Leg Spinner And Coach

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Max Andrews

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G'day guys. I’m a young leg spin bowler and coach. It’s really great to see such a passionate group of spin bowlers all in the one place. I really enjoy coaching spin bowling and seeing bowlers spin the ball. If you have any questions about spin bowling feel free to ask me.
As any leg spinner, Warney has been a huge influence and idol for me. The way Warne uses mind games and his sheer brilliance to dismiss batsman really made me want to bowl leg spin. I’ll briefly tell you about the highlights of my playing career so far. I’d bowled leg spin for a long time without really looking like going anywhere. A few years ago the wicketkeeper of our first grade team got a job as head coach at my school’s cricket academy. Which in short, he saw me bowling and my progress and decided to invite me to train with the scorchers. Whilst training with the scorchers I had the privilege to play and train with some really experience cricketers. Former New Zealand opening batsman and current Canterbury Captain Peter Fulton has a wealth of experience and it was a great to meet him. I learned a lot from Fults, getting the chance to bowl to him and hear what he thinks of my bowling was amazing.
Sam Northeast, England U19s and Kent Batsman and James Bazley, Australia U19 and Brisbane Heat All-rounder, were to other great blokes to train with. Whilst their major role might not be spin bowling (Northy bowls some handy leggies), they have both played with and against some very talented spin bowlers. Talking to Northeast and Bazley really helped me to further understand what a batsman is trying to do when facing spin and what fields and plans to have when bowling to certain types of batsman.
I’ve played and trained with a huge number of other talented players, spin bowlers and spin bowling coaches who have really helped me improve my knowledge of spin bowling and learn how to achieve success. I was leading wicket taker for the U17s Scorchers team, and just recently was leading wicket taker at the state 19 years cricket tournament. I’m hoping and planning on with a lot of hard work to achieve much more success and hopefully help other passionate spin bowlers improve their game. And most of all SPIN the ball.
If you have any questions about spin bowling, please feel free to ask me.
https://www.pitchvision.com/cricket-coaching#coach_58
 
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Max, what's your advice with regards getting the ball to drift apart from 'Spin it hard'?
Hi Dave, obviously spinning the ball hard is the key to getting the ball to drift (the Magnus effect). There are a few other things that will help make the ball drift more, but it more like getting the ball to swing (like a fast bowler). Keeping one side of the ball shiny and the other side rough will assist you in getting the ball to drift. Having the seam position at 90o does not have any energy going forward and the ball cannot swing. It’s good to develop a few different leg breaks, but two is usually plenty. One with the seam at 90 o and the other at 45 o.
There are a few things you can do, like messing around with finger pressure, but they often create loss of spin and your leg break. So basically work on developing two hard spun leg breaks at 90o and 45o and keep one side of the ball shiny. Very basic but there’s not much else that I know of that you can do without losing your leg break.
 
Hi Dave, obviously spinning the ball hard is the key to getting the ball to drift (the Magnus effect). There are a few other things that will help make the ball drift more, but it more like getting the ball to swing (like a fast bowler). Keeping one side of the ball shiny and the other side rough will assist you in getting the ball to drift. Having the seam position at 90o does not have any energy going forward and the ball cannot swing. It’s good to develop a few different leg breaks, but two is usually plenty. One with the seam at 90 o and the other at 45 o.
There are a few things you can do, like messing around with finger pressure, but they often create loss of spin and your leg break. So basically work on developing two hard spun leg breaks at 90o and 45o and keep one side of the ball shiny. Very basic but there’s not much else that I know of that you can do without losing your leg break.

Do reckon there's a speed aspect to it e.g. is there a speed that is so slow through the air, even if you were spinning it ridiculously hard it wouldn't drift?
 
