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JimmySmith

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After searching the net for leg spin advice/tips I came across this forum and it seems to have alot of info so I will go through it in more detail when I have some free time.

I was wondering if anyone could recommend some books on the subject. From what I gather the grimmett books are very good but they are hard to get hold of and probably very expensive. Are there any other books that cover the basics etc and are easily available. I've seen on amazon the art of wrist spin by Andrew - any good?

I'm quite new to legspin but seem to have some potential. I've got the grip and basic action down thanks to vids on the net. I guess its best to perfect the leg break before messing around with googly/flipper!

Any info is most appreciated.
Jim
 
JimmySmith said:
After searching the net for leg spin advice/tips I came across this forum and it seems to have alot of info so I will go through it in more detail when I have some free time.

I was wondering if anyone could recommend some books on the subject. From what I gather the grimmett books are very good but they are hard to get hold of and probably very expensive. Are there any other books that cover the basics etc and are easily available. I've seen on amazon the art of wrist spin by Andrew - any good?

I'm quite new to legspin but seem to have some potential. I've got the grip and basic action down thanks to vids on the net. I guess its best to perfect the leg break before messing around with googly/flipper!

Any info is most appreciated.
Jim
Click to expand...

If you can get the Grimmett books they are good. If you bide your time you might pick them up for reasonable price and remember if you hold on to them for several years, the chances are they'll be rarer and might even end up being an investment?

Getting wickets
Tricking the batsman
Grimmett on cricket

Are the 3 Grimmett books, some of them are unusual as their target audience does seem to be young boys, but they're very informative and interesting and cover many aspects of cricket.

Bob Woolmers Art and Science of cricket is very good especially the spin section and bowling in general and in there he holds up the Grimmett books as being absolutely essential reading. These books and Peter Philpotts 'The Art of Wrist Spin Bowling' are more or less as far as I'm aware 'The books' with regards explaining the technicalities and theories behind wrist spinning.

You could always have a look through my blogs which cover most things and my youtube channel. There's loads of useful stuff in the videos and links thread on here, but I'm sure you'll have looked through that as well?

Cheers for the endorsement as well with regards the content of these spin threads as we do like to think that these threads and forums are potentially the better ones on the internet! If you can get involved as well with the comments as well as we're always interested in what other people are doing.

Dave
 
JimmySmith said:
After searching the net for leg spin advice/tips I came across this forum and it seems to have alot of info so I will go through it in more detail when I have some free time.

I was wondering if anyone could recommend some books on the subject. From what I gather the grimmett books are very good but they are hard to get hold of and probably very expensive. Are there any other books that cover the basics etc and are easily available. I've seen on amazon the art of wrist spin by Andrew - any good?

I'm quite new to legspin but seem to have some potential. I've got the grip and basic action down thanks to vids on the net. I guess its best to perfect the leg break before messing around with googly/flipper!

Any info is most appreciated.
Jim
Click to expand...
In my view, in terms of learning the technique your first purchase should be Philpott's "The Art of Wrist-Spin Bowling", which will tell you probably 90% of everything you need to know as a leg-spinner, and Bob Woolmer's "Art and Science of Cricket" is an excellent book covering all aspects of cricket. Only once you've got those two would I bother looking for Grimmett's books, if for no other reason than those two are in print and the Grimmett books take a while (and plenty of cash) to find. They are worth finding though.

After that the best books for understanding a spinner's mindset (although all the books above will give you a flavour of this) would be "Twirlymen" by Amol Rajan, and Arthur Mailey's autobiography "10 for 66 and All That", which is my absolute favourite cricket book and one of my most treasured possessions. Other than that I've read Eric Hollies' autobiography "I'll Spin You a Tale", which was an engaging read but of little lasting value beyond mere enjoyment, and I'd say the same for Shane Warne's autobiography. Hopefully at some point Warnie will write something more technique-focused, but I'm not sure he's really that interested in writing.

I'd be interested to hear what Terry Jenner's autobiography is like, has anyone read it?
 
I was advised by a leg-spinning veteran at my club to read CS Mariott's The Complete Leg-Break Bowler. Very good it is too, although quite old-fashioned now, and has nothing about the flipper or back-spinner. Still worth reading for his memories of SF Barnes.
 
bosie said:
I was advised by a leg-spinning veteran at my club to read CS Mariott's The Complete Leg-Break Bowler. Very good it is too, although quite old-fashioned now, and has nothing about the flipper or back-spinner. Still worth reading for his memories of SF Barnes.
Click to expand...

Sounds interesting, I think Amol Rajan talks about Barnes at length and really rates him as being important. I'll have to search that one out. Is an Aussie book?
 
No CS Marriott (can never remember spelling) was a contemporary of Tich Freeman at Kent. He was a schoolmaster so only played for Kent during the summer holidays, and played just a single test (with great figures). Was the Benaud/O'Reilly quick-through-the-air-and-off-the-pitch straight man to Freeman's slower, loopier big spinners. In fact the most interesting part of the book is the way he talks about the way leggies fall into one of the two types.

