Suggestions For Improvement

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Anand Datar

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Hello!
I bowl off spin in club Cricket. I do not get to bowl too often and cannot maintain consistancy in my bowling. In a given over, I end up bowling 2-3 really good balls, 1-2 okay balls and then 2-3 balls where it appears as if I had absolutely no control over the ball. When I bowl these bad balls something goes wrong with my bowling action, sometimes the ball gets released too late (ending up being short) or my hand does not come down straight or my head tilts far too much thereby losing the direction and control over the ball. Can you suggest anything to develop some kind of a 'routine' while bowling or anything else like possibly fitness improvement or tips to ensure how you can bowl every ball at least in correct line. I have a short run up.
 
Anand Datar said:
Hello!
I bowl off spin in club Cricket. I do not get to bowl too often and cannot maintain consistancy in my bowling. In a given over, I end up bowling 2-3 really good balls, 1-2 okay balls and then 2-3 balls where it appears as if I had absolutely no control over the ball. When I bowl these bad balls something goes wrong with my bowling action, sometimes the ball gets released too late (ending up being short) or my hand does not come down straight or my head tilts far too much thereby losing the direction and control over the ball. Can you suggest anything to develop some kind of a 'routine' while bowling or anything else like possibly fitness improvement or tips to ensure how you can bowl every ball at least in correct line. I have a short run up.
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Hello to you. Your given over sounds pretty good except for a couple of balls where you lose it. A good coach could observe you and probably work out what the difference is in your action which you feel causes you to falter.

You could film yourself from keepers view and see the good balls and what your action does and compare to the shockers. You might see a difference in how you pivot for instance.
 
Thanks Big Kev & Macca for your suggestions. I am not sure if I will be able to film myself bowling, but I can certainly request one of the mates to find out the difference in what I am doing when I bowl good and bad balls.
 
Anand Datar said:
Hello!
I bowl off spin in club Cricket. I do not get to bowl too often and cannot maintain consistancy in my bowling. In a given over, I end up bowling 2-3 really good balls, 1-2 okay balls and then 2-3 balls where it appears as if I had absolutely no control over the ball. When I bowl these bad balls something goes wrong with my bowling action, sometimes the ball gets released too late (ending up being short) or my hand does not come down straight or my head tilts far too much thereby losing the direction and control over the ball. Can you suggest anything to develop some kind of a 'routine' while bowling or anything else like possibly fitness improvement or tips to ensure how you can bowl every ball at least in correct line. I have a short run up.
Click to expand...

Practice as much as you can, when I practice on my own the minimum that I'll do is usually around 60 balls (Best if you've got several balls) and just get a sense of what it is that goes wrong. If you can film yourself that's helpful. Think about basicss...

Strong leading arm reaching high.
Whip the arm over fast
Get side on in the delivery
Get up on to your toes and twist in the pivot
Bring the bowling arm over and through to the hips
Follow through
Keep everything straight and moving towards the target.
 
someblokecalleddave said:
Practice as much as you can, when I practice on my own the minimum that I'll do is usually around 60 balls (Best if you've got several balls) and just get a sense of what it is that goes wrong. If you can film yourself that's helpful. Think about basics...

Strong leading arm reaching high.
Whip the arm over fast
Get side on in the delivery
Get up on to your toes and twist in the pivot
Bring the bowling arm over and through to the hips
Follow through
Keep everything straight and moving towards the target.
Click to expand...

Yeah practise is the main thing. You need to get a really solid consistency in your practise and if you can do that then you'll be more reliable in matches when the pressure is on, and it also helps with confidence. You can't afford to have to think too much about technique in matches as that will in itself disrupt your rhythm, so you need to do all that work on your own beforehand.

The main thing with practise is to practise properly. You need to decide what the best type of delivery you can bowl is, in terms of action, length and line, and get very good at bowling this ball. When I practise my bowling the first thing I do is try to bowl this same stock ball as often and as consistently as I can for at least half an hour. This is important as it's the benchmark around which you vary your deliveries, and the fall back in matches if other deliveries aren't working properly.

Once you know you're bowling the stock ball well you can move on to experimenting with line, length, variations and so on, but hopefully the stock ball bowling earlier will have shown you the particular technical issue that is causing a particular problem, so you can apply these to the other balls you bowl as well. I've found this method very valuable myself.

HOWEVER!!! Do not sacrifice spin for consistency!!! DON'T DO IT!!!

It's a very easy shortcut to bowling fewer wides, long hops and full tosses but in the long term it's a very bad way to go indeed. If you practise enough the consistency will come, and the good spinners are the ones who can spin a ball hard and still control it. An accurate spinner who doesn't spin the ball much is never going to be much better than a change bowler.
 
@somebloakcalleddave: Thanks for listing the basics. I am definitely going to work on this list and I'm sure I will see improvement. @spiderlounge: Yes, that is true. I may not be able to really dedicate so much of time to that every week, but I will try my best not to miss a single opportunity to practise and make the most out of it. Just as you said, I have already compromised with spin to some extent, trying to bowl all balls in the stumps. Something about my fitness and stamina does not allow me to put 100% spin in every ball in an over. In fact it is only a couple of balls every over that I REALLY try to spin. I need to get fitter, lose a few kgs so that I can pivote and turn more flexibly and need to concentrate on the basics, my stock ball and practise. Thanks a lot mates for your suggetions. I really appreciate your help and will look forward to get back to you once I see improvement.
 
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