Cleanprophet
Active Member
Yeah, that is good advice. You can definitely get carried away with filming your bowling and over-analysing. As they call it: paralysis by analysis.
Wrist Spin Bowling (part Five)
- Thread starter Richard the Third
- Start date
Yeah, that is good advice. You can definitely get carried away with filming your bowling and over-analysing. As they call it: paralysis by analysis.
Darth Spin
Active Member
Personally I would use this sort of thing as an occasional drill instead of the main mode of practice. I guess whatever works for the individual is best, though.
boogiespinner
Active Member
Well I seem to be in a minority here - no-one else seems to agree with me! I've also just got in touch with someone a bit legendary and he told me to practice from 22 yards
However I know I have made massive progress by doing this - tbh, I am very much still developing all this, maybe I've just been catching up with everyone else, but I have made progress I just don't think I could have made otherwise.
One funny thing - whenever I am practising in an empty net the full 22 yards looks like a vast distance, but in a match situation it looks easy
boogiespinner
Active Member
If you wanted to master ski jumping, would you just practice from an olympic-sized hill or perfect your technique on a shorter distance first?
Cleanprophet
Active Member
As far as I'm aware, ski jumpers do exactly that. They build up from shorter distances. It all depends on what you are trying to achieve. Philpott suggests bowling over shorter distances, but he is talking about people who are new to wrist spin and are trying to get the technique nailed down. An experiended ski jumper probably wouldn't go back to shorter distances unless there was a specific technical issue. For bowling, I would only suggest bowling over a shorter distance if you are having a significant technical issue and it wouldn't be something I would do on its own. It would be to bowl maybe 20-30 balls before moving back to the full distance and doing the bulk of your net session over the full distance.
I see bowling over a short distance as sort of a warm up technique. Something to do, if you are not getting the release correct, for 5 mins or so before you start your net session proper.
Isn't that more of a safety issue?
Thivagar
Member
Well I seem to be in a minority here - no-one else seems to agree with me! I've also just got in touch with someone a bit legendary and he told me to practice from 22 yards
However I know I have made massive progress by doing this - tbh, I am very much still developing all this, maybe I've just been catching up with everyone else, but I have made progress I just don't think I could have made otherwise.
One funny thing - whenever I am practising in an empty net the full 22 yards looks like a vast distance, but in a match situation it looks easy
Im forced to practice indoor inside my home due to the cold weather during late fall, winter and early spring. One thing I realized was that in net sessions and during games, my action and release were different than the one I thought I had. Bowling in shorter distance helped me strengthen my fingers. I say 22 yard practice is also necessary.
I get that feeling during a match situation as well. When it comes to practicing in nets, batsmen or no batsmen, 22 yards feel much longer. I also tend to bowl much better during game than in nets. Might have to do with adrenaline because when it comes to games, I have no problem staring at batsmen in their eyes like my prey. It is a whole different story in the nets though.
Cleanprophet
Active Member
Ideally, you want to bowl in matches against decent batters. Decen batters value their wickets and tend not to slog, so you can build pressure on them. Lesser batters can be annoying to bowl to. I've found that good balls will often go for runs against lesser batters and bad balls get wickets. Against good batters, it is the other way around.
My preference is to practice the full 22 yards with a placid batsman facing. By placid I mean blocking the good balls and playing the bad balls conservatively.
For me the batsman is important as you need the feedback from the 'enemy' on what you are doing.
Bowling off less than 22 yards is just for getting the feel of bowling. This could be for a change in technique, a delivery you are working on, coming back from injury or warming up.
boogiespinner
Active Member
Well I am very much still at development of technique stage so practising off a short distance just seems sensible.
Let me put it another way though. Suppose I said, don't worry about pace at all, the challenge is just to spin the ball as hard as possible (say topspin) sending it down so it bounces once and hits some stumps.
You can choose whatever distance. What distance would you practice from?
5?
10?
15?
20?
25?
Let me put it another way though. Suppose I said, don't worry about pace at all, the challenge is just to spin the ball as hard as possible (say topspin) sending it down so it bounces once and hits some stumps.
You can choose whatever distance. What distance would you practice from?
5?
10?
15?
20?
25?
Last edited:
Standing, ripping it from 15.
One or two steps ripping it from 18-20.
Full action ripping it from full pitch.
Make sure you have a clearly defined point you're aiming the ball to bounce .
Otherwise ripping it, always ripping it
Cleanprophet
Active Member
The less momentum you have going into your delivery, the trickier it is to land the ball on a good length with the right trajectory. That's why ripping it from a standing start from somewhere around 14-15 yards is furthest you want to do stand start stuff really. I found that out with my own work in the nets. Stand start drills from the full 22 yards almost always leaves you landing the ball short. Trying to hit the right length from a 22 yard stand start will see you bowling moon balls. That's why that advice from leftie600 is spot on about the distances in relation to whether you are doing stand starts, step starts or off the full run up.
