Wrist Spin Bowling (part Five)

[Leggy88]

Yeah exactly that it gets stuck in the fingers and slips out a lot actually. Your spot on with that observation. Any thoughts?

I wish I had a cure for this, but I still haven’t figured it out myself. It is either to do with the timing of the wrist flick which would be fixed with tons of practice, or holding the ball too tight/loose? Or maybe to do with inconsistencies in the action which cause these inaccuracies ?

 

[Darth Spin]

I practice pretty much everyday for around 2 hrs. Thanks for the tips

That's great dedication and I'm sure you'll get your rewards.

 

[Darth Spin]

I wish I had a cure for this, but I still haven’t figured it out myself. It is either to do with the timing of the wrist flick which would be fixed with tons of practice, or holding the ball too tight/loose? Or maybe to do with inconsistencies in the action which cause these inaccuracies ?

I think lots of hand to hand practice at home would help. One of the best quotes I have seen about leg spin is "think of the ball as part of your body". So always have a ball to hand for some practice, just have one in the same room with you or take it with you lol

 

[Leggy88]

I think lots of hand to hand practice at home would help. One of the best quotes I have seen about leg spin is "think of the ball as part of your body". So always have a ball to hand for some practice, just have one in the same room with you or take it with you lol

Yeah. I try to spin the ball hand to hand at least 5 minutes a day. When I don’t do this my fingers and wrist decondition themselves and they get sore when I bowl for a while. Have you had this problem? Wrist / finger sorenesss?

 

[Darth Spin]

Yeah. I try to spin the ball hand to hand at least 5 minutes a day. When I don’t do this my fingers and wrist decondition themselves and they get sore when I bowl for a while. Have you had this problem? Wrist / finger sorenesss?

Yeah sometimes it hurts from too much practice or I rip a bit of skin off or something. But I think that's a sign you're doing it right.

 

[Leggy88]

Bowled well yesterday. 10 overs, 3/39 with one maiden. Three crucial wickets in terms of the game. One of my wickets was bowled around his legs bowling into the rough from around the wicket. Really happy with that one. Another was an attempted cut shot on the topspinner which bounced heaps and he got an edge to the keeper. Last one was bowled with a flatter ball which the batsmen tried to sweep. Only time I got smashed was when I bowled full tosses. It seems I hardly bowl short ones anymore but bowl much more full tosses now, which I must admit I prefer.

 

[SomeblokecalledDave.]

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Hey guys, here are a few videos of me bowling in a match over the weekend. Struggled with bowling too short and the occasional fully. And line was also down leg as seen in the videos. Any technical aspects that you can notice that may be causing this? Any suggestions would be appreciated.


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First thing I noticed was the angled run-up. I reckon if you were to run in straight a la Stuart MacGills advice (See youtube video) you wont be bowling down the leg-side as much. The other thing, is this bloke is sweeping you most of the time, do you have any variations? If not maybe vary your speed a bit - try bowling slower, but put more spin on the ball? Is this Australia- if it is how many weeks you got left of your season?

 

[Leggy88]

My season is over now unfortunately. Only played eight games (4 t20s and 4 one dayers), in which I took 10 wickets but only bowled in 2 of the t20s as the other t20s were disrupted by rain and they didn't want to give me a slippery ball to bowl with. Lost an overall 15 games due to rain, forfeit and a holiday, so quite unfortunate. It didn't even feel like a season to be honest - games were few and far apart, it was hard to get a good rhythm going.

I'm hoping that next season is much better. It should be since La Nina is now over. I've got a plan for the offseason, which I will probably follow religiously after a break for a couple weeks.

I'm planning to dedicate each net session to one aspect of bowling of my choosing, in order to maximise my improvement. Once I am feeling good about each aspect I can start to bring all these aspects together and work on them as a whole in net sessions, probably towards the latter end of the offseason.

I aim to improve on the following:

1) Revolutions, where for each net session dedicated to this I will try and spin the ball as hard as I can, with no worry about the accuracy. I will experiment with pivoting harder, a bit more of a roundarm and pulling the front arm down faster to achieve these extra revs as well.

