Wrist Spin Bowling (Part Three)

[Spiderlounge]

Wrist Spin Bowling (Part Three)

spiderlounge - get those slazenger balls in your picture scuffed up nicely. soften one of them up with a bat as well. theyre amazing to bowl leg spin with once they are worn in!! you can land them on any part of the ball and they still grip net surfaces decently but the seams are just right, not too proud but not too flat, they seriously rip if you land on them. my slazenger is a bit beaten up now, i need to get another one as its gone soft and has deformed so its now oval shaped. but it was an awesome ball for learning with. they are also really nice to grip once they wear because the leather scuffs up rather than going smooth and shiny.

they are quite big as well by most standards. the only ball ive got thats bigger is a cheap Readers one. all the match balls ive used (Kookaburra, Dukes, and one other that i cant remember) were slightly smaller. and if you learn with a larger ball it makes smaller ones super easy to spin.

Actually the balls in the picture are the plastic "supaball" type, lighter than a proper cricket ball and softer too, which is just as well as I've come pretty close to breaking a few things round the house... I have ordered a dozen Slazenger Crown balls now, 3 red, 3 white, 3 red/white and 3 red/yellow (SportsDirect have them on sale half price), so once they arrive I'll be bowling with them.

 

[Jim2109]

Re: Wrist Spin Bowling (Part Two)

You know, now trying it - you're right! Not so sure I'd use it for the googly, though.

most people ive heard speak about it say to remove it for the googly. im pretty sure Warne has said it before as well. it restricts how far you can rotate the wrist.

Actually the balls in the picture are the plastic "supaball" type, lighter than a proper cricket ball and softer too, which is just as well as I've come pretty close to breaking a few things round the house... I have ordered a dozen Slazenger Crown balls now, 3 red, 3 white, 3 red/white and 3 red/yellow (SportsDirect have them on sale half price), so once they arrive I'll be bowling with them.

the ones on sports direct all appear to be junior sized? i want a couple more of the Slazengers myself. mine is a "County Match" one, but id imagine they are all made from similar leather. theyre normally about £7-10 each! theyre so nice to bowl with though.

 

[chrisbell]

Re: Wrist Spin Bowling (Part Two)

most people ive heard speak about it say to remove it for the googly. im pretty sure Warne has said it before as well. it restricts how far you can rotate the wrist.

Makes sense.

 

[someblokecalleddave]

Re: Wrist Spin Bowling (Part Two)

I've been playing around with my grip (I'm not bowling proper yet, still just spinning hand to hand) and my problem seems to be remarkably simple - all I needed to do was take my thumb off the ball and 2 up-2 down works a charm!!! My left shoulder's playing up a lot so don't think I'll be bowling proper any time soon though...

Press ups, rotational press ups and terra bands behind the head will do the trick there. You're using muscles in a way you've never done before so it's bound to cause aches, plus like me as we've been up to our necks in the snow you've probably been really inactive anyway?

 

[someblokecalleddave]

Re: Wrist Spin Bowling (Part Two)

You know, now trying it - you're right! Not so sure I'd use it for the googly, though.

Not sure how much my thumb is used, minimally I think just to balance the ball and hold it in the right place.

 

[chrisbell]

Re: Wrist Spin Bowling (Part Two)

Not sure how much my thumb is used, minimally I think just to balance the ball and hold it in the right place.

In tossing the ball from hand to hand, that's what I'm doing. It seems to help keep the seam upright when I'm spinning in towards my body.

 

[someblokecalleddave]

Re: Wrist Spin Bowling (Part Two)

Actually the balls in the picture are the plastic "supaball" type, lighter than a proper cricket ball and softer too, which is just as well as I've come pretty close to breaking a few things round the house... I have ordered a dozen Slazenger Crown balls now, 3 red, 3 white, 3 red/white and 3 red/yellow (SportsDirect have them on sale half price), so once they arrive I'll be bowling with them.

If you're going to just use the balls for bowling practice the cheap crappy Davidson types off of ebay are fine. I leave one side shiny and rub all the shine off the other side. Have a look at the price as you might save yourself quite a bit.

Just checked your blog out - looks okay I'll have a proper read of it a bit later and link it my blog.

