Plastic Balls For Practice

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boogiespinner

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Does anyone make use of these things?

I've bought a few indoor plastic balls to play around with. I'm really liking the readers indoor balls, I'm hoping that I can practice with them outside in the winter in damp weather. They seem to behave pretty much like a normal ball, good feel, but when I bowl with them they often fly down the legside, bit like a drag down. I am actually wondering if it would be good technical practice to master bowling with these.

I think I could bowl legspin pretty much all day with these and not trouble the shoulder.

I've found the 'supaball' to be really good for indoor (i.e. in the house) hand-to-hand practice, has a nice seam and feel but it's unlikely to break anything :)

I've tried a windball too, but not sure these are so useful.
 
mmmmm.. What's wrong with cricket balls? Remember the golden rule is to keep practice as close to match conditions as possible. Wherever possible, bowl with real cricket balls, on a real pitch, with a real run-up, against a real batsman. Unless you're planning on playing in some indoor cricket games and want to work on your bowling in this format, I'm not sure why you'd bother.
 
As previously discussed SLA I quite like high volume net practice off one pace, so one constraint is shoulder stress, another is damp conditions.

I think I could bowl all day with these things.
 
How would a plastic ball reduce shoulder stress? Just because a ball is lighter does not mean the stress on your shoulder is reduced. In fact, switching between balls of different weights, particularly when done at high volumes, is more likely to cause injury.

Given that you're not interested in the taking the professional advice that has been offered you by a couple of different coaches, I'm not really sure why you post here.

Do you ever wonder whether their is a correlation between your intransigence and your regular tendency to still bowl the ball into the side-net?
 
SLA said:
Given that you're not interested in the taking the professional advice that has been offered you by a couple of different coaches, I'm not really sure why you post here.
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I thought I might divulge one of the reasons SLA - I'm trying to keep this forum ticking over with some activity.

You might like to consider that if you were to drive me away, you might have no-one left to give advice to, professional or otherwise.

If you were to make an effort to be nothing but friendly to fellow posters - as really there should be no need for personalities in such a niche hobby forum - this really would help.
 
I don't think I've ever been anything other than completely friendly and helpful - and often I get no thanks at all.

What do you want us to do? Lie and tell you that you are going to improve using the incorrect practice methods you are currently utilising? Do you not think that would be unprofessional of us and , actually, quite cruel?
 
SLA said:
I don't think I've ever been anything other than completely friendly and helpful - and often I get no thanks at all.

What do you want us to do? Lie and tell you that you are going to improve using the incorrect practice methods you are currently utilising? Do you not think that would be unprofessional of us and , actually, quite cruel?
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I have improved, so know your claim to be false. But that is not important. The professional thing is not to force advice to people who are not your clients. You might give it once and then leave it, because it's really not your business, professional or personal, how they might choose to practice. You don't get into an argument about it. That is certainly not professional. Also, it is professional to speak for yourself. I don't consider that you speak for anyone else on these forums.
 
boogiespinner said:
I have improved, so know your claim to be false. But that is not important. The professional thing is not to force advice to people who are not your clients. You might give it once and then leave it, because it's really not your business, professional or personal, how they might choose to practice. You don't get into an argument about it. That is certainly not professional. Also, it is professional to speak for yourself. I don't consider that you speak for anyone else on these forums.
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You're improving at a small fraction of the rate one might expect a bowler to improve - as far as it goes, this is your time you're wasting and therefore your business - but just be careful at giving anything that could be construed as advice - you should probably make a signature that appears on all your posts that highlights that you are deliberately retarding your own progress as a bowler and that if anyone copies you, they are likely to do the same.
 
Mostly when I don't go to practice in the ground. I will be in my room and have spong balls.... These ones-- ☺☺
I practice my bowling action with it. In the book the art of wrist spin bowling. Peter says u can spin any ball it still givesthe same practice
 
Nothing wrong with that Shivam. Try practicing spinning balls onto your bedspread or doona. You can see the spin on the ball but the doona will prevent the ball from running away and you won't have to go chasing the ball all the time.
 
Yeah I'd just be careful practising too much with balls that are significantly lighter than cricket balls. You get used to the weight and shape of the balls you practise with and I think that can cause some confusion in your muscle memory.
 
Chino#21 said:
Yeah I'd just be careful practising too much with balls that are significantly lighter than cricket balls. You get used to the weight and shape of the balls you practise with and I think that can cause some confusion in your muscle memory.
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Is that something you've observed or theory though Chino?

My belief is that practising with balls that are smaller or lighter will not be harmful and could possibly be extra beneficial technical work. I can think up a few pieces of evidence - Jack Iverson developed his spinning technique by obsessive spinning of a table-tennis ball. Bosanquet played a fair bit of twisti-twosti which I think is credited as helping create his googly - that was played with a tennis ball. On another sport, many of the great Brazilian footballers developed their skills with futebol de salao, which uses a small ball. And obviously, but maybe not trivially, weightlifters will not do any harm to their form by practising with a light bar. One learns to ski on short skis and moves up the length. A general principle, establish the technique having the object to be manipulated as helpful as possible, and then ramp up the difficulty.

