Reflective practice - Spin Bowling

[someblokecalleddave]

Reflective practice - Spin Bowling

Gibbs reflective Practice; Here's an idea that people might want to adopt in their pursuit of excellence. This technique is used in all forms of learning in professional situations and can easily be adopted in the context of sport.

http://www.health.bcu.ac.uk/dpl/nursing/images/model-gibbs.gif

What Happened: 3-0-9-1 generally a good spell which was curtailed by rain.

How did I feel: I wasn't that confident and felt under pressure as I was bowling for an unfamiliar side that pretty much dismiss Wrist-Spin as being a high risk strategy within the game.

What was good/bad about the experience: After a recent couple of games where I'd been taken to task it was good to bowl half decent and take the wicket of a bloke that was settling into the game. Bad - didn't set the field, in part down to the fact that I've been bowling so badly. Although the field was pretty good and more or less what I'd go for on reflection - Slips; Gully: Point; Cover; Mid on; Mid off; Mid Wkt;Sq Leg and short fine leg.

What sense can I make of the situation; My line was pretty good keeping it on the off-stump or middle and off, turning it away from the edge of the bat, the batsman was playing forward defence shots blocking it. Many of the balls weren't turning a great deal and were pitched up fairly flat and he was just killing the ball dead playing safe. I then pitched up a few wide of off stump and he hit these fairly deftly through covers, some were fielded and one was misfielded and went for 4 - but all were pretty much along the ground, same too with those that were hit through the point region - fortunately the fielder at point was on his game and fielded these fairly well. One ball was on the leg-stump and this was hit for 3 runs. The ball that made the difference was a flighted floaty ball well above his eyes that pitched on middle and off just under his nose, turned and evaded his bat and hit the off-stump.

What else could have been done: The wicket keeper who was very vocal didn't want anything wide of off-stump, probably because there wasn't a lot of bounce to be had - I've noticed that in the past if the wicket produces some bounce, the varying levels of over-spin creates problems with openers especially - who I'd imagine prefer to drive the ball? In the past I've taken wickets by varying the bounce and speed of the ball outside of the off-stump tempting the batsman to take a swing at it. This keeper obviously though that wasn't the best strategy as the batsman was hitting the ball through point off the back foot but doing well at keeping it low. So perhaps at the time I should have noticed that the bloke was poking at the ball playing forward to balls that were just missing the edge of the bat?

If it arose again what would I do: On reflection, it now seems very obvious that the ball straight down the middle and off line causing the batsman to play forward defensive or a straight drive was the tactic to pursue. But, this was off the back of 2 really bad performances and I was a bit jittery with regards it turning into "Nightmare on the sqaure part III". Part of the reason I was putting the ball wide of off was just to ensure it wasn't going to go legside as this bloke played well on the leg-side. I was looking forward to the next over or two because with the accuracy that was becoming more and more apparent as the overs passed I was growing in confidence and the wicket came with the 4th ball of the 3rd over before it rained.

So, maybe a point to consider is more communication with the wicket keeper and or captain. Off the back of this article The 3 golden rules of captaining leg spin | Cricket coaching, fitness and tips I was thinking that it might be a good idea to work far closer with my own captain and the wicket keeper. If you read the article he mentions the fact that if you bowl the wrong un you might do well to have a bloke behind square on the legside and as I mentioned I like a bloke at short fine leg as in my experience the wicket keepers can't see the wrong un coming till it's just missed the leg stump bails by a gnats whisker and is on it's way for 3 or a boundary. Maybe - rather than me deciding when the wrong un is going to be brought into action, the wicket keeper makes the decision in which case I could have a bloke at Gully who then on the wicket keepers instruction slopes off into the short fine leg position indicating that I then bowl the wrong un with the Keeper fully aware and a bloke there just in case it goes wrong?

 

[Jim2109]

Re: Reflective practice - Spin Bowling

this seems like a fairly good way to analyse a performance, so i think il fill in the same "form" with my performance. im playing another midweek game tonight, so it might be useful for me to identify areas i want to work on.

What Happened: 6-1-19-2, my best ever figures from my best ever performance

How did I feel: Having played midweek last week and performed well, i wasnt feeling nervous, and i was just raring to go. my first couple of balls were decent but went for runs through bad field settings. once i got the field i wanted it dried up the scoring opportunities, i pinned the batsmen down, and then my confidence just rocketted. i was chirping away almost every delivery and felt great!