Spiderlounge - you sound like you can bat a bit - was it you that said that you used to bat primarily and bowl a bit of the fast stuff? You're looking for bats - have you looked at these - they're made next to where 95% of the worlds willow comes from. http://www.handmadebats.co.uk/

 

[chrisbell]

Re: Wrist Spin Bowling (Part Two)

Spiderlounge - you sound like you can bat a bit - was it you that said that you used to bat primarily and bowl a bit of the fast stuff? You're looking for bats - have you looked at these - they're made next to where 95% of the worlds willow comes from. WS Warsop Stebbing - Handmade Cricket Bats

According to Tim Heald's Compton biography, Denis used a Warsop during his great summer of '47, but had to have a Wisden logo on it because he was contraced to use their bats...

 

[macca]

Re: Wrist Spin Bowling (Part Two)

We christened a brand new synthetic pitch this morning down at the oval. We were the very first to use it. Every delivery left an indent on the mat so it was easy to see where each ball landed. Gave us a good pitch map like on T.V.

It is very good for legspin. It does not bounce as much as the well worn ones or bare concrete so you hit the stumps instead of hopping over them.

Toss the ball up slow and it spun plenty. If you bowled flatter and faster it skidded off with nice pace and spun as well. Some lucky spinner will get a bowl on it on Saturday. It is real legspinners weather right now. Too hot to bowl much pace and the team has to fall back on the wrist merchants to help out once again.

 

[Spiderlounge]

Re: Wrist Spin Bowling (Part Three)

If you're going to just use the balls for bowling practice the cheap crappy Davidson types off of ebay are fine. I leave one side shiny and rub all the shine off the other side. Have a look at the price as you might save yourself quite a bit.

Just checked your blog out - looks okay I'll have a proper read of it a bit later and link it my blog.

Spiderlounge - you sound like you can bat a bit - was it you that said that you used to bat primarily and bowl a bit of the fast stuff? You're looking for bats - have you looked at these - they're made next to where 95% of the worlds willow comes from. WS Warsop Stebbing - Handmade Cricket Bats

Thanks for the blog comments. I'll definitely stick your sites in when I get round to doing a set of links (not just out of reciprocation but because they're excellent).

I think you must be thinking of someone else - So far I can't bat for toffee but I can block a charm. Never been out bowled or LBW, or in fact anything other than caught of mis-timed defensive shots... I need to work on shots that score runs as I'm certainly not going to make a contribution with my bowling any time soon. Our nets start next Sunday so I'm going to try and get as much practice with the bat as I can, especially since I haven't played in a decade. At the moment bowling leg spin is just a private challenge I've set myself.

My Slaz Crowns have arrived now, they seem ideal as the seems are nice and smooth on my tender inexperienced fingers. My grip's still evolving, but the main point of taking my thumb off was to get my ring finger working, which wasn't happening before. Mission accomplished on that front - I can always tack the thumb on later. Still having trouble spinning the ball back towards myself though. I can get a good spin on it but it just pops up vertically rather than looping back to me. Is that just a case of more practice?

Sadly my left shoulder is more than just muscles straining to perform new tasks - I went to see a physio today and my whole neck and torso seems to be bearing the scars of a lifetime of bad posture and some old damage from a minor car shunt I had nine years ago. She's done a lot to improve it with some ultrasound and conventional massage, but it'll probably be a while before it's properly back to normal. When it is I'll definitely start some proper training with spinning in mind.

It's always good to hear the spinners are in demand Macca!

 

[gundalf7]

Re: Wrist Spin Bowling (Part Three)

looking forward to starting nets myself on sunday with my club again, uni nets in the evening to so won't be short of practice, lol.

Finally seem to have got my action sorted properly as i haven't had any problems at all since i changed back to a more natural action and it seems to have worked great as the action is much more solid and i'm causing batsmen all sorts of problems with turn and the pace is so much better than in the season last year and i seem to be able to get quick turn off the surface again.

good luck with your new club spiderlounge, i'd guess its stafford so i might see you in the season as our club usually plays stafford in a couple of sunday games.

 

[someblokecalleddave]

Re: Wrist Spin Bowling (Part Three)

Gundalf what are you working on this year - as you were trying out loads of the different variations.

e.g. - Have you settled on a few balls to use in games and is there a couple of developmental variations you work on in practice?

 

[gundalf7]

Re: Wrist Spin Bowling (Part Three)

at the moment i'm really still working mainly on my leg break with pace variations and varying the top spin, side spin and back spin together. The other main thing is practicing the googly as my accuracy is not great with it and its a bit slower out the hand than the leggie at the mo.

For the season i'm probablly looking at using 4 or 5 deliveries most likely leggies, orthodox backspinner, arm ball and hopefully the googly. The other delivery will probablly end up being some sort of toppie, i can bowl the normal toppie accurately when i want but i just don't seem to use it. I've been practicing my reverse flipper again in the last week and when i get it right its quick through the air and quick off the surface but stays low.

