Leg spin bowling action

Top Contributors
F

fatesjester

New Member
Leg spin bowling action

Hey all,

Just another novice leg spin bowler here. Ive been bowling for a few months now, and im starting to get the hang of it. Thing is i very rarely get any turn at all and my accuracy is far from the best. What i was wondering was, whats the best bowling action i should be doing, is there any youtube videos i can watch, cause im pretty sure mine is absultly terrible.

Any help is appreciated.
Cheers
 
Re: Leg spin bowling action

the best bowling action is whatever is natural to you. if you want to emulate someone then Shane Warne is obviously the ideal role model, but at the same time not everyone will bowl the way that he does through their natural body mechanics. i have tried at great length to emulate Warne, but side-on just isnt my natural action, so i have to bowl front on because trying to get too side-on ended up causing me some fairly serious injury issues (i havent bowled in over a month because of it).

its also very difficult to make suggestions without seeing your bowling action. so your best bet would be to get some video. then people can have a look and see what your natural action is, and just make small suggestions for improvements. you shouldnt need to reinvent your natural motion, just refine it.

if the ball isnt turning then that is generally down to one of two things:

1. youre not spinning the ball very much
2. youre not landing the ball on the seam

to test out number 1, simply spin the ball between your hands. you should be doing this at every opportunity every day anyway to condition your arms to spin the ball, and to increase your spinning strength. if you get the ball spinning with decent revs then this probably isnt your problem.

number 2 is harder to work on. there are a few ways to identify whether youre landing the ball on the seam. one is with slow motion video which isnt within everyones capacity. the lower budget ways are to buy a white ball and put black insulating tape around the seam, then if your eyesight is amazing you can watch it yourself, but more likely youll need a friend to act as wicket keeper behind the stumps to watch the ball. if it isnt landing fully on the seam then youll struggle to get turn.

you also need to aim to present the seam so that it is upright and spinning about itself. e.g. not scrambled. the cleaner the seam, the better the contact with the pitch if you land on it. but scrambled seams can also still turn, and make a more consistent contact. Muralitharan bowls mostly with a scrambled seam, and he generates pretty big turn with his unorthodox action. Shane Warne used to land on a perfect seam though, and he turned it bigger than anyone.
 
Re: Leg spin bowling action

Jim2109;394615 said:
the best bowling action is whatever is natural to you. if you want to emulate someone then Shane Warne is obviously the ideal role model, but at the same time not everyone will bowl the way that he does through their natural body mechanics. i have tried at great length to emulate Warne, but side-on just isnt my natural action, so i have to bowl front on because trying to get too side-on ended up causing me some fairly serious injury issues (i havent bowled in over a month because of it).

its also very difficult to make suggestions without seeing your bowling action. so your best bet would be to get some video. then people can have a look and see what your natural action is, and just make small suggestions for improvements. you shouldnt need to reinvent your natural motion, just refine it.

if the ball isnt turning then that is generally down to one of two things:

1. youre not spinning the ball very much
2. youre not landing the ball on the seam

to test out number 1, simply spin the ball between your hands. you should be doing this at every opportunity every day anyway to condition your arms to spin the ball, and to increase your spinning strength. if you get the ball spinning with decent revs then this probably isnt your problem.

number 2 is harder to work on. there are a few ways to identify whether youre landing the ball on the seam. one is with slow motion video which isnt within everyones capacity. the lower budget ways are to buy a white ball and put black insulating tape around the seam, then if your eyesight is amazing you can watch it yourself, but more likely youll need a friend to act as wicket keeper behind the stumps to watch the ball. if it isnt landing fully on the seam then youll struggle to get turn.

you also need to aim to present the seam so that it is upright and spinning about itself. e.g. not scrambled. the cleaner the seam, the better the contact with the pitch if you land on it. but scrambled seams can also still turn, and make a more consistent contact. Muralitharan bowls mostly with a scrambled seam, and he generates pretty big turn with his unorthodox action. Shane Warne used to land on a perfect seam though, and he turned it bigger than anyone.
Click to expand...

Cheers mate, pretty thorough. I have noticed that the ball does come out of my hand all scrambled, and apparently quite often spinning cross seam, like a pace bowler would do it. I have no idea why it does that, but ill work on what you suggested.
 
Re: Leg spin bowling action

everything starts from the hand. so the best thing you can do is to spin the ball between your hands at every possible opportunity, every single day. if you cant get the ball spinning with a perfect seam and high revs between your hands, then youve got little chance of doing it across 22 yards. so thats the first place to start. get the ball right between your hands, and you should be able to transfer that to your bowling.
 
Re: Leg spin bowling action

I think the best thing to do for you to do if you aren't spinning it is the tip Jim has given. Then when you get to bowl really try and rip every ball as much as you can. Obviously a video would probably help to identify specific areas, but if you can't get hole of a cam then it isn't the end of the world! The best practice for all leg spinners to do is accuracy without a batsmen, try and do more accuracy training than with a batsmen in a net.
 
Re: Leg spin bowling action

Try bowling backspinners and you may find its actually a leg break. I thought I was bowling leg breaks but I was actually bowling top spinners.
 
Re: Leg spin bowling action

chippyben;405507 said:
Try bowling backspinners and you may find its actually a leg break. I thought I was bowling leg breaks but I was actually bowling top spinners.
Click to expand...
That said I'm the reverse, i.e. topspinners in my head turn out as leg breaks, so it varies.

Most if not all people here will tell you that if you can get your hands on a copy of "The Art of Wrist-Spin Bowling" by Peter Philpott you will find it extremely helpful. It's quite a short book (I read it in a day) but it's very comprehensive and a very interesting read.

There are however a few general things that all good wrist spinners do and I think the points you need to remember are as follows:
1. There's no ideal way of delivering leg spin - everyone's grip and action varies slightly and you just have to find something that works for you rather than looking for a template.
2. Never sacrifice spin for accuracy. Get it spinning hard then, work on landing this more accurately.
3. The key things your action needs to achieve are:
a. A rhythmical run-up which allows you to have momentum and be balanced in your delivery stride
b. a pivot around your front leg at delivery so that your torso turns from facing the wicket to facing the other way so that the whole of your body is playing a part in imparting spin on the ball
c. a brief moment of concentrated, total effort as you deliver the ball, a.k.a. exploding through the crease
d. Most of your spin should come from your third finger - you need to really whip it round while keeping it in contact with the ball, and you need to develop a feeling for how much pressure from that finger is required to do this
e. Always follow through on your run-up. If you don't then you're not "exploding" enough.
4. Practise a lot. Practise every time you can. Come to terms with the fact that leg-spinners have to practise more than any other type of cricketer.

Finally, understand that not all advice people give you will work for you. It may work for them, but you need to develop a sense of what may help you and what will not. I'm always told to get my arm higher up, and I always ignore it - it just doesn't work for me.
 
Re: Leg spin bowling action

Have a look at the links thread in the spin section here, I'm sure there's a shed load of good stuff there? Or have a look at my videos which also have loads of useful links see below.....
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top