someblokecalleddave's Blog

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Re: someblokecalleddave's Blog

I've dropped that Doosra variation for a while as it relies on getting the ball to come out of the back of the hand. I've tried it a couple of times and it does seem to work, but it needs a lot of work and I'm more focussed on getting my Leg Break back, so I'll drop that as an idea.

In the meantime some of the old members of the MPA 1st XI and I got together today in a sports hall and had a knock about and a bowl and it went pretty well - especially my batting which is a major area of concern for me. So I was pleased to have hit the ball a few times and keep it along the ground and pretty much straight back up the wicket or cover drives. Also managed to get the bat on the ball down the legside! I'm hoping that these bloke are going to keep this up as if they do it may mean my batting may improve before next season?

Here's a clip of me bowling. Comments would be appreciated. Check out the main blog at www.mpafirsteleven.blogspot.com

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gb1m7T6lzQ8
 
Re: someblokecalleddave's Blog

Hi Dave,

Nice see u making the most of the off season practice just like we did here.
Best of luck to u and to ur teammates.
Keep posting ur progress with photos or videos.

Virender
 
Re: someblokecalleddave's Blog

I've just written an entry on my main blog Wrist Spin Bowling reviewing the last year looking at how I've progressed the last 12 months and concluded again that I've improved massively and that's greatly down to all the people on this forum - Virender, Mas Cambios, Simbazz, Gundalf, Edlad, Liz Wizard, David Hinchcliffe, Mystery Spinner, Ripping Leg Break and more, who've made suggestions, looked at my video clips, offered advice etc. I think without having access to all you people my progress would be a great deal slower as I have to practice in isolation and virtually never get to speak to my own captain for more than a few minutes every week or so. Whereas here all you blokes respond usually within a matter of hours and come up with really constructive stuff - so cheers!

I'm only gutted that I'm 48 and the likelyhood will be that in the next few years before my skills have developed to a level where I might be looking at 2 wickets in a game on average or something near that combined with bowling back to back maidens, I'll have to ease up on my arm and shoulders because of the physical exertion that is required!

Still, I'll continue to strive for improvement all the time my body allows me to.
 
Re: someblokecalleddave's Blog

You'll find that your first year, or year back, is a learning of the basics year. I've found that in my 2nd and 3rds years you improve rapidly (For instance, this year I put 15km/h on my bowling) just through finetuning your game.

All the best and we hope you continue improving:)
 
Re: someblokecalleddave's Blog

Thanks for the appreciation.

Ur energy and enthusiasm is highly admirable and fully respect it.
U have manage to keep Ur fitness up to the mark for cricket and i don't think age has bothered u as the passion for the game drives u forward.

There is an old saying: "It is not about the beating u can take but how much beating u can take and move forward towards your goal".

I wish u and Ur family a 'Happy New Year":)


Virender
 
Re: someblokecalleddave's Blog

Hi Dave,

Today i had a word with my leggie in nearby net and he was telling that he lost his leg spin bowling due to more bowling of wrong-one's.
I remembered one of ur articles on the same.
I asked him for further details; he mentioned that due to bowling more of wrong-one's he has forget his leg spin bowling and his coach has told him to concentrate more on leg spin and as a variations once to try out the wrong-one.So for example he is bowling one over then only one wrong-one in between to surprise the batsmen and more of flighted leg spin making the batsmen to drive.
I hope that will be some sort of good information to u.
If u have any queries related to it please revert back.

Virender
 
Re: someblokecalleddave's Blog

Virender you'll have to let me know how your friend gets on. I've not bowled now for almost a month because I've been ill and I decided that I'd give my body a bit of a rest! As soon as I feel like I'm no longer ill I'll start to work on my fitness again and get back into it slowly in preparation for the new season in April.

At the point when my serious practice was coming to an end I was finding that I could bowl a small leg break and if I can do that consistently I'll be happy because I can then pull a big wrong un out of the bag whenever I want. But it'll be nice to feel like a Leg Spinner rather than an off spinner - so I'll keep at it once the fitness has returned.
 
Re: someblokecalleddave's Blog

Started to ease back into it today although I'm still not quite right. Did a few exercises and had a knock about with my younger son Joe in a sports hall. I found some old video footage today at work of me bowling a couple of years ago - Man have I come on leaps and bounds! I just hope the rate of development is maintained this year.
 
Re: someblokecalleddave's Blog

Dave,

Good to read abt ur progress.
All the best and wish u a speedy recovery.

Regarding the leggie;he is working on his leg spin again and is feeling confident to bowl.
I have told him to come for net practice tomorrow.
Let me bat against his leg spin then i can observe,advice and revert back to u for updates.


