Mental Side Of Spin Bowling

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Billywhizz said:
I got tonked all around the ground at last weeks game by one batsman. The guy was going at it baseball style (every ball) - he missed about half the balls but the ones he connected with were sixes (don't ask about my figures!). Any advice for this sort of player?
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I've seen batsmen like that before, normally they thrive on balls that are just back of a length where the horizontal swing of the bat effectively takes the effect of turn out of the equation. Bowl full and straight and try to beat him in the flight.
 
Cheers for that? it makes sense now!. Problem was I tensed up, almost flinching when running up. The prospect of getting slugged, coupled with the eerie silence of my team mates, caused me to bowl some short rubbish. Empty the mind! Empty the mind!
 
Billywhizz said:
Cheers for that? it makes sense now!. Problem was I tensed up, almost flinching when running up. The prospect of getting slugged, coupled with the eerie silence of my team mates, caused me to bowl some short rubbish. Empty the mind! Empty the mind!
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Relish the challenge, don't be a coward and execute plans to shut the batsman down or get them out like what SLA has suggested. The making of a bowler is not when everything's going well but how they respond when the batsman takes it too them.
 
Really, the key is to immunise yourself from the uncontrollable outcomes of spin bowling otherwise you will go nuts. Sometimes good balls get hit for six, sometimes bad balls get wickets. The important thing to focus on as a bowler is whether you bowled the ball you were trying to bowl. If you pitch a perfect leg break and the bloke slogs and it goes for six, just shrug your shoulders. Obviously sometimes you have to ask "could I have done something differently?" Sometimes the answer is yes, but more often than not its no.
 
leftie600 said:
Sorry for being blunt but I don't like to hear doubt, sometimes you won't know what to do but you should always want to take on the challenge.
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You're right and this is what I struggle with. Having any doubt in yourself at all as a leggie will destroy you on the board and will keep you awake at night.
The best advice I've ever received - even from my 14 year old son - is "just bowl".
It's true. If you've bowled 10,000 balls in the nets, then surely it's in muscle memory, as long as the technique is right.
 
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