Peebles wrote the introduction to the book, and Benaud the postscript, so the guy was well known and respected once upon a time, but is now almost forgotten.

Have had an eye on your videos for some time, Dave, fear not! In fact, I found this forum a while ago and couldn't find it again recently until I hit upon the idea of googling 'someblokecalleddave' :)
 
bosie said:
No CS Marriott (can never remember spelling) was a contemporary of Tich Freeman at Kent. He was a schoolmaster so only played for Kent during the summer holidays, and played just a single test (with great figures). Was the Benaud/O'Reilly quick-through-the-air-and-off-the-pitch straight man to Freeman's slower, loopier big spinners. In fact the most interesting part of the book is the way he talks about the way leggies fall into one of the two types.

Peebles wrote the introduction to the book, and Benaud the postscript, so the guy was well known and respected once upon a time, but is now almost forgotten.

Have had an eye on your videos for some time, Dave, fear not! In fact, I found this forum a while ago and couldn't find it again recently until I hit upon the idea of googling 'someblokecalleddave' :)
Click to expand...

Nice one, we need some new people on here as it's going a bit flat at the minute, I've just had a PM from one of the main contributors saying that he's simply too busy to get involved and he'll no longer be contributing which is a real shame. I fear that the global recession is having an impact too, I personally have just survived being made redundant by the skin of my teeth hence no new videos this year and far less input into my blogs and on here - as I've been working harder. So it's good to have some new people chipping in with some comments and ideas.
 
If you want to borrow the book, Dave, then we can arrange it by email if you like, as it's currently sat on my shelf having been thoroughly perused. I'd be keen to see one or other of the Grimmett books in return.

Been re-reading Philpott over the last few days (after lending it to the junior groundsman/assistant coach nearly a year ago!) The early style is a bit flowery but I'd forgotten how good it is.
 
Philpott is a good start. Also read Shane Warne: My Autobiography which is not exactly a coaching book but good insight into planning and strategy. Some of the youtube videos are really good featuring warne, Richie Benaud, and some videos uploaded by a bloke called questioncricket. Good videos from another chap ..... some bloke called dave :)
 
bigturner said:
Philpott is a good start. Also read Shane Warne: My Autobiography which is not exactly a coaching book but good insight into planning and strategy. Some of the youtube videos are really good featuring warne, Richie Benaud, and some videos uploaded by a bloke called questioncricket. Good videos from another chap ..... some bloke called dave :)
Click to expand...
I keep meaning to update my videos, but as yet I haven't had time, I've got more on the flipper and I'd re-do the videos with the big flick. I work in education (Photography lecturer) and I've been hassling our dept to get a casio exilim FC EX100 camera which films at 200, 400 and 1000 FPS so that I can record exactly in detail what happens with all these releases. So far this has drawn a blank, a few months ago we were told one was on its way never to get here, but the good news is the current technician appears to have successfully placed an order for 2 of these cameras and they my arrive in the next month or so. If they do that's going to be brilliant because I'll be able to shoot the release from 2 angles or from one angle with the full bowling action! Potentially if I get it all together it'll be a massively useful resource, I just hope that my bowling action does it justice, or I may have to employ the use of my clubs 1st XI leggie who holds the record for most wickets this season in the whole of the league they play in. Fingers crossed these cameras come in within a month or so.
 
someblokecalleddave said:
If you can get the Grimmett books they are good. If you bide your time you might pick them up for reasonable price and remember if you hold on to them for several years, the chances are they'll be rarer and might even end up being an investment?

Getting wickets
Tricking the batsman
Grimmett on cricket

Are the 3 Grimmett books, some of them are unusual as their target audience does seem to be young boys, but they're very informative and interesting and cover many aspects of cricket.

Bob Woolmers Art and Science of cricket is very good especially the spin section and bowling in general and in there he holds up the Grimmett books as being absolutely essential reading. These books and Peter Philpotts 'The Art of Wrist Spin Bowling' are more or less as far as I'm aware 'The books' with regards explaining the technicalities and theories behind wrist spinning.

You could always have a look through my blogs which cover most things and my youtube channel. There's loads of useful stuff in the videos and links thread on here, but I'm sure you'll have looked through that as well?

Cheers for the endorsement as well with regards the content of these spin threads as we do like to think that these threads and forums are potentially the better ones on the internet! If you can get involved as well with the comments as well as we're always interested in what other people are doing.

Dave
Click to expand...
hey dave...its been a long time..could i get your facebook id...i want to talk to about legspin.,
better that way
 
Shivam_ipl said:
hey dave...its been a long time..could i get your facebook id...i want to talk to about legspin.,
better that way
Click to expand...
Shivam I haven't got a clue how you'd do that - search David Thompson Basildon, Essex, England see what you get. But I'm not a user of social media really, I don't have a mobile phone and only ever access FB via PC and most of the stuff that's posted is Left wing politics or Art, rarely say anything about cricket on FB.
 
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