Wrist Spin Bowling (part Five)

Jimmy bowled his first decent flipper on sunday. He mucks around with one on the last ball of most training sessions lately and usually it is not very good. Double bouncers often. But this time i told him to try and give it some serious arm action so he might go the full 22 yards.

I was batting, he told me he would try a flipper so i was ready and i can pick his flipper usually anyway. But i still only just kept it from getting me lbw. It shot through kept low and would be lowest bounce he has got except on turf occasionally. What was good was i could see the backspin and it was revolving nicely.

Dont mean that much at the moment. He came out on tuesday and bowled a flipper last ball again and it didn't even land on the wicket. So it is a long process.

3 years ago i found this thread. And thats how long jimmys been working on his flipper. He picked it up from watching someblokecalledave's youtube clip where he backspins a ball to himself on the pavement. Once he saw that he had to learn how to do it, so thanks again dave.

Nice one Macca glad that you've found it useful. I think the thing to do is to constantly practice the action with a smaller ball - tennis ball for instance or apples and oranges when you're hanging around doing nothing - as per Philpotts instruction on wrist spin flicks. I think that helps with the strengthening of the muscles that are required and it also improves your general control, I remember when I first started I had little control over the ball from hand to hand, now I have a great deal of control and this converts to bowling it over arm correctly (Wrist stability). One thing I would advise and I'm sure you're aware of it, is if there's any sign of muscle strain - give it a rest as it'll cause Golfers elbow AKA Flipper bowlers elbow. There you go I may have coined another phrase or name for something un-named before, I'll add that to 'Googly Syndrome' which I'm claiming as mine!

I'm working on my blog at the minute still trying to get my head around drift, and I think I've come up with an interesting way of explaining why drift works, I'm no good at physics so all those mathematical explanations are of no use, practical demos work for me and I might be on to something that most people will grasp (I hope). It might be a while though as I need Photoshop and I haven't got it at the moment. I essence its to do with the explanations that describe why Top-Spinners dip and Flippers hold their line, you'll see in time.
 
Jimmys team lost their top of the table clash today. Batted first, collapsed to be all out for 40. Just one of those days but that was by far their worst batting ever.

But they nearly won the game with the ball in the end.

My young bloke took 1/13 off 4 overs. Should have had another wicket but had an easy catch put down. That would have had them 8 down with 16 still to get.

That gives him a cumulative of 25 overs 3 maidens 4/59.

Got his wicket with a nice legbreak that was supposed to go to mid off but ended up caught by slip.

Little bit too full this week. I could see that coming a few days ago in training. So they drove him pretty well today. He was getting plenty of spin and bounce and beat the bat a lot when he got the length.

I got a lot closer to the action today, usually i lurk in the background a bit so i dont throw him and i gotta say i was impressed with his pace and amount of revs he had going today. He varied it a bit with his pace and loop. And if that catch had been taken that would have given him 2 wickets in 3 balls and they might have even won the game that over.
 
This season has been incredibly frustrating! I've been smashed around the park because my accuracy has gone up the wall. I've only bowled about 3 overs! It's the first time I've had this as my 1st two seasons went really well with me getting wickets every week. I need to get back to basics. Can only go up from here!
 
This season has been incredibly frustrating! I've been smashed around the park because my accuracy has gone up the wall. I've only bowled about 3 overs! It's the first time I've had this as my 1st two seasons went really well with me getting wickets every week. I need to get back to basics. Can only go up from here!

Maybe some target practise might help ? Have you gone up a grade since last year ? 3 overs is not much to judge on yet is it ?
 
Just got back home from watching Stuart Macgill Bowl in the 1st grade T20 Cup for Sydney Uni. I stayed for the 1st finals match, but then left as soon as the 2nd match started because Sydney Uni started bat, and didn't want to wait later on for him to bowl again especially since it's been on an off rain. Looking at Macgill, what struck me is how broad shouldered he is, large upper body and back muscles. When I saw him bowl he was very impressing, get's quite a bit of speed on the ball, turn. It must have been very hard to grip the ball after it got soggy though, he's getting wickets which is good.

