Meaning of the word timing

[Hurricane]

Whenever I watch cricket I hear the expression "that was well timed" or "great timing" frequently. And often excessively - it seems like any miss hit is put down to poor timing and any good shot is due to good timing.

My definition of well timed - is a shot that is hit at precisely the right moment. With front foot drives this should be when the ball is just past your heel of your front foot.

A miss hit where you have hit the ball with the outside half of your bat has nothing to do with timing IMHO.

And I would also not call a shot where you have used poor technique and not held your form and shape properly poor timing. That is just a poor shot.

How do you understand the term timing?

 

[Jager]

I always interpreted it as hitting the perfect sweet spot of the bat.

 

[ankitj]

Pretty much as Jager. 'Timing' might be a misnomer, but I take it as meaning a perfect, '***y' shot.

 

[Spikey]

bring back the other thread

or at least take a screencap for me

 

[uvelocity]

ill post a screencap of your mum

 

[Hurricane]

I always interpreted it as hitting the perfect sweet spot of the bat.

Pretty much as Jager. 'Timing' might be a misnomer, but I take it as meaning a perfect, '***y' shot.

I suggest these are modern interpretations of the original intent of the word. I suspect, but can't prove, that the original intent of the word was to suggest the moment the ball was hit rather than how ***y your shot is.

A well timed shot will always look ***y because it should go a long way with minimal effort.

 

[uvelocity]

hitting the middle of the bat helps. look at the slow mo cams when someone really mistimes one

 

[vic_orthdox]

Yeah, it basically means how well you hit the ball in the middle of the bat. I mean, there's time where guys hit the ball just over the head of a man in the ring, they don't want to hit it in the air, but it gets over because "they timed it well enough". It's a bit of a misnomer really.

 

[weldone]

There's more to timing than 'to hit the sweet spot of the bat' IMO.

Think of the differnce between a front-foot straight drive, and a forward defense. In the first one, the bat is in motion while the ball hits the sweet spot. In the other one, the bat might be static. You may have taken your pose by the time the ball comes and hits your bat, and it's a perfectly legit forward defense - but that can't be the case for a good straight drive.

 

[Arachnodouche]

Late cuts don't hit the middle of the bat do they? Timing, to me, is more about intercepting the ball at the correct instant so as to utilize its speed and height to impart maximum velocity to your strokes. That, and the middle of the bat while playing in the general V of course.

 

[Hurricane]

Late cuts don't hit the middle of the bat do they? Timing, to me, is more about intercepting the ball at the correct instant so as to utilize its speed and height to impart maximum velocity to your strokes. That, and the middle of the bat while playing in the general V of course.

I like this answer - and it is closer to the truth - but I think it is about intercepting the ball at the point where your weight transfer and arc of the bat and acceleration on the down swing is at its optimum.

 

[Spikey]

tim·ing/ˈtīmiNG/
Noun:

The choice, judgment, or control of when something should be done: "one of the secrets of golf is good timing".
A particular point or period of time when something happens.

 

[uvelocity]

 

[Agent Nationaux]

Is timing only restricted to the batsman?

 

[vic_orthdox]

Spent the last ten minutes just staring at that gif.

 

[howardj]

The meaning of the word has been dragged through the bush by the likes of Bill Lawry and other such lazy commentators who, any time the ball meets the rope, spit out "oh beautiful timing".

 

[BoyBrumby]

I think "timing", as used by comms, also includes an inherent bias towards shots that aren't overly muscled. One sometimes hears the Gowers and the Chappellis of the world say that a shot that looks like a gentle push initially is "all timing" or "pure timing" when the ball reaches the boundary.

It's a doubly weird concept really because some of the absolute giants of the game, one thinks instantly of Brian Charles here, play the ball very late indeed. So late, in fact, one could argue that if "timing" in a cricket sense meant the same as it does in general parlance that their timing was slightly off because they arguably play the ball fractionally after the optimal time.

 

[Hurricane]

Indeed that would be possible, hitting the ball too late and mistiming it.

However - I suspect that he probably got it right many times. I say this because my own experience with timing - suggests that hitting the ball later than you normally would is key.

Either after the ball passes past your front foot rather than in line with your foot - or you can focus on hitting it right below your eyes IMHO

 

[Dan]

Spent the last ten minutes just staring at that gif.

Not sure what's more surprising - the look on Gatting's face that follows, or that the Nat Geo watermark is on cricket footage.

 

[wellAlbidarned]

It's just a combination of hitting the middle of the bat and the perceived effort of the shot.