Too Many Short Balls

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copthat1

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At this stage the only thing that is holding me back in my bowling is that I bowl too many short balls. When I bowl well and pitch it up I always take wickets, but this is always undone by the amount of bad balls that I bowl and so my figures are inflated. I find that when I get into a rhythm and gain confidence, I may not bowl a short ball for 3, 4, 5 or even 6 or 7 overs. I need to stop relying on 'confidence', and find a way to bowl the ball in the same spot whether I am bowling well or not, if that makes sense.

Do you know of any specific drills that may help this side of leg spin?

Any things that I could add to or take away from my action that may be hindering me?

I find that at training and when I'm in the nets by myself, I bowl really well and rarely bowl a bad ball, but once I step in to a game I always gift the batsman easy runs which is really frustrating because I know if I cut those balls out then I would really improve as a bowler.

I am looking for any piece of advice that may help me eradicate this from my game.

Thanks.
 
If you sometimes dont bowl short balls for 6-7 overs then you dont need to worry even the best bowl short ones occasionally
 
Unless you're a test match quality spinner, there will always be a pay-off somewhere between spinning the ball hard and bowling the odd bad ball.

Have you thought about setting your field so you get better protection when you do bowl a short ball? Have a sweeper on one (or both) side(s) of the wicket, then the odd short one won't inflate your figures so badly.
 
We probably need to more about the following:
  • What do you aim at/for? (A specific spot? A shot you want the batsman to play?...)
  • What is the real 'cause' of the change between your practice bowling and your match bowling? (The situation? The batsman? The pressure?...)
 
If you can bowl in the nets consistently with rarely a bad ball - congrats - that is quite something and I would say means it's not a problem with your action. It sounds like the classic tightening up that can occur with the pressure of a match situation.

If you google 'overcoming stage fright' you'll find a trove of suggestions.

I would definitely recommend some meditation before the match. One piece of advice which I think helped either Trevor Hohns or Bob Holland when facing an in-form Ian Botham was to imagine that there was no batsman at the other end of the pitch! It's just you bowling to the wicketkeeper :)

I would also resist the temptation to fire the ball in first up, make sure that you start your spell relaxed.

Also, don't beat yourself up if you do misfire! If it was easy bowling legspin, everyone would do it!

Here's a basketball quote, but the principle is the same

I've missed over 9,000 shots in my career.
I've lost almost 300 games.
26 times I've been trusted to take the game-winning shot and missed.
I've failed over and over and over again in my life.
And that is why I succeed.
Magic Johnson

hope helpful and good luck
 
Thanks for the responses.

I guess what I mean by 'short ball' is 'guaranteed boundary ball'. Balls that almost pitch in my half, and the batsman can choose anywhere he wants to hit it. I meant that on occasions during spells I have consecutive overs where I don't bowl these balls. I do bowl balls that are short of a length that the batsman can work for runs. I thought I should make it clear that when I say that I don't bowl a short ball for five overs, I don't mean I'm bowling perfectly, I just mean that I don't bowl any rank long hops that the batsman can smash.

This is rare though, and it is pretty much guaranteed that I will bowl some of these balls during every spell that I bowl. For instance on the weekend, out of 5 overs I bowled 4 really short balls and they all went for 4. That's 16 runs in 4 balls. The rest of my balls were mostly good and I probably ended with figures of 1/33 (could be more, haven't checked) off 5, which is very expensive, but if I reduced those short balls to maybe 1, then figures of 1/21 off 5 don't read so badly, and I can definitely say that I didn't bowl my best.

All I'm trying to do is close the gap between my best and my worst, so that on days where I'm not bowling my best I at least can do a job for my team and keep the runs to 3 - 4 an over, rather than getting spanked for 7 an over and have the captain not bowl me and not have trust in me for the rest of the game and games in the future. I do as much practice as I can, bowling at least 3 times a week in the nets and I feel great there. But it all falls down in a game.
 
copthat1 said:
Thanks for the responses.

I guess what I mean by 'short ball' is 'guaranteed boundary ball'. Balls that almost pitch in my half, and the batsman can choose anywhere he wants to hit it. I meant that on occasions during spells I have consecutive overs where I don't bowl these balls. I do bowl balls that are short of a length that the batsman can work for runs. I thought I should make it clear that when I say that I don't bowl a short ball for five overs, I don't mean I'm bowling perfectly, I just mean that I don't bowl any rank long hops that the batsman can smash.

This is rare though, and it is pretty much guaranteed that I will bowl some of these balls during every spell that I bowl. For instance on the weekend, out of 5 overs I bowled 4 really short balls and they all went for 4. That's 16 runs in 4 balls. The rest of my balls were mostly good and I probably ended with figures of 1/33 (could be more, haven't checked) off 5, which is very expensive, but if I reduced those short balls to maybe 1, then figures of 1/21 off 5 don't read so badly, and I can definitely say that I didn't bowl my best.

All I'm trying to do is close the gap between my best and my worst, so that on days where I'm not bowling my best I at least can do a job for my team and keep the runs to 3 - 4 an over, rather than getting spanked for 7 an over and have the captain not bowl me and not have trust in me for the rest of the game and games in the future. I do as much practice as I can, bowling at least 3 times a week in the nets and I feel great there. But it all falls down in a game.
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Practice bowling outside on the pitch more?

How do these bad balls come out? Do you get your run-up wrong? Do you tense up and not let go of the ball? Does it get stuck in your fingers?
 
SLA said:
Practice bowling outside on the pitch more?

How do these bad balls come out? Do you get your run-up wrong? Do you tense up and not let go of the ball? Does it get stuck in your fingers?
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Don't really know. Think I need to film myself and see if I can identify some technical issues. At this stage I would put it down to being tense/nervous, because once I settle into a rhythm then the nerves go away and I start bowling well.
 
copthat1 said:
Don't really know. Think I need to film myself and see if I can identify some technical issues. At this stage I would put it down to being tense/nervous, because once I settle into a rhythm then the nerves go away and I start bowling well.
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One piece of advice when you run in to bowl and you feel that your run up wasnt comfortable, dont bowl start again
 
I would add to the already sound advice by saying that to fix a problem you have to get to the cause.

This could be technical. From what you have said I would guess it's more mental. Something is happening in your head that is making you change your action. In practice this happens less because there is less to worry about.

So, as you bowl in games, make a mental note of what you were thinking about during the ball you bowled short. When you get off the pitch, write it down somewhere. Do the same the rare times it happens in practice.

Also do the same for the ball after a bad one. If it was back on the spot, what did you think about? If it was another bad one, were you still in the same mind set or did something change?

Over time you will spot a trend. Maybe it's that a negative thought pops in there. Maybe it's something else. Track it and see, then you can fix it.

My second point is similar to one already mentioned: What is you target?

No one bowls 100% good balls, despite what the retired club pro might tell you. If you bowl 70% on a good line and length you will be world class. So, set a target that is realistic. If you bowl 3 stinkers on average per game, look to drop that average to 2 with some reflection drills as mentioned before. That's an improvement even if those 2 balls get tonked. That's only 8 runs. You can still get 5 wickets and be a hero!
 
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