I think Stuart Macgill sensed I was there to watch him lol, especially since I recorded a little bit of footage, he was looking at me every now and then. I don't think he took to kindly too that so I stopped recording him when he bowled, plus the fact that my camera didn't have much of a zoom on it. Later on when it rained heavilly, everyone popped inside the building there to watch Australia play, and Macgill popped in for a few minutes, he was standing next to me but I was too embarrassed to ask him a few questions *^.^* , especially since I was the pretty much the only Greek ethnic amongst all these aussie players and people, Oh well :/
 
Maybe some target practise might help ? Have you gone up a grade since last year ? 3 overs is not much to judge on yet is it ?

Yeah, moved up to U18 premiers. Target practice is definitely the way forward but practicing correctly like Shane Warne says, it's hard to coach yourself correctly at times. My accuracy comes back at times, just not during the games this season. I'm going to have to work hard just to get a bowl consistently in the two day games
 
Just got back home from watching Stuart Macgill Bowl in the 1st grade T20 Cup for Sydney Uni. I stayed for the 1st finals match, but then left as soon as the 2nd match started because Sydney Uni started bat, and didn't want to wait later on for hime to bowl again especially since it's been on an off rain. Looking at Macgill, what struck me is how broad shouldered he is, large upper body and back muscles. When he I saw him bowl he was very impressing, get's quite a bit of speed on the ball, turn. It must have been very hard to grip the ball after it got soggy though, he's getting wickets which is good.

I think Stuart Macgill sensed I was there to watch him lol, especially since I recorded a little bit of footage, he was looking at me every now and then. I don't think he took to kindly too that so I stopped taping him when he bowled, plus the fact that my camera didn't have much of a zoom on it. Later on when it rained heavilly, everyone popped inside the building there to watch Australia play, and Macgill popped in for a few minutes, he was standing next to me but I was too embarrassed to ask him a few questions *^.^* , especially since I was the pretty much the only Greek ethnic amongst all these aussie players and people, Oh well :/
He probably thought you were spying for another franchise ahead of the Big Bash league... You should have had a chat, I'm sure he's quite tame!
 
Just got back home from watching Stuart Macgill Bowl in the 1st grade T20 Cup for Sydney Uni. I stayed for the 1st finals match, but then left as soon as the 2nd match started because Sydney Uni started bat, and didn't want to wait later on for him to bowl again especially since it's been on an off rain. Looking at Macgill, what struck me is how broad shouldered he is, large upper body and back muscles. When I saw him bowl he was very impressing, get's quite a bit of speed on the ball, turn. It must have been very hard to grip the ball after it got soggy though, he's getting wickets which is good.

I think Stuart Macgill sensed I was there to watch him lol, especially since I recorded a little bit of footage, he was looking at me every now and then. I don't think he took to kindly too that so I stopped recording him when he bowled, plus the fact that my camera didn't have much of a zoom on it. Later on when it rained heavilly, everyone popped inside the building there to watch Australia play, and Macgill popped in for a few minutes, he was standing next to me but I was too embarrassed to ask him a few questions *^.^* , especially since I was the pretty much the only Greek ethnic amongst all these aussie players and people, Oh well :/

Man that's a shame mate, I've just been ranting on facebook about racism, I'm sure Mcgill wouldn't have cared who you were - black white, Greek or what ever, being a international cricket player you'd have hoped he was well above all that stuff and you should just got in there! Ah well never mind.
 
Wanted to check on the grip in these images - the first two fingers are not on the seam but way beyond that, specially in the last two pics. Any idea if this is a leg break variation?


warne.jpg

u8_Shane-Warne.jpg


86026970_crop_650x440.jpg
 
It would probably just produce a scrambled seam. The advantage of doing that would be that if the ball lands on the seam it breaks off the wicket in your usual Warnie way. If it lands on the smooth surface its going to turn an awful lot less, so from a batsmans point of view if he comprehends whats going on, its going to give him more to worry about. So you could describe it as a subtle sub-variation?
 
Wanted to check on the grip in these images - the first two fingers are not on the seam but way beyond that, specially in the last two pics. Any idea if this is a leg break variation?


warne.jpg

u8_Shane-Warne.jpg


86026970_crop_650x440.jpg

Wanted to check on the grip in these images - the first two fingers are not on the seam but way beyond that, specially in the last two pics. Any idea if this is a leg break variation?


warne.jpg

u8_Shane-Warne.jpg


86026970_crop_650x440.jpg


That's what so great about this site. Thanks bigturner. A simple grip switch is an oldie but a goldie. Going to get my young bloke to try it next week.
 