A lot more of my practice time has been taken up by batting alot more than i used to and doing a few batting drills to try and keep my footwork quick and precise.

 

[macca]

Re: Wrist Spin Bowling (Part Three)

They slowed down 3 of Shahid Afridis deliveries on TV to compare them. They split the screen in 3 and slowmoed a legbreak and a topspinner. The other delivery they slowed was in Tony Griegs words "a kind of offspinner using his second finger instead of his first to impart the spin". They only showed it for a moment but it could have been a topspinning flipper, I just could not make out what the thumb was doing on just one brief viewing.

Grimmett believed in not carrying too many tools around to ply his trade in a match. He always used mainly his legbreak and what he called his "straight one" which was the topspinner or any ball that did not grip and went straight on. After he perfected his flipper he hardly used his wrongun and then usually only against lefthanders. He was always experimenting but in a game he did not like to have too many balls juggling in the air, literally. He called this "pruning" his deliveries.

 

[someblokecalleddave]

Re: Wrist Spin Bowling (Part Three)

They slowed down 3 of Shahid Afridis deliveries on TV to compare them. They split the screen in 3 and slowmoed a legbreak and a topspinner. The other delivery they slowed was in Tony Griegs words "a kind of offspinner using his second finger instead of his first to impart the spin". They only showed it for a moment but it could have been a topspinning flipper, I just could not make out what the thumb was doing on just one brief viewing.

Grimmett believed in not carrying too many tools around to ply his trade in a match. He always used mainly his legbreak and what he called his "straight one" which was the topspinner or any ball that did not grip and went straight on. After he perfected his flipper he hardly used his wrongun and then usually only against lefthanders. He was always experimenting but in a game he did not like to have too many balls juggling in the air, literally. He called this "pruning" his deliveries.

Yeah I've pruned down to the Leg Break, Wrong Un, Back-spinning Flipper and the Top-Spinning Flipper. Though the last two I don't use much and would like to discard one of them by April when the season starts. The money is on the back-spinning flipper being the one that disappears.

 

[Jim2109]

Re: Wrist Spin Bowling (Part Three)

my club had its first indoor nets of the season tonight. i had a good bowl, and a bit of a bat at the end. it went ok i guess, but nowhere near 100%.

i clean bowled 2 guys, and was an inch off having a couple more. took a few that would have been stumpings as well. one of the wickets was a left hander 2nd ball. i bowled around the wicket from well wide on the crease, pitched it up well outside his off stump and it turned back in a mile and took his off stump.

unfortunately the majority of my bowling was going leg side, even to right handers. i just couldnt pull it back in. i was super inconsistent, but when i got it right i was getting the ball to turn on a mat surface that was seriously lacking in grip! normally if i stand still, spin the ball out of my hand and let it hit the floor it goes flying sideways. it barely even moved on this surface. i was getting it to turn decently when i got it right. my problem was with line and length.

having not bowled at batsmen forever, and having made major improvements in my bowling since my last game i needed to see whether my line outside leg stump would actually work against a good batsman. the answer is no, one of the best batsmen at the club killed me on legside deliveries. when i got it inline with middle stump he had problems, and outside off stump he was reluctant to play shots.

i seriously need to work on my line and length. i also need the weather to improve so i can get into some individual practice with my video camera to look at my action. i did no analysis at all today, simply because youre in a queue of 6 bowlers taking turns, and you just cant find enough rhythm to start messing with your action.

im bowling WAY too fast most of the time, probably well over 50mph, and when i just slowed myself down it yielded much better deliveries.

so ive got something to work from, ive got 9 more indoor sessions to get to a decent level. i also want to work on my batting in that time though. i batted against the best leggie at the club and he didnt cause me too many issues. i think ive definitely got leg spin tactics sussed out from a batsmans perspective, i just need to get some consistency so that i can bowl to a plan! its no use having a plan when you cant land a delivery where you want to.

 

[someblokecalleddave]

Re: Wrist Spin Bowling (Part Three)

Yeah I bowled averagely tonight although I got a handful of wickets, everyone was driving the ball or playing off the back foot when I tried bowling shorter. I couldn't get my length right - mostly too long and not getting a lot of turn, the upside was a lot of the balls were coming off the bat and flying all over the shop with the drives - so there was potential there I suppose? The upside was the balls that were causing the most problems were my faster small turning leg breaks and both the Flippers. Couldn't get the length with the wrong un right it was either massively short or too long. I suppose in a match situation it would have been a spell that would have produced little in the way of runs and possibly a lot of catching chances as short extra cover, mid wicket and three or four bowled and caught chances. But nothing got through to the stumps.

