SomeblokecalledDave.
Some Bloke Called Dave
S
slingylefty
So, reading through recent messages, your still working on your approach and action through the crease? Are you still trying to come to the crease at a fair speed - more "MacGill" than "Warne"? I liked your point relating to flight and loop, what I'd say about this is...
Personally, I think this is the Holy Grail of wrist-spin, the ability to bowl at a decent pace but with crazy revs on the ball. Warne for instance I think bowled at an average pace of around 57 mph. When you think that his initial flight was above the eye-line of the batsman and yet it dropped well short of where they expected. What's going on? If you read accounts of batters facing him and similar with Abdul Qadir, they say, the line would have suggested a fullish ball, but then it just falls out of the sky way short of where you've predicted. Connected to this and overall development, I really don't rate the Googly as an early option for a variation to bowl, I think it's way too fraught with problems (Googly Syndrome) and a far better option is the Top-Spinner. One of the reasons for advocating so strongly for the Top-Spinner is that it encourages the development of spinning the ball harder in order that you look for that dip that's spoken about when facing Warne and Qadir. My own experience is that once you've got the Top-Spinner under your belt, the Googly is only a subtle change of the wrist and comes relatively easy without focusing any practice on it. In the same way a small leg-break is as easily executed as a change up with only subtle changes in the wrist and because the emphasis is on the over-spin and dip it is very different to your big turning leg-break. Having the ability to get the ball to dip with increased revs is very much a game changer.
Another up-shot of having the Top-Spinner as your second delivery as such, is that that ability to produce the small leg-break and the Googly with so much over-spin comes with such subtle changes in the wrist & your variations are not easily picked.
I think your current exploration of the stand-start drill might be fruitful in terms of reflecting on the need to run-in at speed. It'll be interesting to hear what conclusions you draw from it?
Personally, I think this is the Holy Grail of wrist-spin, the ability to bowl at a decent pace but with crazy revs on the ball. Warne for instance I think bowled at an average pace of around 57 mph. When you think that his initial flight was above the eye-line of the batsman and yet it dropped well short of where they expected. What's going on? If you read accounts of batters facing him and similar with Abdul Qadir, they say, the line would have suggested a fullish ball, but then it just falls out of the sky way short of where you've predicted. Connected to this and overall development, I really don't rate the Googly as an early option for a variation to bowl, I think it's way too fraught with problems (Googly Syndrome) and a far better option is the Top-Spinner. One of the reasons for advocating so strongly for the Top-Spinner is that it encourages the development of spinning the ball harder in order that you look for that dip that's spoken about when facing Warne and Qadir. My own experience is that once you've got the Top-Spinner under your belt, the Googly is only a subtle change of the wrist and comes relatively easy without focusing any practice on it. In the same way a small leg-break is as easily executed as a change up with only subtle changes in the wrist and because the emphasis is on the over-spin and dip it is very different to your big turning leg-break. Having the ability to get the ball to dip with increased revs is very much a game changer.
Another up-shot of having the Top-Spinner as your second delivery as such, is that that ability to produce the small leg-break and the Googly with so much over-spin comes with such subtle changes in the wrist & your variations are not easily picked.
I think your current exploration of the stand-start drill might be fruitful in terms of reflecting on the need to run-in at speed. It'll be interesting to hear what conclusions you draw from it?
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Due to a very dry September, the ground was bone dry and any shot hit over the 30 yard line was a definite boundary. All bowlers got tonked except one off spinner. He amazingly stuck to one simple mantra - flight the ball slowly so that it induces a dip and land it just outside the off stump. Batsmen really seemed to have no clue on how to attack him. He bagged 3 wickets, 2 from outside edges from ugly swipes across the line and one for a LBW off a switch hit. It was great to watch this from the other end of the pitch. His spell proved to be the difference between winning and losing sides.