2) Flight/Dip. I want to be able to get serious dip on each of my deliveries, as I believe this is the most potent weapon in the spinners armoury. I am going to work on some drills where I put string going from one side of the net to the other, bowl the ball above the string and get the ball to dip onto a good length while still maintaining my speed. Do you guys know anything about getting dip on the ball? I may be getting some dip but it is hard to be sure. I wish I could bat to my own bowling sometimes as I would then know the answer for certain.

3) Variations. I will still bowl my leggy regularly in these sessions so I don't lose it, but these sessions will contain a heavy focus on wronguns, topspinners, slight leg breaks, big leg breaks, faster balls, slower balls. I also bowled a ball by accident the other day which kind of slipped out, but really came out extra fast, like a flipper is intended to do, and bowled the batsmen who was very suprised at the extra pace (he tried to cut it, thinking it was short). Not sure how I bowled this, I just know I was attempting a big leg break. I aim to figure this ball out and be able to replicate it.

4) Accuracy. I put this last as I will only really focus on this at the latter end of the offseason and during the preseason. This is because I want free reign to develop mastery over the strike weapons of a spinner as listed previously, before harnessing these weapons with control. I aim to be able to land 50/60 balls within a 1x1 metre long mat (maybe smaller) before the season starts.

What do you guys think of this plan? Do you reckon it will help me improve as a bowler, or could it be detrimental?

PS: England preseasons are starting soon right? How are they going?

 

[Darth Spin]

My season is over now unfortunately. Only played eight games (4 t20s and 4 one dayers), in which I took 10 wickets but only bowled in 2 of the t20s as the other t20s were disrupted by rain and they didn't want to give me a slippery ball to bowl with. Lost an overall 15 games due to rain, forfeit and a holiday, so quite unfortunate. It didn't even feel like a season to be honest - games were few and far apart, it was hard to get a good rhythm going.

I'm hoping that next season is much better. It should be since La Nina is now over. I've got a plan for the offseason, which I will probably follow religiously after a break for a couple weeks.

I'm planning to dedicate each net session to one aspect of bowling of my choosing, in order to maximise my improvement. Once I am feeling good about each aspect I can start to bring all these aspects together and work on them as a whole in net sessions, probably towards the latter end of the offseason.

I aim to improve on the following:

1) Revolutions, where for each net session dedicated to this I will try and spin the ball as hard as I can, with no worry about the accuracy. I will experiment with pivoting harder, a bit more of a roundarm and pulling the front arm down faster to achieve these extra revs as well.

2) Flight/Dip. I want to be able to get serious dip on each of my deliveries, as I believe this is the most potent weapon in the spinners armoury. I am going to work on some drills where I put string going from one side of the net to the other, bowl the ball above the string and get the ball to dip onto a good length while still maintaining my speed. Do you guys know anything about getting dip on the ball? I may be getting some dip but it is hard to be sure. I wish I could bat to my own bowling sometimes as I would then know the answer for certain.

3) Variations. I will still bowl my leggy regularly in these sessions so I don't lose it, but these sessions will contain a heavy focus on wronguns, topspinners, slight leg breaks, big leg breaks, faster balls, slower balls. I also bowled a ball by accident the other day which kind of slipped out, but really came out extra fast, like a flipper is intended to do, and bowled the batsmen who was very suprised at the extra pace (he tried to cut it, thinking it was short). Not sure how I bowled this, I just know I was attempting a big leg break. I aim to figure this ball out and be able to replicate it.

4) Accuracy. I put this last as I will only really focus on this at the latter end of the offseason and during the preseason. This is because I want free reign to develop mastery over the strike weapons of a spinner as listed previously, before harnessing these weapons with control. I aim to be able to land 50/60 balls within a 1x1 metre long mat (maybe smaller) before the season starts.

What do you guys think of this plan? Do you reckon it will help me improve as a bowler, or could it be detrimental?

PS: England preseasons are starting soon right? How are they going?

Hi mate, sounds like you had a good season despite all of the cancellations.