I do suspect though that practising with too large a cricket ball is inadvisable.

When I was really young, I could bowl really quite consistent legbreaks and googlies with a tennis ball. My tennis ball googly was huge! But I couldn't move up to a full size and weight cricket ball successfully and then I think I lost the tennis ball googly as a result. I wish that I'd been able to advise my younger self.

I hope that my contrary view is correct, I've just been out and about and took a windball. As it is light and springy it is very easy on the fingers, so it is quite enjoyable practice with while walking through the park, whereas doing the same with a cricket ball feels like much more effort. Also it is a much lighter object to have in your pocket.
 
I am really enjoying using the windball for hand-to-hand practice. It's fun to practice with and feels great. I am taking it out with me when I go for a walk and other than that it lives in the fruitbowl!
 
Flipping the ball from hand to hand is just messing around. I wouldn't really describe it as practice.

If you find flipping a cricket ball from hand to hand requires serious effort, perhaps spin bowling is not for you? Do you have extremely weak wrists or something?
 
boogiespinner said:
Is that something you've observed or theory though Chino?

My belief is that practicing with balls that are smaller or lighter will not be harmful and could possibly be extra beneficial technical work.
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I did make sure to insert "I think" into my claim, as I do not have real evidence. But in my experience if you keep spinning lighter balls around or bowl with them over short distances etc. you are only confusing yourself. I like the idea of keeping practice as close to match situations as possible and I'm sure that this has been proven to be the best way of practicing.
You might do something that challenges your body or develops a technique, for example if you want to bowl a carrom ball better you might flick a ball with your fingers all day to strengthen the fingers, but needless to say the ball has to be a cricket ball for this to work, unless this is impossible for you to do and you have to start off with a tennis ball before progressing to a cricket ball. If you can already bowl an adequate leg spinner there is no need for you to practice with anything other than a cricket ball, because you won't ever be bowling with something other than a cricket ball.
I have also noticed that some players who are indoor cricket fanatics bowl significantly worse in outdoor cricket after they've been bowling with the lighter indoor ball for too long.
 
Chino#21 said:
I like the idea of keeping practice as close to match situations as possible and I'm sure that this has been proven to be the best way of practicing.
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I think we have differing philosophies here, and I am confident if you were to look for such proof you would not find it.

If it was absolutely the case, why not simply just play matches?

You might do something that challenges your body or develops a technique, for example if you want to bowl a carrom ball better you might flick a ball with your fingers all day to strengthen the fingers, but needless to say the ball has to be a cricket ball for this to work, unless this is impossible for you to do and you have to start off with a tennis ball before progressing to a cricket ball. If you can already bowl an adequate leg spinner there is no need for you to practice with anything other than a cricket ball, because you won't ever be bowling with something other than a cricket ball.
I have also noticed that some players who are indoor cricket fanatics bowl significantly worse in outdoor cricket after they've been bowling with the lighter indoor ball for too long.
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Well as mentioned, the reason for using a windball for hand-to-hand practice is one of expediency. I don't really want to throw cricket balls around indoors, nor carry one in my pocket. But these are both not unpractical with a windball and it's enjoyable. I've felt that as far as manipulating a windball hand-to-hand goes, I'm improving. Whether that translates to a cricket ball, I'll reserve judgment for now, but I'm optimistic.

I have no trouble believing what you say about indoor cricket fanatics, but your comment suggests that this is a temporary issue rather than the indoor ball doing any long term damage to their game.
 
Chino#21 said:
I did make sure to insert "I think" into my claim, as I do not have real evidence. But in my experience if you keep spinning lighter balls around or bowl with them over short distances etc. you are only confusing yourself. I like the idea of keeping practice as close to match situations as possible and I'm sure that this has been proven to be the best way of practicing.
You might do something that challenges your body or develops a technique, for example if you want to bowl a carrom ball better you might flick a ball with your fingers all day to strengthen the fingers, but needless to say the ball has to be a cricket ball for this to work, unless this is impossible for you to do and you have to start off with a tennis ball before progressing to a cricket ball. If you can already bowl an adequate leg spinner there is no need for you to practice with anything other than a cricket ball, because you won't ever be bowling with something other than a cricket ball.
I have also noticed that some players who are indoor cricket fanatics bowl significantly worse in outdoor cricket after they've been bowling with the lighter indoor ball for too long.
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Yes. There is plenty of proof for this. It's pretty well known and understood amongst sports professionals.

My advice is don't try to reason with boogie spinner. He is immune to it
 
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