The leg glance is a deflection, not a hit — a straight or leg-side ball turned fine behind square with a closing bat face, using the bowler's own pace. It is the politest-looking shot in cricket and one of the most profitable: no field ever fully covers fine leg, and the glance needs timing and a still head rather than strength, which makes it one of the first scoring shots a young batter can genuinely own.
To a ball angling into your pads or sliding down leg — the delivery that would hit your thigh pad, not your stumps. Anything straight enough to bowl you gets a defence or an on drive instead; glancing across a stump-hitting ball is how lbw happens.
Everything is a normal defensive stride until the last instant.
Closing the face early. The classic — a leading edge or a lob to square leg. The wrists turn at impact, never before.
Glancing the straight ball. If it would hit the stumps, defend it or drive it. Miss a glance across a straight one and the pad is the only thing left — that's the lbw the shot is famous for.
Reaching across to the off side. The glance is played from inside the line of a LEG-side ball; dragging an off-stump ball to leg is a different (and worse) decision.
Direction and violence. The glance turns the ball FINE, behind square, mostly with the face and the ball's own pace. The flick works squarer, in front of square, with real wrist snap and bat speed. The glance is the lower-risk of the two because contact happens later and closer to the pad.
Usually the ball was straighter than you read — a stump-hitting line glanced across the front pad. Tighten the rule: glance only what is clearly missing leg stump. The second cause is a head falling leg-side, which drags the bat across the line instead of down it.
It is one of the safer shots against pace precisely because it borrows the bowler's speed — but only to balls at your pads. Against the short straight ball, the glance becomes a glove-down-the-leg-side dismissal; that ball wants a sway or a controlled tuck, not a glance.
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 it's free to start.