Stock And Variation

[SLA]

So, I don't like the framework that spinner's use of having a "stock ball" and then "variations", because I think its overly simplistic and limits our thinking about the way different deliveries can be used.

Instead, I've decided to think about bowling in terms of three types of deliveries:

Primary delivery - this is simply the delivery that you bowl that is most likely to beat the bat, and hence the one you bowl most of the time. You might just have one primary delivery, or you might have two (or even more). James Anderson, for example, has two primary deliveries - his inswinger and his outswinger; both are highly effective in their own right and he mixes them up pretty much equally. If you have one delivery that is your best delivery, this should be your "stock ball". If its not, why on earth not?

Secondary delivery - this is a delivery that could be as good as a primary delivery, but you're simply not as good at bowling it, perhaps it doesn't turn as much or your accuracy is not quite right. For a lot of legspinner's, a googly would fall into this category. Perhaps practice will make perfect, or perhaps you will have to simply use this delivery sparingly.

Surprise delivery - this is a delivery whose effectiveness relies it being a surprise. A quicker straight ball can make an effective surprise variation for example, but if you keep bowling it, it loses its effectiveness, because its not as dangerous a delivery in its own right as a well bowled leg break. Shane Warne's slider would be a good example.

Primary deliveries can be mixed up in a 50:50 ratio, surprise deliveries should be bowled only once every couple of overs else they lose their effectiveness. Secondary deliveries can be used either as a surprise delivery or almost as another primary delivery depending on how well they're coming out that day.

 

[loopylegspinner]

I often find myself using the googly, which I'm relatively proficient at, as a surprise delivery rather than a primary one; even if it's coming out right on the day!

 

[Darth Spin]

I start by bowling my leg break but always seem to introduce flippers and bowl a few of them every few overs, but I think they lose their element of surprise this way so need to use them more sparingly. Interesting thread.

What I need to do is develop my top spinner as a primary/secondary delivery and then mix that up with leg breaks. The wrong un and flipper will then become surprise deliveries. I plan to work a lot on my top spinner over the autumn, winter and spring going into next season. Perhaps try and learn the slider too. I'd love to have five deliveries going into next season, at the moment I have three (leg break, wrong un, flipper) that I can bowl consistently and pretty much bowl at will in a match.

 

[someblokecalleddave]

I was hoping to have 3 deliveries this season, but bowled leg breaks almost exclusively. I'd give the wrong-un a go every now and then, but it came out as a very small wrong un or a top-spinner and to be honest it was very ropey. In the nets I had a lot of success with the Flipper, especially a slow loopy version, but couldn't convert it to match scenarios, every single time the first attempt at it was poor and didn't persevere with it thereafter. What I did find this year, later in the season was some form with my leg break and a way of bowling a small leg-break and much bigger turning leg break. I then varied the speed of both of those and moved positions on crease quite a bit.

I've just been reading Brian Wilkins - the chapter on the Flipper and I reckon I'll try and keep things really simple next year and just work with the Flipper and the Leg Break - regulation back-spinner, but similar tactic. move around the crease and vary the pace.

 

[micoach]

That's a good way of looking at things. How does that categorisation extend to how much you practice each delivery?

 

[SLA]

I often find myself using the googly, which I'm relatively proficient at, as a surprise delivery rather than a primary one; even if it's coming out right on the day!

A good googly makes a great surprise delivery, however it is not limited to this. If you can really bowl it well you can mix it up 50:50 with your legbreak.

 

[SLA]

I was hoping to have 3 deliveries this season, but bowled leg breaks almost exclusively. I'd give the wrong-un a go every now and then, but it came out as a very small wrong un or a top-spinner and to be honest it was very ropey. In the nets I had a lot of success with the Flipper, especially a slow loopy version, but couldn't convert it to match scenarios, every single time the first attempt at it was poor and didn't persevere with it thereafter. What I did find this year, later in the season was some form with my leg break and a way of bowling a small leg-break and much bigger turning leg break. I then varied the speed of both of those and moved positions on crease quite a bit.