My son returned his best bowling figures for the past 3 seasons today. Big win for the team as well.

5 overs, 3 maidens, 3/5. Clean bowled 2 batsmen with legbreaks and one caught from a skied catch. First time he has bowled anyone in 2 years. And today he got 2 out bowled with legbreaks! So cumulative that's 30 overs, 5 maidens, 7/64. Puts him in top 10 comp bowlers for first time since last season.

First wicket was huge. Rep player, good player of spin and top 3 in the batting averages for our comp. Coach brought jimmy on earlier than usual and gave him a great breeze to use.

Started with 5 dot balls to this kid and on the last ball of his first over he clean bowled him. Top of off stump. Great sight to see the bails flying and the oppositions top player completely beaten.

What a start! Wicket maiden and another of the best young bats in town as a scalp. Getting a bit of a collection now. 5 of the top 10 in the batting averages on his belt.

He changed his action a bit last week, just using his left arm a bit more strongly, and got real serious about training for this match today. He was getting mad spin, as he calls it, all week. Paid off big time this morning.
 
Gee my boy bowled outstandingly well today. His team batted first and were defending 90 odd runs. Opposition were making a real go of the runchase via this district rep player. He came in first drop and straight away started to blast away at our pace guys, scoring 6 or so 4,s in the process.

He real is a good player this little batsman, one of the best going around. My son and him have clashed a few times and it has been stalemate each time.

Coach's ploy was to bring the legspinner on early against their star batsman if he got going.

I sat down to watch that first over not knowing what to expect, I know this boy has good footwork against spin bowling and maybe today my young bloke would get his comeuppance i thought.

But somehow at the back of my mind i had this inkling that he might do something special today. Only because of how well he has bowled all week. Started 7 days ago when he reckons he has changed his action to line up his target more using his left arm. OK , i said, while you have it up there how about doing a bit more with it ?

So i was unsure how things would turn out today. Only a slight change in his action but it could have been a disaster. He even reckons he bowled his first ball with his "old" action then swapped to the new.

Anyway he has managed to bowl 5 dot balls to and then clean bowl a real good young player with his improved style so i cant complain. I knew he was getting more drift and spin all week and today he cashed in.

The ball he bowled this first kid with today was a real beauty. Legspinners dream legbreak. It spun a lot more width than the previous 5 dotballs in the over.

Anyway that was the best over my son has ever bowled. Has to be. He has got other rep scalps but the way he set out all week to get a go at this batsman and then foxed him out in 6 painless balls has made my week, even the whole season. A couple more wickets in his second spell including another clean bowled topped it off.
 
My son returned his best bowling figures for the past 3 seasons today. Big win for the team as well.

5 overs, 3 maidens, 3/5. Clean bowled 2 batsmen with legbreaks and one caught from a skied catch. First time he has bowled anyone in 2 years. And today he got 2 out bowled with legbreaks! So cumulative that's 30 overs, 5 maidens, 7/64. Puts him in top 10 comp bowlers for first time since last season.

First wicket was huge. Rep player, good player of spin and top 3 in the batting averages for our comp. Coach brought jimmy on earlier than usual and gave him a great breeze to use.

Started with 5 dot balls to this kid and on the last ball of his first over he clean bowled him. Top of off stump. Great sight to see the bails flying and the oppositions top player completely beaten.

What a start! Wicket maiden and another of the best young bats in town as a scalp. Getting a bit of a collection now. 5 of the top 10 in the batting averages on his belt.

He changed his action a bit last week, just using his left arm a bit more strongly, and got real serious about training for this match today. He was getting mad spin, as he calls it, all week. Paid off big time this morning.

Great stuff Macca, again it seems a bit of pressure and then the wickets follow, cant think the rep player has batted out too many maidens in club cricket this season, also good to see there was no hangover for the team from last weeks blip. Was Jimmy's attitude in training a 'reaction' to last week or just a coincidence? Anyway, its great to read your posts and a refreshing break from all the weather outside here in the UK and a reminder that cricket wont be far away, need to sit down over the weekend and start planning for winter training which starts in January
 
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