Your plan sounds quite complex and personally I would keep things more simple for my own practice regime. For example, all I am concentrating on is developing a slightly quicker stock ball, mixing up top spin/side spin a bit so that I have reliable big turning/small turning leg breaks and continuing to practice my flipper (which I intend to use a lot next season as my "go to" variation). That's it, and even that feels like a lot to me! But everyone is different, so whatever works for you.

I think my season starts in late April or something. The weather is improving, so I'm going to get back to the nets soon and practice as much as I can before the season starts. In the meantime, over the winter, I have been jogging and doing press ups to build up a bit of strength and stamina.

 

[Leggy88]

Hi mate, sounds like you had a good season despite all of the cancellations.

Your plan sounds quite complex and personally I would keep things more simple for my own practice regime. For example, all I am concentrating on is developing a slightly quicker stock ball, mixing up top spin/side spin a bit so that I have reliable big turning/small turning leg breaks and continuing to practice my flipper (which I intend to use a lot next season as my "go to" variation). That's it, and even that feels like a lot to me! But everyone is different, so whatever works for you.

I think my season starts in late April or something. The weather is improving, so I'm going to get back to the nets soon and practice as much as I can before the season starts. In the meantime, over the winter, I have been jogging and doing press ups to build up a bit of strength and stamina.

Yeah, the plan is quite complex but I will see how it goes after a few net sessions. Should be interesting. I think I might do some running as well to improve my stamina, particularly for my batting.

 

[Darth Spin]

Yeah, the plan is quite complex but I will see how it goes after a few net sessions. Should be interesting. I think I might do some running as well to improve my stamina, particularly for my batting.

I like the idea about trying to rev the ball and not caring about accuracy.

 

[Leggy88]

I like the idea about trying to rev the ball and not caring about accuracy.

Yes, I am hoping it will lead to me being able to get more revs on the ball in the long run. In theory, it should.

 

[MoMole]

Hey all,
First time poster (only discovered the forum a little while ago and I've learned so much from it!)
One of the lads turned up to winter nets with a back strain so he recorded our nets session and I finally got some good footage against batsmen. I've included a bunch of different deliveries (some good some bad). Is there anything I am doing wrong/could do better? Am I bowling too slow?

This will be my first season playing in about 16 years so I've been pretty nervous. I've been bowling a lot in my back garden over the winter and I'm feeling really confident about my stock leg break. I don't have any variations yet, pretty much spent six months just trying to get a consistent leg break. I reckon I'm not at the point where I might bowl a wide down leg once every now and again and a full toss is much rarer.

My concern is whether my bowling at home and nets performance will translate to an actual game. A big unknown for me is that I get a lot of turn and bounce on every surface I've bowled on, but since I haven't bowled on an actual wicket there's a big question around whether I'll get turn and bounce like I'm used to. My stock ball tends to be on leg stump (or just outside) and just short enough I can't be swept. I find this cramps batsmen up and is difficult to get away but my not be a line that can produce wickets.

I'm more worried about bowling to good top order batsmen than anything else. I've had a lot of success against your average clubbies in the net and I've been using the opportunity to work more on making adjustments and trying to outthink the batsmen but I worry about getting smashed by an actual good batsman and not having an answer. For context my club is pretty bad and I think we play in the lowest division (maybe div 8?) and last year they finished second from the bottom of the table.

Appreciate any feedback and happy to answer questions.

 

[Leggy88]

Hey all,
First time poster (only discovered the forum a little while ago and I've learned so much from it!)
One of the lads turned up to winter nets with a back strain so he recorded our nets session and I finally got some good footage against batsmen. I've included a bunch of different deliveries (some good some bad). Is there anything I am doing wrong/could do better? Am I bowling too slow?

This will be my first season playing in about 16 years so I've been pretty nervous. I've been bowling a lot in my back garden over the winter and I'm feeling really confident about my stock leg break. I don't have any variations yet, pretty much spent six months just trying to get a consistent leg break. I reckon I'm not at the point where I might bowl a wide down leg once every now and again and a full toss is much rarer.

