Leg spin - dragging the ball down short

[Sparksy88]

Leg spin - dragging the ball down short

Hey guys, im new to the site and wanted to share a couple ideas about leg spin and get some feed back.

After a great 1st half of the season this year i recently have found myself getting the leg spin yips in the form of dragging the ball short with the ball sliding out of the fingers with less spin.

After hours experimenting this week and also through research, i believe that i have been far to open chested at point of delivery in an effort to add extra body rotation and trying to get my back leg through. Though this is advice u find from many sources, i believe this was causing me to drag the ball short and generaly wider of off stump.

Therefore by trying to be more side at delivery (which warne is), spinning it hard and letting the body and back leg naturaly follow through with the forward momentum and delivery effort, i have been ripping the pants off the ball, about a 70% improvement.

Of course i might be talking crap, but works for me.

Rob

 

[macca]

Re: Leg spin - dragging the ball down short

Hey guys, im new to the site and wanted to share a couple ideas about leg spin and get some feed back.

After a great 1st half of the season this year i recently have found myself getting the leg spin yips in the form of dragging the ball short with the ball sliding out of the fingers with less spin.

After hours experimenting this week and also through research, i believe that i have been far to open chested at point of delivery in an effort to add extra body rotation and trying to get my back leg through. Though this is advice u find from many sources, i believe this was causing me to drag the ball short and generaly wider of off stump.

Therefore by trying to be more side at delivery (which warne is), spinning it hard and letting the body and back leg naturaly follow through with the forward momentum and delivery effort, i have been ripping the pants off the ball, about a 70% improvement.

Of course i might be talking crap, but works for me.

Rob

For sure, failure to get side-on enough is a leading cause of drag downs. Benaud used to say 9 times out of 10 drag downs by legspinners were the results of failure to get side on.

There are other reasons for the problem though. You see some guys get pretty chest-on and still flight it up on a good length. You gotta spin up.

 

[Jim2109]

Re: Leg spin - dragging the ball down short

the open chest is usually a consequence of other things, lack of rotation being the principal cause. no matter how much you think youre rotating, often youre not, youre simply twisting your shoulders around and nothing else, or starting out very front on in the first place.

you dont have to be side on, some people just arent side on bowlers (myself included). the key is to stay upright, deliver the ball from a balanced position, rotate, and get onto your front toes. spinning up pretty much comes naturally with a good action. prior to making some major changes to my action i had a massive length issue, and when i looked at myself on video it was clear that i just wasnt rotating. id unknowingly ditched the rotation in order to follow through harder to try and bowl faster.

 

[Sparksy88]

Re: Leg spin - dragging the ball down short

The thing i am confused about is how can you rotate your body through the ball and not bring your chest open at delivery, thus dragging it down. Im not denying that warne and jenner say your need to rotate your body, but looking closely at warne he is fairly closed at delivery and its affert the explosion at delivery that the body fires through and round. As philpott mentions in his book, the shoulders to not rotate round one another, rather its more like they rotate almost over eachother (which obviously is pretty impossible but thats the feeling). I may be talking crap but interested in your thoughs.
Rob

 

[someblokecalleddave]

Re: Leg spin - dragging the ball down short

I'd say that if you've already made changed that have created a 70% improvement stay with that for a while and see how it works out in the longer term. Again there's a case for there being possibly too much info and trying to change too much too soon. People bowl in all sorts of different ways think of Paul Adams, Grimmett, Benaud, Kaneria and Graham Cremer, their approach and action through the crease looks totally different from one another, yet they're all Wrist Spinners. So look at the advice that people offer and watch other spinners and tweak your own action till it works and then just go with that and you'll probably grow into your own style?

 

[Jim2109]

Re: Leg spin - dragging the ball down short

The thing i am confused about is how can you rotate your body through the ball and not bring your chest open at delivery, thus dragging it down. Im not denying that warne and jenner say your need to rotate your body, but looking closely at warne he is fairly closed at delivery and its affert the explosion at delivery that the body fires through and round. As philpott mentions in his book, the shoulders to not rotate round one another, rather its more like they rotate almost over eachother (which obviously is pretty impossible but thats the feeling). I may be talking crap but interested in your thoughs.
Rob

your chest does have to "open" at some point (in so much as it has to face the batsman, and that occurs as you release the ball and follow through with your bowling arm), but its an optical illusion. Warne looks more closed off because his whole body rotates in unison, so his upper and lower body rotate together. he just pivots around the front foot. the problems occur when you open out your upper body to bowl the ball. this leads to poor accuracy and consistency in line and length, as well as a lack of drive in the action.

hence having a strong rotation tends to be the cure. if you are genuinely rotating around the toes of your front foot then your action will be a lot more fluid and consistent.

 

[Sparksy88]

Re: Leg spin - dragging the ball down short

Thanks for you thoughts, very interesting and helpful.

After looking at my action on camera today i made abit of a breakthrough and i also realised that i have been talking some rubbish.

The footage showed that my front let was slightly bent at delivery and stayed bent through out the action, meaning i could not get up and over and instead dragging the ball down and causing a weak follow through and rotation.

After only working for 20 minutes of having a more braced front leg i managed to get a much better trajectory/loop as i was able to really get up and through my action, with the camera showing a much better follow through.

Seems to have solved my problem i just need to practice it untill it become natural!

Robbo

 

[macca]

Re: Leg spin - dragging the ball down short

if you are genuinely rotating around the toes of your front foot then your action will be a lot more fluid and consistent.

That is so true. The camera comes in handy doesn't it? If you see that rotating on front foot toes it looks classical.

That and correct backfoot placement are the two things I watch for most because you cant do the upper body stuff properly without them.