So actually it was probably okay!!!!

 

[macca]

Re: Wrist Spin Bowling (Part Three)

i clean bowled 2 guys, and was an inch off having a couple more. took a few that would have been stumpings as well. one of the wickets was a left hander 2nd ball. i bowled around the wicket from well wide on the crease, pitched it up well outside his off stump and it turned back in a mile and took his off stump.

.

Sounds like you had an OK session then. Like you say, need to move that line over a little for the majority of deliveries, except to the lefthanders of course.

 

[Legspin is my life]

Re: Wrist Spin Bowling (Part Three)

hi to all bigcricket members ihere i hav uploaded another video of my bowling where it has gone horribly wrong
as u will see i cannot pitch the ball in one place not even one ball is proper
even if i do bowl properly its a googly
i hate to say this but i think i have got the googly syndrome again
also in my previous video titled "me bowling legspin pt 2"


my action was different than it is in this video
i liked my previous action now i think i have lost it Plss help
my coach told me i worry a lot thats the reason i hav spoilt my bowling and the action

here are links to the new videos
YouTube - me bowling legspin 4

YouTube - legspin bowling 3.wmv

 

[Jim2109]

Re: Wrist Spin Bowling (Part Three)

hi to all bigcricket members ihere i hav uploaded another video of my bowling where it has gone horribly wrong
as u will see i cannot pitch the ball in one place not even one ball is proper
even if i do bowl properly its a googly
i hate to say this but i think i have got the googly syndrome again
also in my previous video titled "me bowling legspin pt 2"


my action was different than it is in this video
i liked my previous action now i think i have lost it Plss help
my coach told me i worry a lot thats the reason i hav spoilt my bowling and the action

here are links to the new videos
YouTube - me bowling legspin 4

YouTube - legspin bowling 3.wmv

firstly, your coach might well be right. no good comes from stressing over your bowling, you have to relax, accept that there will be good days and bad days, and just focus all your efforts on finding your issues and correcting them. ive had days where nothing would go right, ive ended up angry at myself, and the bowling has just gotten worse and worse. some days if you cant find any rhythm at all its better to just call it a day and come back another time and try again.

from looking at the videos your action looks ok. its hard to tell the finer details from the video, but youre rotating nicely, your wrist is giving a good flick, there are lots of things that look good. your arm comes over quite high, from behind it looks more like a fast bowler than a leggie, but everyone has their own methods. from the front it looks more like a leg spinner action though, so maybe its just deceptive. there is nothing that says every leg spinner should bowl roundarm, but i think generally roundarm bowlers will generate more turn.

a few of the deliveries turned quite big, there were plenty that turned as leg breaks. i only saw one that turned as a googly, the rest just didnt turn at all. but thats perfectly normal. if you could turn EVERY delivery perfectly on a perfect line and length then youd be playing for India lol. you just have to keep things in perspective.

youre obviously struggling with consistency, i suffer the exact same problem most of the time. for every delivery i put on youtube there were about 10 attempts that werent good enough to video. you have to devise methods to help you find rhythm, as ultimately consistency is all about timing and muscle memory. you need your muscles to repeat the exact same action over and over again, and you need them to do it in time with each other so that it is always the same. try and count your steps as you run up as this can be helpful in getting your body to remember what it should be doing.

also, set yourself a target on the pitch. what i do is to stand as if im a batsman at the batting crease. i reach my front foot forwards as far as i can stretch it, then add another couple of feet to this, and set that as my ideal length. i then place a plank of wood or a stick at that length across the wicket. i then place another stick facing down the wicket inline with leg stump. i then aim to land the ball as close to the length marker as i can, and to the offside of the leg stump marker. i prefer for the ball to land fuller rather than shorter, so if it lands beyond the length stick then thats not too bad as long as its not a full toss. (one of the wickets i took at nets last night was massively overpitched, it landed a yard from the stumps. but it drifted big in flight and beat the batsman who was trying to slog it full toss. it doesnt always need to bounce lol!)

the most important thing though is that you relax and just enjoy your bowling. no matter how frustrating it gets just believe that it will get better with practice. because ultimately it will! maybe take things back to basics, try bowling underarm for a while to make sure your wrist is doing what it should be. then bowl without a run up, maybe over a shorter distance, and just build back up to your complete delivery method. the videos look ok, i reckon youve probably just got a couple of basic flaws in your action that are causing the inconsistency, and if you can figure out what they are then youll make major improvements very quickly.