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Lol, classic spot of circular reasoning

I know, but Graeme swan is an idiot. He doesn't really have any specialist knowledge here, he is just repeating what he heard elsewhere. I doubt if he is even a qualified coach. If he was agreeing with me I'd be worried.

99% of the time*, moving your feet is simply a means to an end, the end in this case being to get your head and arms into the ideal position to hit the ball. That might be front foot or back foot, straight bat or cross bat, off side or leg side. As a general rule: The slower the bowling, the...

That seems the opposite to the view of most professional commentators, who have pointed out how effective bowlers like Narine, Ashwin, Jadeja, Badree, Shakib, Santner etc are in T20 cricket, despite not really turning the ball a huge amount. Good control, good pace, and mastery of subtle...

And two weren't - Underwood and Kumble - but still got incredible amounts of wickets. Most batsmen find that the more the ball turns, the easier it is to play, because lbw is no longer a threat. The perfect spinners delivery turns 6 inches.

Each pair bats for a set number of overs. So if you are playing 8 aside, then you would have four pairs who each bat for four overs, say, to make a sixteen over game. If you lose a wicket, you lose five runs, but the batsmen just swap ends. Weaker batsmen improve their skills quicker by...

Boundaries in junior cricket are normally well below 45 metres - more like 30 to 35 metres. At the younger level - up to U12s, they play pairs cricket. You find that the more marginal players end up facing more deliveries this way, and improve a lot more over the course of the season as a...

You're improving at a small fraction of the rate one might expect a bowler to improve - as far as it goes, this is your time you're wasting and therefore your business - but just be careful at giving anything that could be construed as advice - you should probably make a signature that appears...

I don't think I've ever been anything other than completely friendly and helpful - and often I get no thanks at all. What do you want us to do? Lie and tell you that you are going to improve using the incorrect practice methods you are currently utilising? Do you not think that would be...

http://www.espncricinfo.com/story/_/id/20628966/evolving-nathan-lyon-clears-all-doubts Nice article on Lyon - particularly some of the quotes from Smith about how he is able to vary his bowling in different pitch conditions, using some of the basic spinners' variations, mixing topspin, sidespin...

Because the ground is wet and would ruin cricket balls?

How would a plastic ball reduce shoulder stress? Just because a ball is lighter does not mean the stress on your shoulder is reduced. In fact, switching between balls of different weights, particularly when done at high volumes, is more likely to cause injury. Given that you're not interested...

mmmmm.. What's wrong with cricket balls? Remember the golden rule is to keep practice as close to match conditions as possible. Wherever possible, bowl with real cricket balls, on a real pitch, with a real run-up, against a real batsman. Unless you're planning on playing in some indoor cricket...

Only run when you know you're going to make it

Have you tried rubbing your hands in the dust at the start of each over?

Interesting masterclass with Warne and Vettori on sky last night. Nothing new to anyone who has read up on spin bowling, but still worth reminding ourselves of. Some of the takeaway points: 1) always bowl to stay on for the first 2-3 overs. Keep it simple, give yourself protection, and focus on...

Well you're the guinea pig here. How many hours have you been practicing leg spin using this method, and how effective has it been? For reference - most 10 year olds are able to bowl legspin in a junior game - with maybe 1 wide per over - after maybe 2-3 hours guided practice. I would estimate...

Skill acquisition is the process of building a series of small improvements into your muscle memory over a long time-frame. You take a particular technique, such as a bowling action, identify one single aspect that can be improved, and then consciously do that thing differently for a number of...

Repetition doesn't make you better. Repetition ingrains habits and builds muscle memory. But it works both ways: Repetition of sloppy or technically sub-optimal actions ingrains sloppiness and makes it harder to remove sub-optimal techniques from your muscle memory. Far from getting better...

Would it not be far more beneficial to do a fraction of that number, but do it properly, with 6 balls that are in similar condition (not cheap plastic ones or old balls looking like they've been chewed by a dog) a proper run-up and working on bowling a good over with subtle variations from ball...