I've just been reading Brian Wilkins - the chapter on the Flipper and I reckon I'll try and keep things really simple next year and just work with the Flipper and the Leg Break - regulation back-spinner, but similar tactic. move around the crease and vary the pace.

Keeping things simple is always an underrated tactic, there is a law of diminishing returns with introducing more and more different deliveries. One extra delivery might make you twice as effective, but two extra deliveries doesn't make you three times as effective etc etc.

 

[SLA]

That's a good way of looking at things. How does that categorisation extend to how much you practice each delivery?

There are different points of view here.

One is that you should practice each delivery as much as you need to to get it to a point where you feel you can rely on it in a game. If you're struggling with your googly, then obviously that requires the most practice, so focus on it.

Another view is that you should practice the deliveries in the same proportion that you will bowl them in a game. If you plan to bowl your slider twice as often as your flipper, then it is twice as important to get it right.

Ultimately, its dependent upon what kind of bowler you want to be and how you think you can get there.

Lets say you have a really good leg break and an ok googly and an ok slider. If you practice each equally, you will probably get to the season with a solid primary delivery that pins the batsman down, and two good "surprise" deliveries that occasionally get you wickets but also occasionally come out wrong and get smacked.

Alternately you could forget variations altogether and just work on your leg break and getting your accuracy and turn and drift really perfect. This might produce great results as you bowl ball after unplayable ball. However you might also risk getting predictable, and if a batsman figures out how to play you, you have no tricks up your sleeve. A lot of club spinners only really have one ball and do perfectly well.

A third option that is becoming more fashionable, is that you could forget the slider and instead really focus on getting the googly good enough to be a second primary delivery so you can mix it in 50:50 with your leg break. One advantage this approach has is that when switching between left hand and right hand batsmen you don't have to rethink your tactics.

 

[someblokecalleddave]

That's a good way of looking at things. How does that categorisation extend to how much you practice each delivery?

Not sure what you mean Dave, but different deliveries require different amounts of practice. It's a tricky thing striking a balance between a perceived need to have variations and having a solid stock ball. The longer I go on with this Wrist Spin journey, the more I'm convinced that the Leg Break is such a complex and multi-faceted delivery, that if learned and mastered requires little in the way of support from a variation as SLA has suggested. I'm bound to change my mind in time, but the stuff I read recently by Brian Wilkins chimed with me and made a lot of sense and he supports his argument with cases of world class bowlers coming to the same conclusion.

My Leg Break is currently as good as it has ever been and to run the risk of un-doing that work by suddenly putting a lot of effort into learning the Wrong Un is not something I'm prepared to do. The Wilkins suggestion is to bowl the Flipper instead of the Wrong Un. I picked up the Flipper really easily and bowled it alongside my Leg Break without any problems years ago. The thing is - how do you implement the learning process and practicing along side your leg break practice? Do you spend whole sessions bowling just Flippers and assume that having bowled 30 Flippers the first Leg Break you bowl will come out perfectly? I'm not so sure. I guess I wont know until I give it a go?

Something I have found, which others might want to explore is.... I always bowled my Flipper much faster and therefore flatter, but this year I bowled it a lot slower and loopier and had a lot more success when mixed in with my Leg Breaks, batsmen swinging the bat through thin air expecting the ball to come on to them with the over-spin.

 

[micoach]

A commonly held philosophy in coaching cirlces is to use the 80/20 rule: 80% of the time work on the ball that you are going to use most. 20% of the time work on other balls. However when you have a primary and secondary "main ball" do you include both in the 80%?

I guess that is a personal choice and also depends what influence each delivery type has on each other delivery type. I'm thinking of Dave's "googly syndrome" here.

 

[SLA]

A commonly held philosophy in coaching cirlces is to use the 80/20 rule: 80% of the time work on the ball that you are going to use most. 20% of the time work on other balls. However when you have a primary and secondary "main ball" do you include both in the 80%?

