Our thanks go to George Dobell and The Cricketer Magazine for their fantastic review of Getting to Grips by Toby Radford.
“High Net Value”
“During the months of Covid lockdown, Toby Radford was forced to improvise in a bid to sustain his career as a batting coach. With in-person sessions impossible, he instead started to work with his clients – among them, some of the biggest names in the sport – via video.
By then, Radford had already carved out a name for himself as a successful batting coach. He had coached Middlesex to the T20 domestic trophy and Glamorgan, too, before spending several years with West Indies as batting coach.
But being forced to work over video forced him to think outside the box and utilise different methods. In particular, he started to use images to make his points to players.
The result is this book. Originally self-published, it’s now expanded and improved to provide what may well amount to a self-help manual for batters – or coaches – at any level.
It’s a book designed to be taken to the nets. It’s soft-back, for a start, so it can easily fit in a bag or even a back pocket. And the idea is that, if you are struggling against a left-arm bowler swinging the ball into you, for example, you can immediately refer to the chapter on just that.
It contains stills from sessions with many of the players with whom he has worked as well as stills from TV coverage designed to show what the best do. By doing so, it helps simplify the sometimes complicated art of batting. Jason Holder, Dawid Malan and Shivnarine Chanderpaul provide the forewords while Eoin Morgan and Kraigg Brathwaite are among those providing endorsements. It really should be an asset to anyone looking to improve their knowledge of the art of batting.”
It really should be an asset to anyone looking to improve their knowledge of the art of batting.”
Getting to Grips is out now and available through all good bookstores and online retailers.
