What is the hardest thing about bowling?

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What is the hardest thing about bowling?

I was just wondering what you lot think is the hardest thing to master when it comes to bowling?

Is it line and length, rhythm, pace\spin or getting the ball to do what you want?

Personally I find it difficult to get a rhythm going, I'm fine if I'm playing regularly but it can take 4 overs or more for me to get my groove if I'm going into a match cold, which means I've normally bowled a third of my overs before I'm in the groove.
 
Re: What is the hardest thing about bowling?

Couple from my perspective,

I'm a spinner (Chinaman/SLA) and when it goes to the fan, i tend to find i cannot help but give them 6 long hops which get dealt with. Its a blow, and your confidence goes down, but if you've got the "wall of ignorance" and learn to ignore the jibes from "cocky," batsmen, and have a word with yourself, you should come out of it.

Secondly, when the ball aint doing anything, it just wont do it. Thats why i find if you have a medium pace to turn to, it helps, this English summer has hit my spinning hard as i've hardly stuck to spinning in matches, which reflects on my bowling figures!
 
Re: What is the hardest thing about bowling?

im not much of a bowler but when i bowl the line i can get right well most times but have trouble with the length.
 
Re: What is the hardest thing about bowling?

i have problem controling the ball and i start with wides or full tosses. i spend too much time batting in the nets but thats what im good at so i dont worry much about bowling. i hate when i get called to bowl in a match if others arent doing well or we havent got enough players.
 
Re: What is the hardest thing about bowling?

Its hard for me to bowl when right/left pair is batting i cant manage to change my line for differnt batsman it just upsets me completely and i prefer to not bowl when such a pair is batting.
 
Re: What is the hardest thing about bowling?

Almost_Austwick said:
I was just wondering what you lot think is the hardest thing to master when it comes to bowling?

Is it line and length, rhythm, pace\spin or getting the ball to do what you want?

Personally I find it difficult to get a rhythm going, I'm fine if I'm playing regularly but it can take 4 overs or more for me to get my groove if I'm going into a match cold, which means I've normally bowled a third of my overs before I'm in the groove.
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The hardest thing from me is keeping the ball from going down the leg side. The second hardest thing is on days of approximately 4 oktas when the ball seems to outswing loads to the extent of ridiculousness where I can beat the bat 5 times out of 5. Any attempt to put the ball on the stumps seems to negate the swing and make easy pickings for the batsmen. Tis a tough balance to strike.
 
Re: What is the hardest thing about bowling?

Hardest thing?

Getting into the groove. Its very difficult first 3 balls, you dont quite know where its going to land, that is what makes bowlers. Mcgrath, Warne, Murali, Lee and Flintoff KNOW where its going to go. Is it a confidence thing? Maybe.

Next hardest thing is probably picking out the batsmen. Im generally pretty good at mastering what kind of player he is, then im pretty sharp to go over to the captain or another spinner to just have a word and make a little plan, more for my benifit than giving other bowlers tips.
 
Re: What is the hardest thing about bowling?

Control is my biggest weakness, If I played at one or two levels higher than I do now, I know that I'd be giving the other team a 4 ball every over.

As it is, the standard I play in just about lets me get away with it but it's something I need to work on, especially if I want to play better cricket.
 
Re: What is the hardest thing about bowling?

I see many bowlers and comments above about groove, control, line and length. Bowling is as simply as you want it to be. You have to know your limits, if your built like Peter Kay, your not going to bowl like Brett Lee. This seems to be biggest problem I have coaching bowlers, they want to bowl faster than they are capable of, without the correct coaching.

I have completed the ABSAT (Mavericks cricket) course with Ian Pont (the Bowlers God) and the simple methods (straight lines, foot alignment and knee/chest drives) makes soo much sense and produces amazing results, increasing pace and accuraracy.

So what am I waffling about...ease into your first over and the rest will reap the rewards. Practise in the same manner you would play and watch the batsman, work out his weakness and bowl to it and the field.
 
Re: What is the hardest thing about bowling?

It's all good and well saying that but if bowling was just about easing into the first over and the rest will come, we'd all be on central contracts.