Virender
 
Re: someblokecalleddave's Blog

19th Jan 2009

I've recently come across another of the David Freedman/Beau Casson coaching video clips which I think are probably the best clips on the internet Cricket Coaching Online - Example Lesson This one is of particular interest in that he talks about the rotation of the body and how this is reflected in your foot/leg coming round and over in the bowling stride. I've looked at my own video clips YouTube - Someblokecalleddave front slow motion and you can see that my foot comes round and goes further than 180 degrees as such suggested in the video clip. Initially I was wondering whether this was relevant as this video talks in terms of finger spin or off - spin, but this evening I've watched India v England on a DVD and watched Graham Swan's action and his is pretty much as described and demonstrated in this clip. So that'll be something I'll be looking at working on.

As a reminder I may even start a new section on the Blog so that I've got a reminder of the things I'm working on with my technique.

This is an extract from one of my main blogs - Wrist Spin Bowling
 
Re: someblokecalleddave's Blog

Update on our attempts to get some net practice in. I approached a local school that we used a couple of years back which was expensive and basically said - 'Look there's 4 of us maybe 6, we want to use your hall - no one uses it Sunday afternoons can you do us a deal"? They've come back with yeah you can have it for half price. So I'm just waiting on the forms and keeping my fingers crossed that they're not too full of H&S Bull****.
 
Re: someblokecalleddave's Blog

At last! It's only taken almost 2 years, but for the first time ever since joining Grays & Chadwell CC it looks as though I'm going to be able to get along to all the pre-season nets/training sessions. Which (Fingers crossed) will mean I'm going to be able to get a bit of coaching and develop as a cricket player?

As soon as I got there I was confronted by a scene that I wasn't expecting - an older bloke standing in the middle of the hall with a bat in his hand going over basic batting techniques while all the rest of the blokes were all lined up against the wall listening! So I sat down and listened to what the bloke (Terry) was saying and tried to pick up some pointers. He was going over the basics of the Front foot drive which is where I'm trying to get to and he was making some good points. I liked the observation he made regarding the Indian batsmen, this is something I've noticed on the tele during the India v England games recently. They stand side on with the body pointing down the wicket and they have their heads tucked into their shoulder almost in a very deliberate manner and this is all to do with keeping the head and eyes level. Another point he was making was the trigger movement where you get up onto your back foot toes just before you commit to moving onto the back or front foot. That seemed to make a lot of sense and was something I tried to do later on.

After the explanations he had us all doing the swinging the bat one handed at the ball and then throwing drills a la Paul Collingwood. Then it was into the nets.

I've never met this bloke Terry before but he made some useful comments re my bowling. He watched my first ball which was a wrong un and commented on that saying that he was impressed. It turned out to be the best one of the night as the wrong uns went down hill after that! So in my quest not to bowl them anyway as I'm in pursuit of the Leg Break I decided that I'd go for mixing it up remembering how affective the little boys were last summer against the Tilbury mob (And my own son Joe). So I was bowling Flippers, Top Spinners, the occasional attempt at the Leg Break and The Gipper. I was changing the speed the flight and the length and as a result was doing quite well. Not so well at the really confident bats like Lee Downes but some of the others I was managing to get past drawing them down the wicket and getting the ball past them. Swiss Danny I managed to get the ball past him a few times and Neil as well, for some reason I always forget that Neil bats at the bottom order with me and I always have this feeling that because he bowls spin he going to be able to cope with me better than everyone else and I get great satisfaction in getting the ball past him which I did a few times as well!

He seemed quite impressed and was on Facebook shortly after I'd got home saying - Neil Samwell is wondering if ill ever live tonight down! anyone want to buy my cricket gear from me im going to take up umpiring!
He then discussed my bowling saying that he'd spoken to Terry the coach and they were saying that some of my deliveries were pretty unique. I can only imagine that they were talking about my Gipper ball which I was using tonight with very good affect. In the past I've had real trouble with the accuracy and getting it up the other end. Whether because of the increase in exercise or improved delivery and follow through - I'm currently able to bowl it better than I've ever been able to and it spins like a leg break but has variable bounce characteristics which I'd noted back in the October pratice sessions. Other balls that Neil seemed to be having problems with were the Flippers, I can get them to spin backwards nicely and they come in nice and low but then sit up I think and this was Neils observation and he said they were causing him problems. But I think the best one was the Leg Break attempt. It was nice and straight at middle and off but it was the way it bounced, it produced a ludicrous bounce that caught Neil by surprise and glanced off his gloves straight to the keeper if he'd been there. Another one was edged out towards the cover region that would have been caught.