What was good/bad about the experience: I bowled better than ive ever bowled in any situation. i bowled a maiden over for the first time. i got 2 wickets, both of good players of spin. the captain was full of praise rather than the usual negativity i get when im going for 8 an over lol.

the only bad things are that i didnt get more wickets (when i probably could have done), and the reason i didnt is because i lacked a plan. i got too caught up in the fact that my stock ball was restricting the runs whilst creating half chances, and i forgot to properly formulate a plan and go all-out-attack. there were more wickets up for grabs if i had utilised better tactics, and used more variation (both leg break variation, as well as the others).

What sense can I make of the situation; i need to slow things down and focus more on what is happening in a match situation, and not get caught up in the moment when things are going well. certainly if things arent going well in future i will need to have this presence of mind!

What else could have been done: i could have been more vocal about my desire to make field alterations in order to utilise variation more, as the captain was very set in his way about where he wanted fielders, and i ended up bowling to the field to restrict runs, rather than attacking as much as i like to. i also didnt formulate proper plans, or use enough variation when it was required.

If it arose again what would I do: everything ive listed in the answers above. il think more about what im doing.

 

[SteveyD]

Re: Reflective practice - Spin Bowling

GAlthough the field was pretty good and more or less what I'd go for on reflection - Slips; Gully: Point; Cover; Mid on; Mid off; Mid Wkt;Sq Leg and short fine leg.

May i ask the purpose of the Short Fine Leg?

 

[someblokecalleddave]

Re: Reflective practice - Spin Bowling

May i ask the purpose of the Short Fine Leg?

Normally I'd be bowling Wrong Uns that turn quite a bit in amongst the Leg Breaks and they often get past the keeper. Do you reckon that makes sense or do you think that's a waste of a fielder? Aahh! My mistake - that should have read 'Fine Leg' not SFL!! Does that improve it?

 

[Jim2109]

Re: Reflective practice - Spin Bowling

Normally I'd be bowling Wrong Uns that turn quite a bit in amongst the Leg Breaks and they often get past the keeper. Do you reckon that makes sense or do you think that's a waste of a fielder? Aahh! My mistake - that should have read 'Fine Leg' not SFL!! Does that improve it?

short fine leg is a valid fielding position, depending on how short. typically a short fine leg would still be much further back than a leg slip/gully, probably 10-15 yards. so they can still stop anything that beats the keeper or catches an inside edge.

personally i prefer a leg slip or leg gully (but not too wide). they need to have pretty good reflexes to stop grounded inside edges or balls the keeper misses. but i primarily want a fielder there for catches if the batsmen try to get inventive on the leg side e.g. unorthodox sweep or pull shots, or any kind of paddle/scoop shot, or even switch hits. in saying that though, the only club players ive seen attempt anything like those shots in matches though have been Sri Lankan guys in one match, a few of the youngsters at my club try the shots in nets (myself included), but they never dare in the match. the captain would go mental if you got out that way!

so against conventional batsmen, a short fine leg is probably a more valid position. i vary mine depending on where the ball is going. you can only have 2 men behind square on the leg side, and one of those is always deep backward square leg. so the other position is between fine leg (short, middle or deep) or leg slip/gully.

il probably find more of a use for SFL now that my off spinning flipper is ready for match use. i havent used it in a match yet. nor have i used my zooter. if i get a game in the pub league ive been playing in this week then il definitely give them both a try.

 

[someblokecalleddave]

Re: Reflective practice - Spin Bowling

What Happened: 8-0-32-2; Only one wide bowled and worst over went for 7. Primarily Leg Breaks on the off-stump that turned a bit. Tried Wrong Uns didn't get one of them to turn which is unusual. Used the width of the wicket loads and swapped from side to side depending on whether it was the LH or RH batsman. Both Wickets were catches off of Full tosses - one out at Deep Square Leg and the other at Deep Mid on.

How did I feel: I hadn't had a warm up beforehand, so went in pretty cold against the No.2 and No.3 batsman which is good as it shows that the captain was confident in that I'd be able to do something. As the overs progressed and I relaxed more it came together http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_AEKdheDtCHw/S-horus0IhI/AAAAAAAABfM/nabaEAfXKy8/s1600/Blog+002.jpg overall my confidence grew throughout the spell and I wasn't too fussed on going for a few in the first overs as they were producing opportunities.

