Help With The Wrong 'un

Top Contributors
Spiderlounge

Spiderlounge

Member
Hello all, hope you're all well and I was sorry to hear about Dave's kid getting hurt.

Anyway, I'm wondering what it is I'm doing wrong when it comes to learning the wrong 'un, and whether it really ought to be taking me this long to get it. My problem at the moment is I just can't bowl one, and I don't mean I can't bowl one accurately, I mean however far I try and turn my wrist round, I can't bowl a ball that turns the other way. Just. Can't. Do it. (yet). I've done it once, but that was a bit of a fluke.

I know I'm bowling with quite a low arm generally, and I'm trying to get it up a bit, but I really don't see what it is I can do to get this wrong 'un going any more than I'm doing at the moment. It tends to come out top-spinning or top-spun leg-break-ish, but I can see on video that my hand is turned absolutely right round - It just won't come out spinning the other way! GRRR!!! :mad:

So to all you lucky people who can bowl one, please tell me:
  • How does the wrong 'un feel in general?
  • Do you change your grip for it much?
  • Which parts of the arm, elbow, shoulder feel stretched?
  • Is it third finger doing the work or are other fingers also more involved compared to a leg break?
  • At what point in the arc do you move your wrist round the loop?
  • Is it supposed to be this bloody difficult to learn???!!!
 
Spiderlounge said:
Hello all, hope you're all well and I was sorry to hear about Dave's kid getting hurt.

Anyway, I'm wondering what it is I'm doing wrong when it comes to learning the wrong 'un, and whether it really ought to be taking me this long to get it. My problem at the moment is I just can't bowl one, and I don't mean I can't bowl one accurately, I mean however far I try and turn my wrist round, I can't bowl a ball that turns the other way. Just. Can't. Do it. (yet). I've done it once, but that was a bit of a fluke.

I know I'm bowling with quite a low arm generally, and I'm trying to get it up a bit, but I really don't see what it is I can do to get this wrong 'un going any more than I'm doing at the moment. It tends to come out top-spinning or top-spun leg-break-ish, but I can see on video that my hand is turned absolutely right round - It just won't come out spinning the other way! GRRR!!! :mad:

So to all you lucky people who can bowl one, please tell me:
  • How does the wrong 'un feel in general?
  • Do you change your grip for it much?
  • Which parts of the arm, elbow, shoulder feel stretched?
  • Is it third finger doing the work or are other fingers also more involved compared to a leg break?
  • At what point in the arc do you move your wrist round the loop?
  • Is it supposed to be this bloody difficult to learn???!!!
Click to expand...


  • (1). How does the wrong 'un feel in general? - Awkward and demanding on your whole shoulder unit, I suffered very severe rotator cuff strain learning the Wrong Un and had to stop bowling altogether for a month to recover, with Liz telling me that if you do tear the rotator cuff, it never repairs 100% if you have to end up under the knife. But yeah bowling it feels very different to the Leg Break.
  • Do you change your grip for it much? No, not at all.
  • Which parts of the arm, elbow, shoulder feel stretched? The whole arm, I bowl it with a massive flick that makes the flick on my leg break look girlie, but that might be in part due to the fact that some commentators claim that bowling the wrong un is far more natural action than the leg break and once you do get there with it, the mechanics of the action are more aggressive?
  • Is it third finger doing the work or are other fingers also more involved compared to a leg break? Same as Leg Break comes off the 3rd finger.
  • At what point in the arc do you move your wrist round the loop? Very late in the last 15% of the arc
  • Is it supposed to be this bloody difficult to learn???!!! I think this depends, if you start with the wrong un, I suspect it would come very naturally and would be very easy, but your leg break would be very poor. If you've got a good leg break, yeah I reckon it's going to be hard, especially if you're looking to maintain your leg beak which I would always advise. When I was a 'Googly Bowler' everyone without exception said to me 'You're not a wrist spinner if you can't bowl the leg break'. But having said that Macca pointed out that my most successful season was a year bowling the Wrong Un with Flippers as a variation. But despite that I wasn't happy. Cos I've got the leg break back, I now find the wrong un hard to bowl without practice, but with a little practice it comes back with vengence, but then I get Googly syndrome paranoia!!!!
 
I find using the third finger like a leg break doesnt work for me, and like you it took me ages to bowl a wrong un. I just sort of cup ball and really try and just get it out thre back of the hand,I find the wrist does the work. If I use the 3rd finger it just comes out as a top spinner or even a small leg break.
The other thing is ensuring I follow through properly and ''bowl up.'
Maybe trying it without the 3rd helps. I hope so. Good luck, when they do come out its amazing so dont give up!!
 
