The pull is a cross-bat shot to a short ball on or around your body, hit in front of square on the leg side. The engine is the back foot going back and across and the body swivelling so your weight moves into the ball while it's still at a hittable height — roughly chest and below. Played well it's the great bully shot in club cricket; played to the wrong ball it's a top edge.
Short of a length to properly short, arriving between hip and chest height, on the stumps or at your body. Above chest height it becomes a hook — a different, riskier shot. The decision has to be early: the pull is the first shot to fall apart when you commit late.
Everything happens off the back foot, and everything happens early.
Pulling from the front foot. No time, no leverage, and the ball's on top of you — that's the lob to mid-wicket. Back foot first, always.
Taking on the ball above chest height. The bat can't get over the top of it, so the ball goes up. If it's climbing past your chest: sway, duck, or glove-down leave.
Stiff wrists at contact. Flat contact with no roll sends the ball flat but airborne through mid-wicket — catchable. Rolling the wrists is what pins it down.
Height and intent. The pull is to a ball between hip and chest, hit down in front of square. The hook is to a ball at chest-to-head height, hit behind square and usually in the air. The pull is a percentage shot; the hook is a calculated risk.
One of three things: the ball was higher than you read it, your weight never went back so you were hitting up at it, or your head fell away toward leg side. Back and across first, and only pull what arrives below your chest.
Yes — against genuinely short, slow balls it's one of the easiest boundaries in junior cricket. The discipline to learn alongside it is the leave-and-duck for anything above chest height.
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.