What was good/bad about the experience: Bad was the first few overs, and getting into a Rythmn, there were a few full tosses that were not intentional, but it was the full tosses that were producing the balls that were in the air and there were a few opportunities that were close and one may have been a sitter that was dropped? Good was the bowling that came after the 3rd over and the tactic of moving from one side to the other and bowling wide and close to the stumps varying my line and looking for the batsmans weaknesses. I was also bowling pretty accurately on a good length. The fielding was good too as the batsman began looking to hit the ball along the ground and look for the singles. The other positive was that I went up for the LBW's which is something I never do.

What sense can I make of the situation; I think the interesting thing that came from the experience was the realisation that the full toss has a place in the tactical approach, this wasn't the tail-enders (no.2 and no.3), this was a couple of blokes in their early 20's that when offered the full toss went after it and were taking risks and 2 of them succumbed to it. Something to think about in the future and look to throw up on purpose rather than as an accident in this game? Moving around the wicket and changing the angle of attack seemed to be unsettling the batsmen as well.


What else could have been done: The most glaring omission was the lack of a Wrong Un that turned and the lack of a warm up beforehand due to arriving late because of a lack of a good map or prior research of the route there!

If it arose again what would I do: The wrong uns that didn't turn were still okay balls and I think I'd still chuck them up, but instead of bowling them outside of Off I'd come in closer and take a off-stump line and look for a straight ball to be produced. I also held back from bowling Flippers fearful of damaging my figures, the faster balls without the flight seemed to be dealt with fairly well, so I half expected the Flippers to go the same way. Need to work more on my Flippers so that I'm more confident with bowling them.

Added next day.........

On a more general note, I've gone back to my usual bowling mode where I'm not worrying about the over-rotation and or the seam presentation and whether the ball drifts. Consequently I'm bowling an awful lot better. Last night having a bit of a practice I put my bag on on it's end and placed it in front of the stumps so that the off-stump was visible from where I was bowling from but the Leg-Stump was covered and the bag extending several inches beyond the width of the stumps. Using my normal bowling technique but with a slightly more exaggeration with the side-on approach and a definite drive through the rotation I was able to pitch the ball several times wide of the bag and turn the ball into the stumps - sometimes very well with the ball hitting middle and off. So things are looking okay with my practice. If I can maintain this and produce the same results on my practice wicket http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JJ5fp3T5hkM I may replace the videos with some examples of me doing this - although I reckon that's pretty optimistic!

 

[someblokecalleddave]

Re: Reflective practice - Spin Bowling

What Happened: Returned to trying to bowl the Biggun. Off the full 22 yards

How did I feel: Very disillusioned, this morning both my young sons in the nets were smacking me all over the shop and I feel like my bowing has gone to pot. As a result I've returned to giving the ball a big flick to increase the turn off the wicket.

What was good/bad about the experience: Good was the fact that the ball was being pitched outside of leg and turning in and hitting a single stump quite frequently. When it came out right it came out really well - turning big. Bad - was a lot of the balls went straight and my line wasn't good.

What sense can I make of the situation; My bowling overall - I don't honestly know, I'm kind of hoping it's a case of so far this year all the matches I've played in have all been against teams that play at a much higher level, the only game I played in where it seemed the teams were of equal calibre was called off because of rain, in that game I'd bowled 2 overs for about 5 runs and had taken a wicket, which was on track for the kind of performances I was putting in last year. The current conclusion I'm coming to is that I've lost something in my bowling, I'm bowling slower or the wrong length or something and I can't figure it out what it is that is making it so easy for me to be hit to the boundary.


What else could have been done: Again - I don't really know, I'm at a point where I'm almost on the verge of writing this season off and not pushing for overs, if I get them I'll bowl them and see what happens, it may pan out that because I've more or less changed teams, the issue with the levels of opposition might rectify itself and I'll get to bowl further down the order? With regards my bowling generally, there just seems to be no consistency or obvious strength. Therefore I'm looking for solutions and answers.