People have different problems for a reason, maybe poor coaching, lack of ability or even physical problems, to dimiss them so lightly is insane. I'm a fan of Ian Ponts work but I'm sure he looks at the individual when applying his technique and doesn't consider his approach to be a one size fits all solution.

You make a good point about Lee as he is a bio mechanical dream, lines in all the right places and good levers as well.
 
Re: What is the hardest thing about bowling?

Dismissing the poorly coached, lack of ability or physically incapable isn't the intent. Delivering the truth is. If a bowler is any of the above, then they can be coached, but they must realise their limits and that's real coaching. Why try and coach Peter Kay to be Brett Lee, it ain't going to happen. Coaches are sometimes more to blame then the player.

Guys, be truthfull and don't waste players time...

Your reply does bring up an interesting point though. Central contracts? Strauss, what a waste of ECB money.
 
Re: What is the hardest thing about bowling?

leggeb4 said:
I see many bowlers and comments above about groove, control, line and length. Bowling is as simply as you want it to be. You have to know your limits, if your built like Peter Kay, your not going to bowl like Brett Lee. This seems to be biggest problem I have coaching bowlers, they want to bowl faster than they are capable of, without the correct coaching.

I have completed the ABSAT (Mavericks cricket) course with Ian Pont (the Bowlers God) and the simple methods (straight lines, foot alignment and knee/chest drives) makes soo much sense and produces amazing results, increasing pace and accuraracy.

So what am I waffling about...ease into your first over and the rest will reap the rewards. Practise in the same manner you would play and watch the batsman, work out his weakness and bowl to it and the field.
Click to expand...

You make a decent point, about 3 years ago i wasn't the most "stream-lined," of folk and only just discovered i could outswing so i was on and off trying to bowl a bit in nets. Im a Chinamen spinner so speed doesnt come easily, and i tried to bowl just that little bit too quick which kinda hurt me, i had muscle twinges. I left it there until last year, where i've slimmed down, grown taller, and am now bowling 70mph which is my limits.

One thing about knowing your limits is hard i reckon, because you always want to bowl quicker, swing it more, spin it more etc.
 
Re: What is the hardest thing about bowling?

leggeb4 said:
Dismissing the poorly coached, lack of ability or physically incapable isn't the intent. Delivering the truth is. If a bowler is any of the above, then they can be coached, but they must realise their limits and that's real coaching. Why try and coach Peter Kay to be Brett Lee, it ain't going to happen. Coaches are sometimes more to blame then the player.

Guys, be truthfull and don't waste players time...

Your reply does bring up an interesting point though. Central contracts? Strauss, what a waste of ECB money.
Click to expand...

You are indeed 100% correct ;) But if you want a discussion about that, and im always willing to tell people that Andrew Strauss is a total waste of time since Trescothinks disappearence, could we make a new thread :p
 
Re: What is the hardest thing about bowling?

Simbazz, being new to the forum game. Please let me invite you to start the new thread.
 
Re: What is the hardest thing about bowling?

The psychology. You can practice all the other stuff in loads of different ways and spend hours doing so and the difference that makes is quantifiable. Leaving it for a while and returning to it sometimes pays dividends if you're trying to hard. But no matter what you do in practice - it's a different case out on the wicket. Out there it's a mental thing, you only have to screw up once and if your heads not in the zone the impact can be devastating.
 
Re: What is the hardest thing about bowling?

I think trying to bowl faster and keep my line and length is whats hard for me.
 
Re: What is the hardest thing about bowling?

Being a left arm orthodox Spinner; blocking the batsmen scoring shots is most diffcult because then they try to slog by stepping out of crease.
At that point of time what is the right thing way to block him or take his wicket?
 
Re: What is the hardest thing about bowling?

Another difficult thing I've found to master is "The Flipper" if you're a spin bowler. I'd be very interested to hear from anyone else that uses it as I've never met anyone else before that does, similarly the "Slider" - that's another tricky one, both these balls are nothing like the other 3.
Anyone out there find these two variations a bit tricky?
 
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