Do reckon there's a speed aspect to it e.g. is there a speed that is so slow through the air, even if you were spinning it ridiculously hard it wouldn't drift?
Not being a scientist so I don't really know. However from my experience if you bowl slower air has more time to contact the ball and create drift and bowling faster air has less time to contact the ball. However, by bowling slower, not always but generally, your action does not have that 'snap' and so the ball just floats out making it difficult to get any drift. And bowling faster than your natural speed makes it challenging to have your fingers make proper contact with the ball and hence less spin is applied.
So basically, I think if you can bowl slower with the snap in your action the ball will drift more. But you should bowl most deliveries at your natural pace and use the changes it pace as variation.
I hope this helps Dave.
 
Not being a scientist so I don't really know. However from my experience if you bowl slower air has more time to contact the ball and create drift and bowling faster air has less time to contact the ball. However, by bowling slower, not always but generally, your action does not have that 'snap' and so the ball just floats out making it difficult to get any drift. And bowling faster than your natural speed makes it challenging to have your fingers make proper contact with the ball and hence less spin is applied.
So basically, I think if you can bowl slower with the snap in your action the ball will drift more. But you should bowl most deliveries at your natural pace and use the changes it pace as variation.
I hope this helps Dave.
Does anyone think something different? Or have any thoughts or questions?
 
G'day guys. I’m a young leg spin bowler and coach. It’s really great to see such a passionate group of spin bowlers all in the one place. I really enjoy coaching spin bowling and seeing bowlers spin the ball. If you have any questions about spin bowling feel free to ask me.
As any leg spinner, Warney has been a huge influence and idol for me. The way Warne uses mind games and his sheer brilliance to dismiss batsman really made me want to bowl leg spin. I’ll briefly tell you about the highlights of my playing career so far. I’d bowled leg spin for a long time without really looking like going anywhere. A few years ago the wicketkeeper of our first grade team got a job as head coach at my school’s cricket academy. Which in short, he saw me bowling and my progress and decided to invite me to train with the scorchers. Whilst training with the scorchers I had the privilege to play and train with some really experience cricketers. Former New Zealand opening batsman and current Canterbury Captain Peter Fulton has a wealth of experience and it was a great to meet him. I learned a lot from Fults, getting the chance to bowl to him and hear what he thinks of my bowling was amazing.
Sam Northeast, England U19s and Kent Batsman and James Bazley, Australia U19 and Brisbane Heat All-rounder, were to other great blokes to train with. Whilst their major role might not be spin bowling (Northy bowls some handy leggies), they have both played with and against some very talented spin bowlers. Talking to Northeast and Bazley really helped me to further understand what a batsman is trying to do when facing spin and what fields and plans to have when bowling to certain types of batsman.
I’ve played and trained with a huge number of other talented players, spin bowlers and spin bowling coaches who have really helped me improve my knowledge of spin bowling and learn how to achieve success. I was leading wicket taker for the U17s Scorchers team, and just recently was leading wicket taker at the state 19 years cricket tournament. I’m hoping and planning on with a lot of hard work to achieve much more success and hopefully help other passionate spin bowlers improve their game. And most of all SPIN the ball.
If you have any questions about spin bowling, please feel free to ask me.
https://www.pitchvision.com/cricket-coaching#coach_58
When you were with the Scorchers, how often would you train and what form did the training take - specifically with regards to your bowling? Also have you ever observed pro leg spinners training and again what form does their training take? Is it always against batsmen? Or do they ever do things like accuracy training? Also, is there always a coach there over-seeing it suggesting things to do, picking you/them up on their mistakes and getting them to tweak their actions and stuff?
 
