This is one of my favourite subjects so my posts are going to be long winded. I write as i think and do not want to go back and edit. Excuse me please
On Footwork
Its would be erroneous to consider footwork as synonymous with technique. But good footwork is one of the most vital ingredients of the 'learnt/taught' skills of the game.
Hands(including arms) and your bat are what deal with the ball so most of the stroke execution is about how these two are used but to be able to do that well you need to get the rest of your body in the right place and that is what your feet (or footwork) is supposed to do. Thus footwork comes first. The only thing that comes before is your eyes but here I am talking of footwork.
To learn the basics of footwork, one must, at the first step, leave lateral movement out. It makes it simpler.
All balls, particularly if there is no lateral movement, can be hit. What is needed is for the batsman to decide where he wants to meet the ball with his bat and how does he move to have the best chance of getting his bat at that spot at the right time. (By the way, when you get these three aspects perfectly you have achieved the 'difficult to define term of timing). It seems a tall claim to say that all balls can be hit, but it really is true and the modern game, particularly the shorter version is showing more examples of it than we had in the past. The problem, however, is to be able to decide where you want to meet the ball - in front of the popping crease or behind it. In other words, do you want to go forward or back. An over pitched delivery is more easily spotted and the decision is made quickly to go forward. Same is true for the really short ball and going back. The problem lies in between.
The good length ball is best defined as the ball where the batsman is not able to decide, quickly enough, whether to play back or forward. This is why bowlers are aiming to achieve this length and so many batsmen failing to score often off them.
My coach used to say a very interesting thing. He said, you can be scared of a good length ball because you are not able to hit it without risk but if you are good enough, you could look at it differently and say, "A good length ball is that which can be played of either feet. All you need is to judge its length early enough to move decisively forward or back."
Garfield Sobers in India at a function the other day said a very interesting thing. He said that having once been stumped, he decided never to be stumped again and it did not in any way hinder his stroke play. He either went fully forward or right back to the base of the stumps. This, with his height, gave hims something like 8-8.5 feet to play with. It was enough to play any length the bowlers bowled. All he needed was to decide early and move fully.
So the first part of footwork, after one has decided the line/length, is to move forward or back AND do it decisively.
A lot of batsmen suffer and not many are able to do what Sobers suggests because of their being either front footed or back-footed by inclination. Ideally one should be comfortable in both. Coaches, by and large, tend to reach front foot movements first and a predominance of turf wickets in coaching centers in many parts of the world make it easier for youngsters to prefer the front foot. This is unfortunate.
The greatest batsmen of the world have been those who have been great backfoot players. This is not to say that front foot play is not important enough but trust me, if you see the ball early enough, you can play almost all of them off the backfoot (assuming you know how to) while front foot is restrictive.
The video of Sobers's 254 (I think) against Lillee in Australia shows a shot where he goes back to what looks like a yorker and drives it on the half-volley (off his back foot) for a four.
I am digressing but I want to emphasise the back foot movement since that is what is the bigger problem with modern players, particularly from the sub-continent where the low bounce of domestic wickets makes it easier to score runs even with a front foot game. Hence the Yuvraj's of India and the host of openers from Pakistan.
to be continued....