My concern is whether my bowling at home and nets performance will translate to an actual game. A big unknown for me is that I get a lot of turn and bounce on every surface I've bowled on, but since I haven't bowled on an actual wicket there's a big question around whether I'll get turn and bounce like I'm used to. My stock ball tends to be on leg stump (or just outside) and just short enough I can't be swept. I find this cramps batsmen up and is difficult to get away but my not be a line that can produce wickets.

I'm more worried about bowling to good top order batsmen than anything else. I've had a lot of success against your average clubbies in the net and I've been using the opportunity to work more on making adjustments and trying to outthink the batsmen but I worry about getting smashed by an actual good batsman and not having an answer. For context my club is pretty bad and I think we play in the lowest division (maybe div 8?) and last year they finished second from the bottom of the table.

Appreciate any feedback and happy to answer questions.

Hey Momole, welcome to the forum. First impressions of your bowling; it looks good and you should get a lot of wickets if you replicate those deliveries in game. Video 1 - looks like you are bowling a bit quicker than in video 2? IMO video 2 is how you should bowl your standard deliveries. Just enough flight, some beautiful dip and some nice turn. Then you can switch to, say, the quicker, flatter delivery you bowled at the start of video 1 for a changeup. It seems your accuracy is decent at the moment, but keep working on it as you can never be too accurate. And particularly against those types of batsmen you were bowling to in the video, you need to be able to go from landing it just outside off to in line with leg so you can hit the stumps, because if they are just missing absolute peaches it may look good but you are not getting wickets. A faster ball such as in video 1 could be useful against these batsman as well.

Length looks good, try to adjust length on different pitches so it is always hitting top of off. Are you going to be playing on turf? If so, you will get more turn but a bit less bounce (on most pitches; not true for all) than on those practice wickets there. Your line for the most part looks good, but in game make sure you adjust with the turn so the ball will end up hitting off peg.

You should be fine against any good batsman you come up against, you look a good bowler and in fact better batsman will be easier to bowl against in most cases as they don't just slog across the line - plus they will also probably nick those ones the batters in your videos miss by miles. I certainly agree with how you have just focussed on the leg break - there is always time to work on variations. Anyhow, keep us updated with your season!

 

[MoMole]

Hi Leggy,
Thanks so much for your response. That's a big confidence booster.

Funnily enough, I was chatting with our fast bowler and he said the same thing about hitting the stumps. He said in a game I'm going to end up turning it past the stumps more than hit them. In order to hit top of off I have to pitch well outside leg stump. When I put less side spin and more overspin I always bounce over the stumps. But I think on a proper pitch the bounce wouldn't be as high. Would you recommend always trying to attack the top of off stump as a standard approach? I figure it's quite an attacking line and unless the batsmen has really good late cuts or foot movement I should be okay.

One thing I've noticed is that after 4 weeks my new teammates have started playing me much different. No one leaves their crease any more where as at the beginning they would keep charging and end up stumped. They now stand pretty deep in their creases and try to play after the ball has pitched. It makes it harder to get them out but it also means they're not scoring. Do you think I would be better off working on a straight one that could trap them LBW in front of the stumps. Everyone who's not a leggy, keeps telling me to work on a googly (which I'm not having much luck with right now). Turning it both ways seems to be the be all and end all for everyone who's not a spinner but I'm not as convinced.

In terms of strategy what would you do once a batsman becomes defensive and goes into their shell?

And we'll be playing on normal wickets not artificial. The only thing I'm concerned about is that there's a lot of rain in England and if a wicket becomes soft and spongy (or the ball gets soaking wet in the outfield) then I'm going to struggle. But, I assume that would be the same for all bowlers.

Thanks!

 

[Leggy88]

Hi Leggy,
Thanks so much for your response. That's a big confidence booster.

Funnily enough, I was chatting with our fast bowler and he said the same thing about hitting the stumps. He said in a game I'm going to end up turning it past the stumps more than hit them. In order to hit top of off I have to pitch well outside leg stump. When I put less side spin and more overspin I always bounce over the stumps. But I think on a proper pitch the bounce wouldn't be as high. Would you recommend always trying to attack the top of off stump as a standard approach? I figure it's quite an attacking line and unless the batsmen has really good late cuts or foot movement I should be okay.