When you were with the Scorchers, how often would you train and what form did the training take - specifically with regards to your bowling? Also have you ever observed pro leg spinners training and again what form does their training take? Is it always against batsmen? Or do they ever do things like accuracy training? Also, is there always a coach there over-seeing it suggesting things to do, picking you/them up on their mistakes and getting them to tweak their actions and stuff?
We would have training scheduled for twice a week, often players would want to have an extra hit or do some more bowling or fielding. We would usually a one or two nets for spin bowlers, during the second training session of the week we would spend more time bowling to batsman. However we spend a lot of time working with keepers (we actually have 5 or 6 keepers at training usually). We had plenty of drills which we use. Most of the guys felt that the return catch drill was effective but only for short periods.
Our head coach was a keeper back in the day (still is very good) and I think he coached in the IPL a few years ago (not sure which team). And our batting coach, was a coach at Stuart Macgill's grade team in NSW. The coaches pull you up on things occasionally, but it's usually the batsman, keepers or bowlers who notice things.
I haven't watched a pro leg spinner, however last season one of our best players moved to New Zealand to play for one of the domestic teams. He is an all-rounder but also a very good off spinner. Bowlers do spend a lot of time developing their actions. When they reach a stage were they play professionally often less time is spent on the action and more on match practice and accuracy (particularly with T20 cricket). Which is good, but also a shame because they often become to front on in the action and lose spin and flight.
It's really good having a lot of keepers helping me out. Because they know what I do when I bowl well and can often notice if something is wrong, if I don't already notice it.
 
We would have training scheduled for twice a week, often players would want to have an extra hit or do some more bowling or fielding. We would usually a one or two nets for spin bowlers, during the second training session of the week we would spend more time bowling to batsman. However we spend a lot of time working with keepers (we actually have 5 or 6 keepers at training usually). We had plenty of drills which we use. Most of the guys felt that the return catch drill was effective but only for short periods.
Our head coach was a keeper back in the day (still is very good) and I think he coached in the IPL a few years ago (not sure which team). And our batting coach, was a coach at Stuart Macgill's grade team in NSW. The coaches pull you up on things occasionally, but it's usually the batsman, keepers or bowlers who notice things.
I haven't watched a pro leg spinner, however last season one of our best players moved to New Zealand to play for one of the domestic teams. He is an all-rounder but also a very good off spinner. Bowlers do spend a lot of time developing their actions. When they reach a stage were they play professionally often less time is spent on the action and more on match practice and accuracy (particularly with T20 cricket). Which is good, but also a shame because they often become to front on in the action and lose spin and flight.
It's really good having a lot of keepers helping me out. Because they know what I do when I bowl well and can often notice if something is wrong, if I don't already notice it.
One of my favourite moments was when one of our chinaman bowlers (he played for Australia U16 a few years ago and spins the ball more than anyone I've seen) was having difficulty landing the ball consistently. I noticed his non bowling arm was very lazy and wasn't pushing through towards the batsman. I told him to do a stand start drill using his front arm. When he went back and bowled he was bowling the perfect leg break with great control.
Unfortunately he only bowled for a short time before going to bat. As his main role in the team is batting he doesn't spend enough time developing his bowling.
 
One of my favourite moments was when one of our chinaman bowlers (he played for Australia U16 a few years ago and spins the ball more than anyone I've seen) was having difficulty landing the ball consistently. I noticed his non bowling arm was very lazy and wasn't pushing through towards the batsman. I told him to do a stand start drill using his front arm. When he went back and bowled he was bowling the perfect leg break with great control.
Unfortunately he only bowled for a short time before going to bat. As his main role in the team is batting he doesn't spend enough time developing his bowling.
Thanks for the quick response, good to hear you bigging up the stand start drill, there's a few people oh here that have said that it's a worthless exercise whereas I've always thought it was a good thing to do especially if you lose your way a bit and need to re-think/re-calibrate the basics.
 
Thanks for the quick response, good to hear you bigging up the stand start drill, there's a few people oh here that have said that it's a worthless exercise whereas I've always thought it was a good thing to do especially if you lose your way a bit and need to re-think/re-calibrate the basics.
No worries. I love the stand start drill. It is one of the best drills to make sure your action is all in sync. It's a drill I always use at the start of my bowling sessions, just to warm up and make sure that everything is inline.
 
G'day Max! Sorry for the late input. You mentioned earlier that you played in the Scorchers U17 team. Do they play the same format as the senior comp?
 
G'day Max! Sorry for the late input. You mentioned earlier that you played in the Scorchers U17 team. Do they play the same format as the senior comp?
Hi Harry, the U17 comp is the same format as the senior competition however we don't have any T20 games and the season is shorter so is gives opportunity for younger players to play in the senior teams rather than having games clashing.
 
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