If it arose again what would I do: 'It' just seems to be the fact that at the minute I just can't bowl. It seems that I've become really obsessive about bowling with accuracy and I don't feel that inclined to trade turn off the wicket for less accuracy. Something I used to do was to have a note pad with me and make notes and lists of the frequency of bad balls and good balls recording what was happening so that I could see whether there was any improvement with any particular approach that I was taking and I'm thinking that maybe I shoud return to this? Tonight trying the Biggun was looking at another option, so maybe if I start my overs bowling the crap I have been recently and I'm getting hit all over the park I'll try the biggun irrespective of where the ball ends up on the pitch, maybe the big turn I can get will turn up and create an opportunity?

 

[macca]

Re: Reflective practice - Spin Bowling

Something I used to do was to have a note pad with me and make notes and lists of the frequency of bad balls and good balls recording what was happening so that I could see whether there was any improvement with any particular approach that I was taking

That is something the pros do. I think it was sadspinner that found the form that nsw state bowlers use to keep tabs of their bowling session. He linked it here a while back. If you go to the NSWCA website you might find it and photocopy it.

It helps you look at your bowling a bit more objectively, especially if someone else is filling out the sheet as you bowl.

 

[SteveyD]

Re: Reflective practice - Spin Bowling

That is provided you can find someone to do it for you

 

[someblokecalleddave]

Re: Reflective practice - Spin Bowling

That is provided you can find someone to do it for you

Yeah there's definitely a knack to it, you can easily be far more positive than negative with your own assessment, but I reckon you then get to a point where you just have to face the truth and record s**t bowling as just that. You then tend to go forward I find.

I had a bowl tonight and the night before 100 balls each night just really trying to rip the ball out of the fingers and it's coming, but I keep forgetting to take the pad with me!

 

[someblokecalleddave]

Re: Reflective practice - Spin Bowling

Jesus this stuff takes time don't it! I haven't been posting that much this season because I didn't get off to a good start and it hasn't got that much better and for the life of me I can't figure out what it was that I was doing last year that I'm not doing this year? I had a game Sunday and it was better - there was a plumb LBW that I appealed for too late and with no real conviction that needless to say I didn't get and I found the edge of the bat perfectly on an off-stump leg break that the keeper missed and cos he got his glove to it and took the sting out of it, it didn't carry to the slips fielder and dropped just short of him.

I'm kind of consoled by the fact that Benuad even though I don't like the bloke that much talks about spending 4 years at least learning to bowl the Leg Break. I'll hold to that and hope to feel better about my bowling next season if my legs and feet hold out!!

 

[Jim2109]

Re: Reflective practice - Spin Bowling

im the opposite. i know exactly why my bowling isnt working how i want it to, but i just cant seem to find the solution in my action. its so dependant on perfect rhythm, and i just dont find it often enough.

i had a net session with one of the club captains and a couple of other guys last night. my bowling was pretty dire as usual (i didnt get to warm up without a batsman though which always hinders me), but every 10 balls id land a cherry. and when i did it was causing massive issues, and everyone agrees that if i could land that ball 6 times an over id be a formidable prospect. but there-in lies the problem.

on the plus side, my batting is coming along nicely. i still have a tendancy to slog anything that is short at my legs, or short outside off stump. its a bad habit that i need to kick. but my proper shots are getting better all the time. ive got a game on sunday and i want to have a proper innings. if i can cement myself as a solid batsman then it stands be in good stead for getting regular league matches, and then theres a chance il get to bowl some league overs. if im not playing in the league then ive got no chance.

im also adamant that im getting the field placings i want this week. every week i ask for square leg and fine leg stopping one, and every week they get stuck on the boundary rope, gifting singles off the legs. this week im closing those scoring avenues and trying to build some pressure.

 

[someblokecalleddave]

Re: Reflective practice - Spin Bowling

im the opposite. i know exactly why my bowling isnt working how i want it to, but i just cant seem to find the solution in my action. its so dependant on perfect rhythm, and i just dont find it often enough.

i had a net session with one of the club captains and a couple of other guys last night. my bowling was pretty dire as usual (i didnt get to warm up without a batsman though which always hinders me), but every 10 balls id land a cherry. and when i did it was causing massive issues, and everyone agrees that if i could land that ball 6 times an over id be a formidable prospect. but there-in lies the problem.

on the plus side, my batting is coming along nicely. i still have a tendancy to slog anything that is short at my legs, or short outside off stump. its a bad habit that i need to kick. but my proper shots are getting better all the time. ive got a game on sunday and i want to have a proper innings. if i can cement myself as a solid batsman then it stands be in good stead for getting regular league matches, and then theres a chance il get to bowl some league overs. if im not playing in the league then ive got no chance.

im also adamant that im getting the field placings i want this week. every week i ask for square leg and fine leg stopping one, and every week they get stuck on the boundary rope, gifting singles off the legs. this week im closing those scoring avenues and trying to build some pressure.

