SomeblokecalledDave.
Some Bloke Called Dave
I bowled in the nets last night against one of the better batsmen, I didn't get him bowled, but he conceded some of his shots would have been caught. What he did say was that I was the only wrist-spinner in the club (We have 6 adult teams playing Saturdays). He said that there were some kids that bowled it (He trains the kids), but he'd noticed that they never develop to go on and bowl wrist-spin at adult level and he'd seen that over the years. I explained the reasons for that (There's a number of reasons), but finished on the one that usually puts the final nail in the coffin for them... The amount of practice you have to do in order to be able to land the ball in the right areas and how much you have to play in order to play with a sense of perspective when batters come after you e.g. and having a plan to get them out. I've seen it so many times when youngsters transition to adult games and they get slaughtered, having been decent spinners in their age group, they then bowl at decent aggressive and stronger batters and get demoralised. A lot of the time they then don't have the support of their captain and team. They internalise the situation and know that their averages and stats are far worse than the other bowlers and get into a mind set where they see themselves as having lost the game because of their bowling.
You have to be really thick skinned in those situations and resilient and learn from them. You can't just go back week after week doing the same thing. You have to reflect on what's happening, analyse what's going wrong and adapt new strategies. For some the answer might be to spin it harder, others it might be to be far more accurate. Whatever the solution, it's going to take a lot of work. Have a read of Philpotts book 'The art of wrist-spin' and 'A spinners yarn' one of the things that comes across (Same with Grimmetts books) is the amount of time it takes to develop the skills. The current England test bowling coach Jeetan Patel (ex NZ international) says of England spin bowlers "They don't practice enough'.
Another thing you have to consider is that none of us on here are pro coaches and there's going to be such a range of different ideas and 'Guidance', there's a chance that it might be detrimental rather than constructive? I made leaps and bounds with my development once I started to ignore most of the ideas that people were suggesting, so that might be something to keep in mind?
Apart from the comment I last made regarding your approach to the crease, my main thought was - 'What is it that you're working on at the moment, what are you trying to do/achieve'? The question then arises is there any point in trying to Land/spin the ball in your video scenario, when in the longer term, anything you learn and groove will need to be re-learned and adapted when you realise, that potentially your outcomes are being detrimentally affected by the fact that your run-up and approach to the crease is deficient?
I've posted a picture that shows the stages of the bowling action, just to reinforce the fact that the bowling action in itself is quite complex, so in my opinion, if you don't develop a sound bowling action that you're happy with and feels natural, it's only going to come back at some point and hinder your development? That doesn't mean that you stop trying to spin the ball and learn the leg-break as this can be done off the stand-start (See this video here with some good drills)
Buckle up looks like you're in for the long haul!
