'. I dont know if the sellers allow you to do that. In my time, since we went to the same source always, we would pick and choose. I was notorious for being very finnicky and could go through fifty bats before deciding which one I liked for balance, weight and throw.

This way, you raely make a mistake on the throw and the knocking in is more to get the stresses relieved from the bat and kind of strengthen it.

Yes, Shounak, knocking on the edges is very important. Even after that, I would strongly recommend putting a strip of tape on the edges only at least initially. It means that the tape (a cloth tale) will stick about half an inch on the fromt of the bat along the length of the edge and a half an inch at the back. You will be surprised how much it enhances the life of the bat and reduces the chances of losing a chip from an early edge.

 

[honestbharani]

My first bat was a BDM. I haven't had another one since, because this one is working pretty well. It is really cool too, they gave a bit of sticker to paste on top of it while playing with tennis balls or other soft balls and remove it when playing with real balls. I knocked it in for 6 months before I first used it. My first innings with it was a 50 as well.