Oh and drop the left shoulder to begin with. It helped me get the hand around more. I guess you try and hide this later on but to start with it helped me .
 
chippyben said:
I find using the third finger like a leg break doesnt work for me, and like you it took me ages to bowl a wrong un. I just sort of cup ball and really try and just get it out thre back of the hand,I find the wrist does the work. If I use the 3rd finger it just comes out as a top spinner or even a small leg break.
The other thing is ensuring I follow through properly and ''bowl up.'
Maybe trying it without the 3rd helps. I hope so. Good luck, when they do come out its amazing so dont give up!!
Click to expand...

Yeah I know what you mean. If i am thinking of any digit when I bowl a wrongun its the 4th finger.
 


Watch Sid's video here, he demo's the wrong un at the end. Spider, have a word with the coaches at your club and see if they've got Wings to Fly and try and borrow it or go and watch it somewhere. Jenner talks about the Wrong in that and demo's it. It's worth seeing and it's also worth taking note on what he says about the wrong un.

The other thing you might want to try is... Hold your arm out in front of you with your palm facing upwards and then with the use of your shoulder, elbow and wrist turn the hand over in an anti-clockwise direction through 360 degrees so your palm is facing upwards again. I reckon if you can't do that you may have a problem with the wrong un and you might need to do some stretching and flexibility with those joints till you're able to rotate the arm through 360 degrees.
 
Talking about the Flipper Brian Wilkins has said of the Wrong Un...

"I began to look around for a more reliable accompaniment to the leg break than the too often wayward and muscle tearing Googly".


From Brian Wilkins – The Bowlers Art; A&C Black – London; 1991
 
macca said:
Yeah I know what you mean. If i am thinking of any digit when I bowl a wrongun its the 4th finger.
Click to expand...

I think using the 3rd finger stops it coming out the back of my hand. Its good really because it really separates the wrong un and leg break. No googly syndrome luckily.
 
chippyben said:
I think using the 3rd finger stops it coming out the back of my hand. Its good really because it really separates the wrong un and leg break. No googly syndrome luckily.
Click to expand...

I know exactly what you mean. Pretty much what i do as well. It is wrist spin after all not finger spin.
 
i think you should buy the art of wrist spin bowling.There is much to learn.You have to practice it hand to hand then under arm then round,while round arm feel what you are doing.how are you spinning the ball.then over arm.With full action-full pitch
 
macca said:
I know exactly what you mean. Pretty much what i do as well. It is wrist spin after all not finger spin.
Click to expand...

Yeah maybe you're right, I don't use it that much these days, but thinking back a couple of years what I do recall is that I remember using a really loose grip and the cupped hand and it being very 'Rough and ready' in that respect - so thinking about it in that way maybe it did come off the 4th finger as well - maybe a combination of the two - 3rd and 4th?
 
Shivam_ipl said:
i think you should buy the art of wrist spin bowling.There is much to learn.You have to practice it hand to hand then under arm then round,while round arm feel what you are doing.how are you spinning the ball.then over arm.With full action-full pitch
Click to expand...
I've got it, I've read it at least five times cover-to-cover, and I've tried doing it as the book says! I'll have another look but I could probably recite the whole thing by heart.

I had a word with our club pro, a very nice Indian guy who bowls left-arm finger-spin. I was hoping he might have at some point experimented and bowled one but sadly not. He did give me some good advice though - "don't waste your time on it when you could be working on your stock ball..." Still, I do get bored in practise so I do need something to break up the session a bit, and like I said to him, I'll never feel like a 'proper' leg-spinner until I can bowl one.

I'm not aware of having physically met anyone who's actually bowled a wrong 'un, and what I'm really struggling with is how the ball FEELS when you bowl it. I've seen hundreds of videos, I know who can bowl a really good one and who can't, but I can't really understand what it is I'm doing wrong. I think I got a couple (out of 50+ attempts) to turn the other way last night bowling from a standing start, so perhaps that's progress. I've also found a tree in the garden with a branch at the right height to grip on to as I stretch my arm round, and it feels extremely tight in my armpit.
 
Spiderlounge said:
I've got it, I've read it at least five times cover-to-cover, and I've tried doing it as the book says! I'll have another look but I could probably recite the whole thing by heart.

