The forward defence is a vertical-bat block to a good-length ball you can't score off safely. Stride toward the pitch of the ball, head over the front knee, and let the ball meet a full face with soft hands, angled down, under your eyes. It isn't a scoring shot — it's the shot that makes the bowler bowl somewhere else.
Good length, on the stumps, doing enough that driving is a risk. The forward defence exists for the ball that would hit your stumps but is too full to cut and too tight to leave. Early season, new bowler, moving ball — the block is how you gather information without giving anything away.
The defence is a drive that decides not to follow through.
The gate. Bat arriving away from the pad leaves a corridor to the inside edge — bowled through the gap is the classic. Pad and bat travel together.
Hard hands. Pushing at the block turns a dead ball into a catch at short cover or slip. The ball hits the bat; the bat doesn't hit the ball.
Head falling to the leg side. Planting the stride across your stumps and playing around the front pad — that's the LBW factory. Stride at the ball, not across it.
Length. If you can get your front foot near the pitch of the ball, go forward; if it's short enough that going forward means playing away from your body, push back and defend off the back foot with the same soft hands. In doubt early in an innings, forward.
Hard hands, almost every time. If the bottom hand squeezes at contact the ball springs off the blade. Loosen the bottom hand to thumb-and-finger pressure and let the top hand steer.
Blocking the right balls is the habit. Blocking everything is a target problem, not a technique problem — decide before the ball what you'll do with each length, and the defence becomes a choice instead of a reflex.
Sticks watches your net session through your phone and speaks this exact kind of coaching in your earbuds, one focus per ball — in English or Hindi. Video never leaves your phone, and your first ten coached sessions are free.