One thing I've noticed is that after 4 weeks my new teammates have started playing me much different. No one leaves their crease any more where as at the beginning they would keep charging and end up stumped. They now stand pretty deep in their creases and try to play after the ball has pitched. It makes it harder to get them out but it also means they're not scoring. Do you think I would be better off working on a straight one that could trap them LBW in front of the stumps. Everyone who's not a leggy, keeps telling me to work on a googly (which I'm not having much luck with right now). Turning it both ways seems to be the be all and end all for everyone who's not a spinner but I'm not as convinced.

In terms of strategy what would you do once a batsman becomes defensive and goes into their shell?

And we'll be playing on normal wickets not artificial. The only thing I'm concerned about is that there's a lot of rain in England and if a wicket becomes soft and spongy (or the ball gets soaking wet in the outfield) then I'm going to struggle. But, I assume that would be the same for all bowlers.

Thanks!

Yes, as a general rule attacking top of off should be your goal. On a proper pitch the ball with good overspin should still hit top of off if you land it on the right length. IF the batsman has a good late cut and is using it on off stump deliveries, you should get him out easily with a quicker or slower change of pace. If he's using his feet, use maximum sidespin, for drift and turn past the bat, or mostly overspin for dip to get the ball bouncing shorter than he expects, so it will hopefully bounce and spin past the bat.

That's good that your teammates are playing like that. That means your bowling seems like a real danger to them. In game however, batsman will most likely play you as your teammates played you at the start, coming out of the crease and all that. In the case that a batsman gets used to your bowling and plays you from deep in your crease and defensively like your teammates now, I would pitch the ball fuller until they are forced to play forward. I would also try and bowl a quicker flatter, straight ball to get them lbw if they are still playing back foot. On top of this, when a batsman is very defensive you can spin the ball as hard as possible, because every revolution you get is needed to force them to misjudge and cost them their wicket. Additionally, spinning it as hard as possible may lead to a few drag downs or full tosses, which are okay to these batsmen; as they are in such a defensive mindset, they are likely to hold back in their attacking shots and offer up a half-hearted catch.

No need to work on a googly yet, I would work on a topspinner and a slider first.

Yeah, the one tip I can give you with a wet ball and spongy pitches is that it will likely not spin, so stick to deceiving in the air - topspin, sidespin, drift, dip. Also I like to grip the ball cross seam in these cases so my fingers aren't touching the slippery seam.

 

[MoMole]

Yes, as a general rule attacking top of off should be your goal. On a proper pitch the ball with good overspin should still hit top of off if you land it on the right length. IF the batsman has a good late cut and is using it on off stump deliveries, you should get him out easily with a quicker or slower change of pace. If he's using his feet, use maximum sidespin, for drift and turn past the bat, or mostly overspin for dip to get the ball bouncing shorter than he expects, so it will hopefully bounce and spin past the bat.

That's good that your teammates are playing like that. That means your bowling seems like a real danger to them. In game however, batsman will most likely play you as your teammates played you at the start, coming out of the crease and all that. In the case that a batsman gets used to your bowling and plays you from deep in your crease and defensively like your teammates now, I would pitch the ball fuller until they are forced to play forward. I would also try and bowl a quicker flatter, straight ball to get them lbw if they are still playing back foot. On top of this, when a batsman is very defensive you can spin the ball as hard as possible, because every revolution you get is needed to force them to misjudge and cost them their wicket. Additionally, spinning it as hard as possible may lead to a few drag downs or full tosses, which are okay to these batsmen; as they are in such a defensive mindset, they are likely to hold back in their attacking shots and offer up a half-hearted catch.

No need to work on a googly yet, I would work on a topspinner and a slider first.

Yeah, the one tip I can give you with a wet ball and spongy pitches is that it will likely not spin, so stick to deceiving in the air - topspin, sidespin, drift, dip. Also I like to grip the ball cross seam in these cases so my fingers aren't touching the slippery seam.

Do you have any tips on bowling the slider?

I've been trying to figure it out but I always end up bowling a side spinner out of the front of my hand that turns when it pitches. I've watched Warne bowl it in slow motion and it seems there is some spin on the ball but I think I'm putting too many revs on the ball out of the front of my hand.