In bewteen balls I spoke to the coach as he was commending me on my Wrong Un and I mentioned that it was my main ball and that I was looking to get the Leg Break going. He said he too bowled Wrong uns and had the same problem and then went on to say....... "What you need to do is"..... and he explained exactly what I've been doing and said that if I was to keep that up I'd eventually get it back. So that was really good to hear and is incentive to persevere with it and stick to it till I get it. But I'm also bouyed by the comments regarding the Gipper and the fact that I was getting it to turn nicely. Again this is incentive to keep at it and develop it as a surprise ball. So my bowling apart from the wrong un went fairly well and then it was time to bat......

I was facing Swiss Danny, Iffty, Neil, Wayne and the oaccasional one from Super Dave. I think I did okay, probably a fair improvement since the 2 sessions last year in the nets? I was trying to remember the things the coach had been telling us - the trigger movement bit that I seemed to be doing and keeping the shoulder pointed down the wicket and the head still. The thing I didn't seem to do was step towards the ball with confidence and bring the bat through in a nice straight arc keeping it straight and making full use of the bats width. But in comparison with last year I think there has got to have been some improvement? One thing is for sure I'm not as fearful as I was last year and generally I think I managed to keep Wayne and Neil at bay (Spinners).

As we walked out the coach was saying that he'd work with me on a routine to help me correct the lifting of the arm correctly so that the bat would come through in a nice arc for the front foot drive, so that's a positive. But more than anything is the fact that I've got 10 weeks or so of this before the season - it can only mean I'll improve and maybe I'll beat my all time high score of 11!

That's without the Sunday sessions as well. Hopefully this Sunday Neil will be able to get along to our nets as well and boost the numbers as I'm slightly worried as I've not heard from Alex yet. It sounds like it's going to be -

Me
Simon
Alex
Mark Soye
Nick Naughty
Neil
Thomas?
Rod the Aussie?
Rod and Thomas I'm doubtful about.
So all in all a brilliant night!
 
Re: someblokecalleddave's Blog

Good stuff, Dave I bet your glad you went along to the session.

I'm looking at going to England/UK when I'm a bit older and playing a season over there. Hopefully it works out for me as I would most enjoy a full year of cricket rather than 4 months.
 
Re: someblokecalleddave's Blog

Hopefully it'll be like that every week now and I'll pick up some new skills or develop skills I've already got.

Yeah that'd be nice, I reckon you'd be welcome virtually anywhere. What you going to do come over here and study or will you just be visiting? Have you got relatives?
 
Re: someblokecalleddave's Blog

someblokecalleddave;318812 said:
Hopefully it'll be like that every week now and I'll pick up some new skills or develop skills I've already got.

Yeah that'd be nice, I reckon you'd be welcome virtually anywhere. What you going to do come over here and study or will you just be visiting? Have you got relatives?
Click to expand...

Yeah probably just visit, I have relatives but I don't know them, though apparently they are pretty welcoming. Will probably just travel the UK and have a main city as a sort of home town, and do my travelling from there, playing cricket in between.

Any updates with practice mate?
 
Re: someblokecalleddave's Blog

Virendersingh.berthwal;319098 said:
Breeno,

If u want u can practice at my place and experience the Indian conditions.
Net practice is available 6 days a week.

Virender
Click to expand...

I was thinking of maybe playing in India aswell when I'm older, but I'm not sure how I'd handle the conditions. Thanks for the offer mate, appreciate it@| If you ever come to Australia you're more than welcome to play at my club.
 
Re: someblokecalleddave's Blog

Yeah I'd love to go over to England for a bit. I've always wanted to do it. India, not so much because of the food and I hear everyone gets sick, but I heard that everyone is really nice there.
 
Re: someblokecalleddave's Blog

breeno;319187 said:
I was thinking of maybe playing in India aswell when I'm older, but I'm not sure how I'd handle the conditions. Thanks for the offer mate, appreciate it@| If you ever come to Australia you're more than welcome to play at my club.
Click to expand...

Breeno,
Thanks for the offer..I would love to play but because of my job...can't help it.
 
Re: someblokecalleddave's Blog

Jonesy;319303 said:
Yeah I'd love to go over to England for a bit. I've always wanted to do it. India, not so much because of the food and I hear everyone gets sick, but I heard that everyone is really nice there.
Click to expand...
:)
Jonesy,Yes spicy food is an issue but people do enjoy that in india and most of them do get a liking for it.
I hope if u ever have plans to come/play in india do let me know.

Virender
 
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