Let's hope you get your way with the field placings, I had some of the middle order batsmen who also bowl seam up comment on my batting saying that I should be further up than 11 after bowling at me in the nets. Thing is like with everyone else on the planet I'm okay against bowlers that bowl seam-up it's just that when the spinners come on I'm useless. How do you fare against seam up bowlers compared with spinners?

 

[Jim2109]

Re: Reflective practice - Spin Bowling

i prefer pace on the ball as well. but i can play spin fairly well. i was facing off spin in the nets yesterday and after i settled myself down i was dealing with it fairly comfortably. its just about using your feet. im not afraid to play a defensive block 2 yards out of my crease if i have to. i struggle more against really slow pie chuckers because i want to smash them out of the park and struggle to time my shots. but its just about patience.

 

[someblokecalleddave]

Re: Reflective practice - Spin Bowling

i prefer pace on the ball as well. but i can play spin fairly well. i was facing off spin in the nets yesterday and after i settled myself down i was dealing with it fairly comfortably. its just about using your feet. im not afraid to play a defensive block 2 yards out of my crease if i have to. i struggle more against really slow pie chuckers because i want to smash them out of the park and struggle to time my shots. but its just about patience.

My hand eye co-ordination isn't that good to go charging down the wicket - all though I did used to try it out against my old captain Neil Samwell at Grays and pull it off every now and then, but it's not something I want to be trying in games. But having said that all of my recent dismissals have been off-spinners so maybe I should throw caution to the wind and give it a go?

 

[someblokecalleddave]

Re: Reflective practice - Spin Bowling

anyway - reflective practice...............

What Happened: Fed up with my ineptitude and lame bowling I'm returning to strategic plan.

How did I feel: Frustrated at not getting many wickets and being played fairly easily.
What was good/bad about the experience: The balls that seemed to cause most problems were those that were on off-stump. Bad was my lack of turn or the ability to increase the amount of turn.
What sense can I make of the situation; The need to have a bigger leg-break and one that is more loopy?
What else could have been done: Not sure, I need to rebuild confidence or maybe take more risks, the bloke I nearly had twice seemed to be weak on the legs, but I'm in clined not to bowl wide of leg-stump in the event that the ball doesn't turn - again if I could pull a big turning ball out of the bag I'd be more inclined to try a leg-stump line.

If it arose again what would I do: I need to go back to the Big Leg-Break and work on it more.

So today I've been working on it again. I have a go at it sporadically and always have some degree of success with it - especially if I bowl across a shorter distance. Out side my garage I have a couple of garages with a section of brick wall in between the two doors and I bowl at that pitching the ball miles outside of the wall section (legside) and can turn the ball back onto the wall again and again with real ease. This is over about 10 yards. I'm able to convert that to 15 yards fairly readily out on the paddock and again with good accuracy both line and length. But, it always seems that I have a good degree of success over the 15 yards and then move to 16 yards about 3 or 4 overs later and then 17 and 18 and so on, but then it starts to fall apart and the ball starts going the other way and I then get disillusioned with the inconsistency and the fact that the ball is going both ways despite the fact that it feels like I'm bowling in exactly the same manner. It seems to be that with the extra effort required to get the ball the 22 yards something goes wrong with the release. The overall issue is the lack of patience and the fact that I move on too soon.

Giving this some thought I'm now thinking - go back to basics and work on the big flick http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zob1Md0HVqs and even looking at this video I'm aware that my execution of the big inward flick is more compact and controlled which I reckon bodes well. Theoretically, if I keep doing this as much as I can, my muscle memory will start to work and put this down in my brain as the wrist position that it's most familiar with and this may then convert to being the wrist position and action that happens when I bowl? It might turn out to be complete rubbish - but it's worth a go eh?