 

[Leggy88]

Do you have any tips on bowling the slider?

I've been trying to figure it out but I always end up bowling a side spinner out of the front of my hand that turns when it pitches. I've watched Warne bowl it in slow motion and it seems there is some spin on the ball but I think I'm putting too many revs on the ball out of the front of my hand.

I wish I did, I myself am working on one at the moment. What I use instead as a filler and call a 'slider' currently is a very roundarm, flat ball which I bowl much quicker but still try and spin. Sometimes it turns and sometimes it doesn't. I often try to bowl it onto the shiny side too so it slides on.

However, occasionally when the ball slips from my hand when attempting a normal leg break (perhaps usually more when I am trying to bowl with more sidespin) the ball comes out so much quicker and deceives the batsman as a flipper would. It really is a magic ball but I cannot control when I bowl it; I am trying to figure out how I do it though.

On the other hand you could also try bowling it with backspin as that will be more likely to skid on fast.

Oftentimes as well when you try to bowl with mostly sidespin you are actually bowling it with mostly top spin as your brain can trick you. In this case, try bowling it with backspin and you might actually end up with proper sidespin. Give this a go, you often need to try and overcompensate unless you are perfectly in tune with your body when there are so many different working parts in a bowling action which can muddle things up.

 

[SomeblokecalledDave.]

Hey all,
First time poster (only discovered the forum a little while ago and I've learned so much from it!)
One of the lads turned up to winter nets with a back strain so he recorded our nets session and I finally got some good footage against batsmen. I've included a bunch of different deliveries (some good some bad). Is there anything I am doing wrong/could do better? Am I bowling too slow?

This will be my first season playing in about 16 years so I've been pretty nervous. I've been bowling a lot in my back garden over the winter and I'm feeling really confident about my stock leg break. I don't have any variations yet, pretty much spent six months just trying to get a consistent leg break. I reckon I'm not at the point where I might bowl a wide down leg once every now and again and a full toss is much rarer.

My concern is whether my bowling at home and nets performance will translate to an actual game. A big unknown for me is that I get a lot of turn and bounce on every surface I've bowled on, but since I haven't bowled on an actual wicket there's a big question around whether I'll get turn and bounce like I'm used to. My stock ball tends to be on leg stump (or just outside) and just short enough I can't be swept. I find this cramps batsmen up and is difficult to get away but my not be a line that can produce wickets.

I'm more worried about bowling to good top order batsmen than anything else. I've had a lot of success against your average clubbies in the net and I've been using the opportunity to work more on making adjustments and trying to outthink the batsmen but I worry about getting smashed by an actual good batsman and not having an answer. For context my club is pretty bad and I think we play in the lowest division (maybe div 8?) and last year they finished second from the bottom of the table.

Appreciate any feedback and happy to answer questions.

Looks OK Mo, yeah I reckon there's a good chance that when you get into an actual game you'll be pretty nervous. With regards the wickets I'm not sure where you are, but if you're in the nets now, you're probably here in the UK with me. If your wickets are anything like the ones I play on - yeah they're going to be hard work much of the time. I tend to bowl like Shane Warne in the nets, but come May I'm probably a lot more Shane Ward. Yeah, you're going to come up against decent batters as well who'll fancy a piece of you even though like me you're way down the league. It'll be tough and you might come away from games feeling that your contribution to the game was what let the side down, but everyone feels that to some extent and as a wrist-spinner possibly more so as we tend to be expensive when learning. The one thing that helps is a Ben Stokes style captain - just look at the difference between Jack Leach under Ben Stokes and Jack Leach under Joe Root... MASSIVE. If you're thick skinned and you've got a decent captain and fielders, you're gonna love it mate!

 

[SomeblokecalledDave.]

Do you have any tips on bowling the slider?

I've been trying to figure it out but I always end up bowling a side spinner out of the front of my hand that turns when it pitches. I've watched Warne bowl it in slow motion and it seems there is some spin on the ball but I think I'm putting too many revs on the ball out of the front of my hand.

What video you watching Mo and what is it you're trying to do... e.g. what's your definition of a 'Slider'?