Sport: Of Technique, Balance, and Instinct

Most often, the most common word associated with any sportsman, struggling, or otherwise, is technique. Often the term technique is explained in the most common manner possible, where "by book" is preferred over "by flair" and "orthodoxy" over "un-orthodoxy" and you get the drift.

We hear football managers cry foul over players' technique going askew so as to explain their lack of form (read lack of success) and how the technique mantra will take time to bear result. We hear tennis coaches complain how the drive-volley has taken precedence over the push-volley simply because less-and-less players around the world play the Serve-and-Volley game (blame none, the grass court season begins two-weeks prior to Wimbledon and ends with it and the remaining 48 weeks of the calendar are spread between clay and hard court seasons with the sprinkling of indoor and carpet tournaments in-between) and that the base-liners can't develop to have the subtle hands that are required at the net for they are predominantly of the slam-bang-thank-you-ma'am variety.

And how often have you heard Boycott go "feet stuck in glue" every time Sehwag wafted unsuccessfully at one outside the off-stump with his feet firmly rooted on leg-stump?

Technique is, simply, not doing the wrong things! As a slam-bang baseliner, the volley-technique is not necessarily "keep the racquet head high, keep your hands firm, wrists steady and not take a swing at the ball, but only push," it is simply "play it effectively back into your opponents court."

It might mean not having the grace of a Federer or a Sampras backhand volley, but the crude effectiveness of the five-time Wimbledon champ Bjorn Borg, who, repeatedly was told that he couldn't volley for he lacked technique but who would win Wimbledon time-after-time and five years in a row and put the legendry volley techniques of Connors and McEnroe to shame!

For a budding cricket batsman, technique should just be the ability to keep out good deliveries from getting you out and if it means you can do it without moving your feet, fair enough! Sir Viv Richards had too prominent an initial movement across and Sir Garfield Sobers, the greatest cricketer, never had his head over-the-top of the line-of-the-ball every time he spanked one off his back-foot through the off-side and Kapil Dev never had a still-head even as he was at the verge of releasing his immortal out-swingers.

Balance complements good technique. It is the most basic rule to clean ball striking in all ball sport. The ability to keep your bodily balance right helps to strike gold off the proper foot and get maximum value for each effort. It is true that all great cricketers and great racquet sportsmen had great balance, but not necessarily great technique (read "by book" ability).

Mike Procter, the legendary South African cricket fast-bowling-all-rounder who had a remarkable First Class career (Apartheid robbed Test Cricket off this great Protean all-rounder; he played only seven Test matches), bowled off the wrong foot. For those who are confused in understanding what bowling off the wrong foot means, all right-arm bowlers release the ball off their left foot (their front foot) and left-arm bowlers off their right foot (their front foot). Bowling off the wrong foot is bowling off your back foot, or releasing the ball before your front foot lands! This simply boils down to maintaining your balance in your back foot at the time of releasing the ball. It's not bad technique, but good balance.

Finally, instinct: Sport is as much about instinct as it is about ability, practice and strategy. Instinct takes over at the nick of the moment. Federer famously turned a match on its head playing a Squash backhand. I'm pretty sure that he doesn't go into games with a strategy to play Squash strokes. It is his instinct that tells him to play a squash shot for his balance has got him into a position to play that stroke, and his technique is good enough to pull out that stroke.

All great sportsmen turn to their instinct when push comes to shove. P. Gopichand didn't have the speed of the Chinese or the Indonesians nor did he have the power of the Danes, but the instinct that his quick-hands, his subtle wrist and reflexes gave him were good enough to out wit his opponents and win him the All England Badminton Championships.

Sport is complicated only when one wants it to be!

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