Spin King23
Member
I've heard people, especially the coaches on pitchvision talk about the bowling arm circle with leg spinners and how Terry Jenner encouraged Shane Warne to incorporate it into his bowling. However, I don't actually understand the purpose of it, I'm hoping you can help me understand what spin bowlers achieve from using it.
boogiespinner
Active Member
I think this clears up any disagreement I'm pretty much with this
I'm devoting myself to standing start practice right now because although I am getting some really nice spin I am well off having it fully controlled and 15 yards seems a fair distance. The other consideration is simply volume of practice - With no run up you are bowling a higher volume of balls per minute. I am tending to start closer to the stumps and as I warm up the pace improves. But I also like dropping it to play around with the action.
I've had some really encouraging practice lately but yesterday was terrible.
Does anyone use rosin or something to help grip the ball? I know it might be forbidden in a game but for practice I can do with my fingers gripping the ball nicely.
Cleanprophet
Active Member
This is one of the things I like about the stand start stuff. You can bowl a lot of balls. As leftie said, the shorter distance stuff is either for a few balls in a warm up or if you are doing some specific technical stuff. I only did it because I'd lost that release position and wasn't getting the rip across the ball and sidespin. So, I did that work over a short distance to get that feeling of the finger ripping across the ball back. Otherwise, I wouldn't bother with short distance bowling other than for 4 or 5 balls just as part of a warm up.
That happens. Just as easily as you can have a bad session, you can have a really good one. You've just got to stick with it and push through.
I never have and I've never even thought about it. The problem I have is that my hands don't sweat very much at all. So my hands are usually bone dry. I often have the opposite problem to what most spinners have. Most spinners have to dry their hands to prevent the ball slipping. I'm always having to wet my hands, to get some moisture in them and get traction on the ball. Once I've worked up a bit of a sweat, I'm ok or if it is a nice warm day, I'm ok (which isn't actually that often in England). But I could do with some decent grip on the ball for those little 30min sessions I do in the nets because the first 15-20mins I'm usually struggling to really grip the ball and get traction. Would Rosin help with that or is Rosin more for keeping your hands dry? Might be better off putting a sugary sweet in my mouth and using the stickiness of that to make my hand nice and sticky - in practice of course, not in a match
boogiespinner
Active Member
I too have dry hands and yes I find the ball difficult to control in the first part of practice particularly. I read about rosin I think in Arthur Mailey's biography, where he shamelessly confesses to using the stuff in matches. I haven't tried it but think it adds stickiness as well as taking away moisture. rosin bags are used by baseball pitchers and (ten pin) bowlers and other sports I think. The other thing I'm wondering about is applying pine tar to the practice cricket balls to make them super sticky - baseball hitters use pine tar on their bats. That might mean having black cricket balls and very sticky hands but would that matter?I never have and I've never even thought about it. The problem I have is that my hands don't sweat very much at all. So my hands are usually bone dry. I often have the opposite problem to what most spinners have. Most spinners have to dry their hands to prevent the ball slipping. I'm always having to wet my hands, to get some moisture in them and get traction on the ball. Once I've worked up a bit of a sweat, I'm ok or if it is a nice warm day, I'm ok (which isn't actually that often in England). But I could do with some decent grip on the ball for those little 30min sessions I do in the nets because the first 15-20mins I'm usually struggling to really grip the ball and get traction. Would Rosin help with that or is Rosin more for keeping your hands dry? Might be better off putting a sugary sweet in my mouth and using the stickiness of that to make my hand nice and sticky - in practice of course, not in a match
How much are you going to achieve by doing that? When you hit a game you can't legally use those substances.
You're better off finding a way that works for you and you can apply for games.
My hands are reasonably soft and dry, for games I just cup and blow into my hands a lot. This warms them up and gets moisture into them where there was none.
If the ball is the issue, rough it up a little or get some spit or sweat into it. That's what you'll get in games.
Cleanprophet
Active Member
Yeah, I blow into my hands as well. It does moisten them up quite nicely. I think that's the only option really. That and just rubbing your fingers on your tonque to get a bit of saliva on them. Once your warm up, you can just rub your hands on your forehead or back of the neck to get a bit of sweat into them.
The only other option of course is to have a something like a boiled sweet in your mouth so that your saliva is stickier. I'm sure that's something a lot of bowlers do.
The only other option of course is to have a something like a boiled sweet in your mouth so that your saliva is stickier. I'm sure that's something a lot of bowlers do.
boogiespinner
Active Member
You can't use a net, or have a bucket of balls, or bowl without a batsman present either.
I don't accept that practice conditions need or indeed should for a great part match those of the competitive situation, and the general way to learn skills is to master them at favourable conditions and then increase the difficulty. That's why you don't ski down a black run first time out. It's why you don't windsurf in a howling gale until you have had a great deal of experience. It's why boxers might practice punching bags that don't hit back. It's why high wire walkers will first practice with a net below them. etc
That's a strawman argument. Those sports practice that way in order to avoid injury, you are not avoiding injury by using sticky substances to aid your grip.
The equivalent to what you're suggesting is a swing bowler practicing using a ball that's been varnished on one side.
Anyway, if you want to practice that way and it works for you then go ahead. Just make sure that you don't lose the feel of spinning a ball hard and unaided.