I guess that is a personal choice and also depends what influence each delivery type has on each other delivery type. I'm thinking of Dave's "googly syndrome" here.

a) If you are happy bowling a primary delivery + 1 or 2 surprise deliveries, the 80:20 rule is a good rule of thumb.
b) If you have two genuine primary deliveries, split them 50:50. This is what I do, personally. I'll bowl a couple of overs of offbreaks, a couple of overs of legbreaks, then start alternating them on a ball by ball basis.

If you bowl what I denote above as a "secondary delivery", I guess you have two choices, either decide to use it only as a surprise option in which case option a), or work on it until its a valid primary delivery in itself in which case option b).

Does that makes sense? My conception of a secondary delivery is basically a surprise delivery with the potential to be upgraded to a primary delivery.

 

[someblokecalleddave]

I've had seasons where I've bowled 3 or 4 deliveries and as I recall I'd have bowled the stock ball probably as you've said 70- 80% of the time and then practiced the others in short intense bursts the rest of the time. But they're riskier in that becuase less time is spent practicing them, the chances of the coming out wrong are far higher. I've been out tonight and been bowling Leg Breaks and Flippers and the ratio was probaly around 80/20, but I do want to be really sure of the Flippers come next season, so I have got to put into place some kind of strategy. I guess at some point I'll probably try an intense period where I nail the flippers, unlike the wrong-un previous experiences have shown that if dedicate a lot of time on the flipper, I can switch back to the Leg break easily, but I am talking about a five years ago when I did this, I may find, this time round a different outcome? I'll just be mindful. The question then is, once I have nailed it again, will the 80/20 ratio mean I'll be able to turn to the flipper with total confidence in a game scenario, or will I have to forfeit leg-break practice to some extent to maintain the Flipper? I'm guessing also if you're a very experienced Leg Break bowler, the levels of practice you do might be reduced or am I wrong?

 

[Cleanprophet]

I then varied the speed of both of those and moved positions on crease quite a bit.

This, I think, is probably one of the most important aspects of bowling any type of spin - especially at club level. Sometimes I'd be so focused on bowling good quality leg spin that I forgot about taking wickets, which is what I am there for after all. I try not to bowl two balls in a row the same speed. It varies on what the batter is trying to do. Those batters who are attacking, being aggressive and pre-meditating a bit are very good candidates for the ball bowled a little slower and with a bit more loop and side-spin. Equally, those who are playing defensively are good candidates for that quicker slider or flipper. That, of course, is relatively basic stuff. But it is important, as Dave says, to keep varying the pace, flight and angle. In my experience, most batters just can't help but attack a leg spinner. It's almost a red rag to a bull. Bowling variations is good and can be effective. The variety of constant changing up of pace, flight and angle can be much more effective.

I remember someone talking to me about the art of batting compared to the art of getting runs (think Mark Waugh vs Steve Waugh). The same applies to bowling. Ultimately, it's about taking wickets and winning matches rather than looking the part. Anil Kumble exemplifies that perfectly. Really, he only ever bowled quick leg spinners with lots of over spin with the only variation being in pace, flight and angle.

 

[micoach]

You are right Dave, perfection is impossible to achieve, but gradual improvement towards a goal: that we can get behind.

 

[Darth Spin]

It's a delicate balancing act this learning variations lark and which ones to pratice the most. Personally I believe that flicking the ball from hand to hand on a daily basis is the best practice I ever do and that the whole bowling action comes more naturally, although I still find it a little difficult to time my pivot with my arm sometimes.

When learning a new delivery I think the best approach is an intensive one. Once the skill is acquired then more moderate practice is appropriate because the leg break is the most important delivery and the one bowled most in matches, so that should always be focused on the most unless adopting SLA's approach of two primary deliveries (I find this interesting and might experiment with it, but will abandon it if my leg break deteriorates).

I think I did suffer slightly from googly syndrome when learning this ball but I never came close to losing my leg break altogether, it just deteriorated somewhat, but now that has been corrected with more practice. I don't think there will be such a thing as flipper syndrome as the technique is so different and feel confident practicing the flipper to my heart's content.

Despite what I said earlier in this thread I am considering ditching the top spinner and instead going with big leg break, small leg break, wrong un, flipper.