How To Hit A Mega Six

How To Hit A Mega Six

Power hitting!
A skill so valuable, so in demand, and so pleasing on the eye. This post is all about big-hitting players, and bigger shots, no seriously, we’re looking at the 100 meters six territory.

Power hitting is all about the stance and the technique that leads to a powerful shot. So this time we’ll be concentrating on things that get you in a position to play these shots.

And when we talk about power hitters and their stance, there are two kinds:

1. Front On stance hitters like AB de Villiers
2. The Deep In-crease hitters like Hardik Pandya and Andre Russel

Front On Stance: 

Step 1 - When we say front on stance, this means that he will open up his body well before the ball arrived. This opening up of the chest gave him the freedom and flexibility to send the ball wherever he liked.

What is the difference between AbD and others? Well, others use their feet to generate room for themselves - Ab does it with his chest.

Step 2 - As he opens up his body, his footwork was also crucial, what ABD does is take a step back into his crease, this gives him a split second to adjust his position based on the length of the delivery.

Step 3 - Once he has correctly judged the length, he would take a significant step forward with his front foot so that when he met the ball, his weight transfer would be the source of power in his hitting.

Step 4 - At the point of contact, you would often notice the collapsing of his back foot to ensure the weight is all on the front foot.

It is interesting to know that ABD takes inspiration for his stance from baseball. Just like baseball, the strength to hit a ball really hard comes from large muscle groups like, thighs and legs that generate power.


Deep In-crease stance:

With hitters like Andre Russel and Hardik Pandya, it’s all about sitting deep and clearing the front leg, which gives them enough space for the arms to power the ball over the rope, over the stands, and out of the stadium!

What Dre Russ does by sitting deep is he tweaks the length of deliveries to suit his strengths. Yorkers turn into over pitched deliveries and good length balls turn into short deliveries.

By sitting deep and waiting for the ball, this allows the batsman to completely rely on his arms generating the power, unlike ABD who uses leg muscles to generate power. The added time comes in handy as there is usually a big swing and follow-through that is needed to clear the boundary.