Symptom: The line and length are both ok, but it just seems to flop out without any venom. It feels like I'm spinning fresh air as the ball has already gone, and I don't seem to have enough control over the release.
Suggestion: This is almost the opposite problem to getting stuck side on unable to get round. You are running through the crease without your left-hand side of your body bracing and providing resistance for you to push against. This causes the arm to come over too quickly and for you to be forced to relase the ball before you are ready, without the hand action completing or your being able to put weight behind the ball. Make sure you are getting nice and side on with a braced, high front foot.You may also be unbalanced such that you are toppling forwards at the crease - stay upright just before and then through the delivery stride, aiming for a nice, controlled transfer of weight from back foot to front foot.
Symptom: The line and length are both ok, it feels great, and it seems to have some fizz and be dipping a bit in the air. But the bloody thing won't turn!!!
Suggestion: Don't panic. It's nearly there. You are possibly releasing with the right shoulder still too far behind the left one. If you can, 'get some shoulder into it' - get the right shoulder right around and extended - with your arm - in front of you. Watch Graeme Swann's slightly unusual action - he not only ends up turned right round and facing cover when has finished - as do most - he is pretty much fully round at the point of release of the ball. For some reason being in this position, or close to it, seems to allow freer shoulder rotation. You can help this along by exaggerating with your left arm (fairly late in your action) to pull your shoulder further round. Alternatively, you might be slightly rushed and unable to get the hand into position. Cocking the wrist more can help, but to be honest I've found this more of a band-aid solution. If the body action is good and my shoulders are relaxed, the side-spin will usually come.
Whatever you do, don't get frustrated and grip the ball harder and harder and try and apply a humungous rip. This will only get you all tense, and I find that shoulder tension *kills spin*.
Symptom: The line is excellent, and the ball feels like it's coming out with revs on it, but just about everything is overpitched and a bit loopy.
Suggestion: You might be leaning back slightly at the point of delivery, rather than upright and balanced and leaning into it if anything. You might also be not quite getting enough of the last minute welly onto the ball. Try making sure the sweep of your arms is driven from the shoulders rather than the hands, and feel the weight of the shoulder and the very top of your right arm come vertically down in front of you as you start to release. I focus on and aim at the batsman's head. Just my personal quirk, but I actually am suspicious of the idea of aiming at a spot on the wicket. It would be logical if you were bowling or throwing directly at that point, but you're not - the ball is initially travelling more or less flat at the bowler's eye-line before dropping onto a length: aiming up at the head is a more accurate reflection of the initial trajectory at the point of release. I've also found a good bit of self-kiddology is to pretend I'm bowling in one of those spin-hostile nets with a very low ceiling: if you've ever bowled in one, then you do find you adjust eventually (after losing most of the session trying to fetch balls down of the top...) and it's quite a good visualization trick for me.
Symptom: The line is excellent, and the ball seems to be spinning nicely at a good pace, but the length is horribly random.
Suggestion: Seems to be a particular bugbear of bowlers with a very fast, explosive action. I'm not like that, and I wouldn't presume to tell you not to be if that works for you, but I'd make the following points: it's much easier to coordinate a series of movements if you do them slowly enough for a feedback loop to operate between your brain and eyes and body so that you can adjust it as you go through; it's amazing how slowly you can move through the delivery stride if you are perfectly balanced and apply a gradual acceleration, and yet still manage to bowl the ball with a nice, respectable spinners' pace; Philpott points out how most good sportsmen are smooth and rhythmical rather than abrupt and jerky in what they do.
Symptom: The length isn't too bad, but the line seems to be all over the shop.
You are probably off balance because you are collapsed and not tall enough in the action, such that your arms are wobbling all over the place as you topple around overbalancing, or maybe not getting properly aligned side on with the target. If you are side on and then move through the crease such that your arm can move unhindered in a nice vertical circle in a plane between wicket and wicket, then you effectively turn it into a 2D game, so if nothing else the ball will at least go straight.
Suggestion: This is almost the opposite problem to getting stuck side on unable to get round. You are running through the crease without your left-hand side of your body bracing and providing resistance for you to push against. This causes the arm to come over too quickly and for you to be forced to relase the ball before you are ready, without the hand action completing or your being able to put weight behind the ball. Make sure you are getting nice and side on with a braced, high front foot.You may also be unbalanced such that you are toppling forwards at the crease - stay upright just before and then through the delivery stride, aiming for a nice, controlled transfer of weight from back foot to front foot.
Symptom: The line and length are both ok, it feels great, and it seems to have some fizz and be dipping a bit in the air. But the bloody thing won't turn!!!
Suggestion: Don't panic. It's nearly there. You are possibly releasing with the right shoulder still too far behind the left one. If you can, 'get some shoulder into it' - get the right shoulder right around and extended - with your arm - in front of you. Watch Graeme Swann's slightly unusual action - he not only ends up turned right round and facing cover when has finished - as do most - he is pretty much fully round at the point of release of the ball. For some reason being in this position, or close to it, seems to allow freer shoulder rotation. You can help this along by exaggerating with your left arm (fairly late in your action) to pull your shoulder further round. Alternatively, you might be slightly rushed and unable to get the hand into position. Cocking the wrist more can help, but to be honest I've found this more of a band-aid solution. If the body action is good and my shoulders are relaxed, the side-spin will usually come.
Whatever you do, don't get frustrated and grip the ball harder and harder and try and apply a humungous rip. This will only get you all tense, and I find that shoulder tension *kills spin*.
Symptom: The line is excellent, and the ball feels like it's coming out with revs on it, but just about everything is overpitched and a bit loopy.
Suggestion: You might be leaning back slightly at the point of delivery, rather than upright and balanced and leaning into it if anything. You might also be not quite getting enough of the last minute welly onto the ball. Try making sure the sweep of your arms is driven from the shoulders rather than the hands, and feel the weight of the shoulder and the very top of your right arm come vertically down in front of you as you start to release. I focus on and aim at the batsman's head. Just my personal quirk, but I actually am suspicious of the idea of aiming at a spot on the wicket. It would be logical if you were bowling or throwing directly at that point, but you're not - the ball is initially travelling more or less flat at the bowler's eye-line before dropping onto a length: aiming up at the head is a more accurate reflection of the initial trajectory at the point of release. I've also found a good bit of self-kiddology is to pretend I'm bowling in one of those spin-hostile nets with a very low ceiling: if you've ever bowled in one, then you do find you adjust eventually (after losing most of the session trying to fetch balls down of the top...) and it's quite a good visualization trick for me.
Symptom: The line is excellent, and the ball seems to be spinning nicely at a good pace, but the length is horribly random.
Suggestion: Seems to be a particular bugbear of bowlers with a very fast, explosive action. I'm not like that, and I wouldn't presume to tell you not to be if that works for you, but I'd make the following points: it's much easier to coordinate a series of movements if you do them slowly enough for a feedback loop to operate between your brain and eyes and body so that you can adjust it as you go through; it's amazing how slowly you can move through the delivery stride if you are perfectly balanced and apply a gradual acceleration, and yet still manage to bowl the ball with a nice, respectable spinners' pace; Philpott points out how most good sportsmen are smooth and rhythmical rather than abrupt and jerky in what they do.
Symptom: The length isn't too bad, but the line seems to be all over the shop.
You are probably off balance because you are collapsed and not tall enough in the action, such that your arms are wobbling all over the place as you topple around overbalancing, or maybe not getting properly aligned side on with the target. If you are side on and then move through the crease such that your arm can move unhindered in a nice vertical circle in a plane between wicket and wicket, then you effectively turn it into a 2D game, so if nothing else the ball will at least go straight.