So I worked with it yesterday in the impatient manner and sure enough a good start panned out into a poor conclusion - Big Wrong Uns. So today I did the 10 yard wall practice and then this evening I spent 20 minutes with six balls, a 12 x 12" car mat and a single stump over 15 yards and that went exceptionally well with a potential 75% success rate with good line and length with massive turn. Although tempted to extend the length to 16 yards I stuck with the 15 yards and kept at it feeling for the release and the familarity of the same snap off the fingers I get with the 10 yard wall drill and it worked again and again over the 15 yards. Furthermore I was able to use variations of flight and speed and still get good turn off the wicket. I think what I need to do is make notes and record any discoveries in the nuances of what I'm doing. For instance tonight all this was coming through a single step in and a side on delivery. So I need to return to the same approach tomorrow. I just have to keep thinking 'Richie Benaud - fours years' and be patient.

 

[Jim2109]

Re: Reflective practice - Spin Bowling

Dave - has it ever occurred to you that maybe your paddock wicket is the cause of your problems, rather than your bowling? the paddock is pretty good, and its super convenient, but having bowled on it as someone that has zero problem with googly syndrome, an awful lot of balls went very straight or angled in slightly when they didnt find the seam perfectly. its got fairly uneven bounce and plenty of divots.

from a practice perspective, there is nothing more soul destroying than bowling for hours on end with no turn. whilst it is technically cheating, i would much rather practice on a net wicket that turns with ease than practice on a difficult one and struggle. good practice is all about rhythm and confidence in my experience, and when im struggling to turn the ball, even if my line and length are spot on, it has a negative effect on my overall bowling. id much prefer my practice to feature giant ripping leg breaks, and then not replicate that in matches, because at least in my practice il build solid technical foundations, which will carry into matches (whether the ball turns or not). and i practice about 100 balls for every ball i bowl in a match situation. in reality i find proper wickets turn and bounce much more favourably for me than any net wicket ive used, so its even more of a bonus.

to bring this back to your problems - if youre bowling for 2 hours say, on your paddock wicket, and youre only landing 1 in 20 thats doing what you want, and 5 of those are turning the "wrong" way, then you are going to walk home downbeat about your bowling.

if you practised on a really good spin wicket, and only 1 in 20 landed where you wanted it, but 15 turned big, and none went the wrong way, then youd go home upbeat with hope that all you need to do is carry on practising and the rest will come. this is pretty much exactly how i practice, except my net wicket isnt perfect for spin, and it only turns if you find the seam (which only happens when my rhythm is spot on).

whilst its not as convenient as your paddock setup, it really might be worth you venturing a little further afield to use a proper net setup at least twice a week. especially given your history of googly syndrome. its very possible that you havent suffered it at all this year, and that its the paddock wicket putting false perceptions in your head. it might not be, but it would be better to find out for sure.

also, if batsmen are playing you easily then put all of your attention in matches into looking at the shots they are playing. you can tell everything you need to know about what is wrong with your bowling by the shots that batsmen play off you (observe whether they are front or back foot shots, positioning in the crease, footwork, etc as well). it took me forever to realise this, but now that i have it makes finding the right line and length extremely easy (not that i can execute it though, but thats a consistency problem which you suffer a lot less than i do). Warne had it right when he bowled deliveries based on the shot he wanted the batsman to play. that is pretty much entirely down to line and length, in combination with turn and bounce (based on your chosen angle of seam rotation). if the batsmen have easy shots, then change your bowling so that they dont. its easier said than done, but it gives you targets in matches, rather than just tossing the ball up and hoping which is what most of us probably do when its not working.

 

[someblokecalleddave]

Re: Reflective practice - Spin Bowling

Blimey big response there Jim. I think in an ideal world I'd rather be bowling (Practice) on a surface that offered virtually no response at all from the ball, so that when it was turning I'd then no that when confronted with a wicket that offered little to the bowler, there'd be some chance that because I practiced on a wicket that was unresponsive I may be able to get the ball to turn. I used to practice on really green grassy practice areas, that were lumpy and the ball would turn miles and then get really disillusioned with not being able to get the ball to turn on proper wickets.

It's not a case of practicing with no turn, I turn the ball plenty, but it's having total control and being able to bowl exactly where I want the ball to go and then being able to bowl 'The Biggun' at will on a good length and line which is my goal. I'm pretty convinced that the issue is to do with the release from the hand and possibly some other factors. My normall Leg-Break as I've said turns okay and if there's some rough to be had it'll turn big, but I know that if I get the release right there's more to be had because if I return to bowling my Wrong Un, the difference in what that does off the same wicket in comparison to my current Leg-Break is considerable.