I had a word with our club pro, a very nice Indian guy who bowls left-arm finger-spin. I was hoping he might have at some point experimented and bowled one but sadly not. He did give me some good advice though - "don't waste your time on it when you could be working on your stock ball..." Still, I do get bored in practise so I do need something to break up the session a bit, and like I said to him, I'll never feel like a 'proper' leg-spinner until I can bowl one.

I'm not aware of having physically met anyone who's actually bowled a wrong 'un, and what I'm really struggling with is how the ball FEELS when you bowl it. I've seen hundreds of videos, I know who can bowl a really good one and who can't, but I can't really understand what it is I'm doing wrong. I think I got a couple (out of 50+ attempts) to turn the other way last night bowling from a standing start, so perhaps that's progress. I've also found a tree in the garden with a branch at the right height to grip on to as I stretch my arm round, and it feels extremely tight in my armpit.
Click to expand...

It just feels like your bowling with your arm and wrist twisted round, eventually it starts to feel really comfortable and natural and then it's too late - you'd have passed over to the dark-side and the shining bright light that is your Leg Break will be a dim little light at the end of a very long tunnel. The bloke you spoke to is a Pro and he's said - don't bother with it, stick with your Leg Break, get that so that it audibly fizzes through the air and drifts, that's far more satisfying goal than being able to bowl an off-break surely?
 
someblokecalleddave said:
It just feels like your bowling with your arm and wrist twisted round, eventually it starts to feel really comfortable and natural and then it's too late - you'd have passed over to the dark-side and the shining bright light that is your Leg Break will be a dim little light at the end of a very long tunnel. The bloke you spoke to is a Pro and he's said - don't bother with it, stick with your Leg Break, get that so that it audibly fizzes through the air and drifts, that's far more satisfying goal than being able to bowl an off-break surely?
Click to expand...
Yeah but... Dave, I think you'd feel a bit inadequate if you couldn't bowl the flipper because your icon is Grimmett. My icon is Mailey, and he had an excellent wrong 'un. Know what I'm saying?

I don't want to make out I'm spending hours on the wrong 'un though, if I do a two hour session I might spend 15-20 minutes on it.
 
Spiderlounge said:
Yeah but... Dave, I think you'd feel a bit inadequate if you couldn't bowl the flipper because your icon is Grimmett. My icon is Mailey, and he had an excellent wrong 'un. Know what I'm saying?

I don't want to make out I'm spending hours on the wrong 'un though, if I do a two hour session I might spend 15-20 minutes on it.
Click to expand...

Maybe dave is being influenced by the brian wilkins book where he spends a lot of time putting the wrongun down and saying it is overated. By the time you finish reading what wilkins says about how useless the wrongun is you are almost convinced to drop it all together.

I reckon all of us here still think a wrongun is good to show every so often so i can understand you wanting to get one going.

You're pretty roundarm aren't you spiderlounge, so the wrongun can be harder to reach from down there, eh?

Have you done a lot of the under/side/overarm wrongun stuff like Philpott prescribes ?

I found what worked for getting my sons wrongun to happen again was to get him to concentrate on the finish. With the back of the hand really facing down to the ground and elbow pointing up skywards. So I had him do that pose a bit as I was telling him just come in and bowl more or less normally but do everything you can to end up in that wrongun finish position.

A combination of that and getting him to hand to hand wronguns and trying to get it coming round the 4th finger got his wrongun going last season.
 
I'm bowling with a higher arm now, party for consistency but also to facilitate the Wrong 'Un at a later date. I'm not sure how high though, haven't filmed it recently. My biggest turner is still a little on the low side but it's a variation now rather than the stock ball.
 
Spiderlounge said:
I'm bowling with a higher arm now, party for consistency but also to facilitate the Wrong 'Un at a later date. I'm not sure how high though, haven't filmed it recently. My biggest turner is still a little on the low side but it's a variation now rather than the stock ball.
Click to expand...

Macca, I haven't got that far into the book yet to have noticed that aspect of it, just that one bit. Incidentally I've been bowling my wrong un in practice more than the Flipper of late and wth regards the Flippers they've been way down my priority list for the last year or so. I'd have had a game tomorrow, but it's been called off seemingly because of the lack of interest rather than the state of the pitch - I'm gutted, but, if I'd have gone for a variation in that game I'd have gone for the wrong un over the Flipper. I think Macca's onto something with the arm position I have a very high arm action still as far as I know and that's definitely a factor.

It's good that you only spend a limited amount of time on it - you will be gutted if you get the Googly Syndrome and it sticks and you can't shake it off.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top