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Home / Bay of Plenty Times

Cricket: Getting a grip on technique

By Cricket Peter White
Bay of Plenty Times·
19 Nov, 2014 07:06 PM3 mins to read

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BOP coach Dave Richardson and the new cricket bat grips. Photo / Stephen Parker

BOP coach Dave Richardson and the new cricket bat grips. Photo / Stephen Parker

It seems so simple but, then again, the best ideas usually are.

A cricket bat grip designed to ensure batsmen learn the correct way to hold the bat was released on the market last Sunday.

The 2mm Sports Pure grip for adults and Rock grip for children have moulds on them to position the hands in the right place every time.

It is the invention of 2mm Sports founders in Bay of Plenty cricket, coaches David Richardson (senior), Dave Richardson (junior) from Rotorua, and Te Puke's ex-New Zealand wicketkeeper Rob Hart.

The product is the world's first functional imprint of a technically perfect grip and has been patented in most cricket-playing countries.

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"The product is completely unique in cricket," Hart said.

"When the two Daves had some time on their hands four years back, they decided to try and solve what has been the hardest thing for them to coach, which is gripping.

"They came up with it and I joined in about two years ago.

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"When they showed it to me, I thought 'wow, this is seriously good'. I have worked with them for the past two years refining it and to the point it is now a really cool product.

"When I first picked up Pure and Rock, I knew as a cricketer that it was remarkable. I knew it would help cricketers across the world.

"The hours of hard work that I put into my batting over the years would have been accelerated if I had been able to use it to train such basic but fundamental technique."

Hart says the products have been trialled during the past six months to a year, with obvious improvement in the batting performances of the kids using the grips.

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The natural urge to slog across the line has been replaced with playing straight, thanks to having their hands correctly placed on the grip.

And it is not just youngsters turned on by the new grip.

Black Caps legend Daniel Vettori is endorsing its use to cricketers of all levels.

"If something like that was around when I was a little bit younger, like the 2mm Rock, I think it would have made a huge difference to my game," he said.

"The thing that I have really enjoyed about it is it has allowed my hands to go into a really natural position and enable me to play as straight as possible. And I think when I was growing up those were the things that I had a lot of difficulty with."

-The grips are available only online at www.2mmsports.com.

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