With regards the batsmen playing me - that is partly down to the fact that I'm not watching them prior to my overs, but that's possibly simply down to the fact that I've already lost the psychological battle before I even step up to bowl. Why's that? I reckon it's down to a few factors the primary one is being smashed out of the county in that first game of the season where I went for 11 an over, the fact that I can't get the Big Leg Break and maybe at the back of my mind I'm thinking my plantar fasciitis is integral to all these problems and way back in late April/May I'd already wrote this season off?

I'll have another couple of pratices today with the Biggun at 15 yards and let you know how I get on.


Later on.............. Just had an hour and realised it's not 15 yards I'm bowling from but 17. Stuck at the 17 and only bowled the big flick 'Biggun'. The same result as yesterday - all very promising but sequences where it worked perfectly and then periods where it was wrong. When it works not only is it turning really well, but it's good with the accuracy, the bonus being that when it doesn't turn it's generally going straight and hitting the single stump much of the time. Noted that there was less of a propensity to produce wrong uns when it goes wrong. The key thing seems to be patience, so even though I feel like I should be going longer 18 yards I'm going to stick with bowling at 17 and look for something in the region of 90% balls I'm happy with before moving on.

Much later on 8pm - 8.45pm

Had another spell and again more positives - pretty much the same as before - dead straight accurate 90% on the stumps or in the corridor of uncertainty, maybe in the 45 mins 5 balls went down the leg-side? Different degrees of turn, but more than I normally get and with an extra element of fizz. The main thing is the ball is ripping off the fingers in that audible manner that I speak about and demonstrate here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U8wAzBKmgYM which means as well as getting the ball rotating far better I'm maintaining the line and length control. I ended up bowling 11 out of 12 superb leg-breaks in the last two overs and have come to another conclusion which I've advocated before in my own blogs http://spinbowling-legbreak.blogspot.com/ and that's the need for Ultra concentration and focus, which I must admit I've neglected recently in both games and practice. All in all it does seem that I'm cracking this slowly and the whole thing is coming together. Tonight because it did go so well I was almost tempted to go 18 yards, but I'm going to hold off and stick with 17 yard during practice. I've got a match tomorrow and the potential to give this a go in a game?

I found that as I'm waiting to go into my run up it's very useful to flick the ball in the manner that I will when I bowl and to flick the ball into the air above my head with the arm straight and see the seam rotating in the right manner and then go straight into the run up. I also noted that with this flick, through the delivery I can readily turn the arm over and produce a big muvver of a wrong un with ease it seems (Only did it the once). So it's looking promising.

 

[someblokecalleddave]

Re: Reflective practice - Spin Bowling

Impatience got the better of me yesterday and I moved back a yard, so I'm now on 18 yards. Even though it's just a yard there did seem to be a tangible difference and initially I struggled, but after 10 or 15 minutes I got a rthymn going and it came together. So it looks as though I'm going to be okay at 18 yards. It did seem as though the bigger turner wasn't so frequent, but it's still turning more than my stock ball. Again I found that I have to really focus on what I'm doing in order to get this ball working, but the overall sense is that, if, I plug away at this in the manner that I am, it looks as though I'll have a delivery that gets the ball to turn off the wicket bigger than my usual ball. So 18 yards for a few days at least and see how that goes?

 

[Jim2109]

Re: Reflective practice - Spin Bowling

Dave, as another suggestion for adopting a "biggun", perhaps try and master the zooter (round the loop backspinner).

the zooter is my "go to" ball in times of crisis, for 2 reasons. firstly, its very hard to impart pure backspin with a clean seam (although i can do it most of the time), so its very easy to impart large amounts of side spin as well. if im ever struggling to generate any turn, or even sometimes if im struggling with accuracy, il go to the zooter and not cock my wrist quite so much and get one to turn big to impose some presence on the batsman.

the second reason, is that because of the way i impart the spin with a huge forward flick, it naturally wants to flight upwards. so if im struggling for length and dropping short, then the zooter delivered off of the front foot more often than not finds a solid line and length.

given that you still think you have a touch of the googlies, it might be worth adopting this delivery since it is meant to be pure backspin, uses a totally different wrist angle, and thus there is no possible way that you can bowl a googly. it will either be pure backspin, back and sidespin (and BIG turn), or at worse a scrambled seam that skids through straight. the natural variations of the zooter are excellent.