Wrist Spin Bowling (part Five)

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'Open chested' is just another way of saying 'front on'.

If you are a front on bowler, your chest needs to be open to the wicket... straight line from shoulder to shoulder facing. This means you must be looking down the wicket 'between' the arms.

If you are a side on bowler... straight line from shoulder to shoulder but in-line with the wicket. This means you must be looking down the wicket behind the front forearm [the left if you are a right hander].
 
Liz Ward said:
'Open chested' is just another way of saying 'front on'.

If you are a front on bowler, your chest needs to be open to the wicket... straight line from shoulder to shoulder facing. This means you must be looking down the wicket 'between' the arms.

If you are a side on bowler... straight line from shoulder to shoulder but in-line with the wicket. This means you must be looking down the wicket behind the front forearm [the left if you are a right hander].
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But side on is the preferred option Liz? More spin?
 
Side-on is always preferable for me; pace and spin. However, there are occasions when side-on is not the best option and these are usually physical.

I know many open bowlers and they perform well but side-on bowlers can achieve much more with good guidance.
 
Liz Ward said:
Side-on is always preferable for me; pace and spin. However, there are occasions when side-on is not the best option and these are usually physical.

I know many open bowlers and they perform well but side-on bowlers can achieve much more with good guidance.
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Does it then follow that if you are a side-on bowler the shoulders are more over one another?
 
Absolutely! Remember the delivery shoulder provides power.

Do bear in mind that figure 4 is not complete as it is prior to pivot!

I should also reiterate that the back leg should 'DRIVE THROUGH'. This is more a reference to some of the other threads on this forum. ;)
 
The Queensland video (first one on the Videos and Links) provides the best example of this shoulder action. What do you think?
 
Liz Ward said:
Dave, are you talking about the shoulder to shoulder rotation as in figure 2 of below?

http://static.ecb.co.uk/files/hitting-the-seam-issue-8-page-7-227.pdf
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Off-topic, but what is your opinion on teaching kids to bowl from the base position as illustrated in that link?

I never see the point of forcing them to start in a position that no bowler ever moves through during an action. My personal experience suggests that kids find it far easier to bowl from a standing start in the coil position.
 
I tried this method and find that it helps 1) planting and staying on your front leg 2) Use of the shoulder. I find my son using more of the arm than the shoulder while bowling (infact while throwing as well) and this exercise isolates your shoulder and allows you to be aware of it. I am not sure if one would bowl like this - but shows you that you can straighten your arm and allow the shoulder to do the work. I have tried to copy some of this action and seems to give me a lot of control and use of my strong shoulders and has been a positive experience.
 
tcs said:
I tried this method and find that it helps 1) planting and staying on your front leg 2) Use of the shoulder. I find my son using more of the arm than the shoulder while bowling (infact while throwing as well) and this exercise isolates your shoulder and allows you to be aware of it. I am not sure if one would bowl like this - but shows you that you can straighten your arm and allow the shoulder to do the work. I have tried to copy some of this action and seems to give me a lot of control and use of my strong shoulders and has been a positive experience.
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Sorry I was talkoing about the Queensland link - not the ECB. I think ECB illustration of the 3-4 stages is good one (not the stand start illutsration).
 
SLA said:
Off-topic, but what is your opinion on teaching kids to bowl from the base position as illustrated in that link?
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It depends on the issues. ;)

As a biomechanist, this would never be a way of 'teaching' but a way of 'overcoming a particular issue'.

I have a rule that I do not mess with spin bowlers unless I see something that may cause injury. This is when I may use either of the methods above; one for lower body malfunction and the other for upper body malfunction... but these are only two of many tools.

Spin bowling is not something you can teach by text book. The best spin bowlers are so due to physical deficits [this is why not everybody can bowl spin]. You really need to understand these particular, or combination of, deficits to maximise their potential. No two are the same and what works for one will not necessarily [or probably] work for another.

If you understand the player's particular issues you can work with what they have to improve power and impact without messing with the action.
 
On the subject of biomechanics, Sydney Uni is looking for spin bowlers to participate in a biomechanical project http://manlycricket.com/images/stories/Flyer.pdf He is aiming to unlock the biomechanics of spin bowling ! Good luck with that ! :D

One of the benefits is a live animation of your action and a personal analysis. Bad luck my son is one year too young to participate because he will be in 1st or 2nd grade u/15 next year.

I will keep an eye on this project and contact the researcher. Seeing how Sydney Uni is Macgill and Cassons club I wonder if they have any involvement ?
 
This sounds great macca; such a shame that your son is a little young to participate. :(

Sydney University has such a good reputation for 'cricket' research and I have to say that most of the results I work with, as a base, come out of there... the findings will be interesting!
 
My sir says i dont have any variations.But I do as I saw in many of the video's and read you should work on your legbreak first so I never took too much consideration to my variation,but I wanted to prove to my sir that I do have variations.He padded up and told me to bowl I setted him up with 3 peach of a legbreaks which my "sir" coach loved and bowled a perfect worng'un my sir was stunned.I started bowling leg spin approx. 12-18 months ago and can land a perfect leg break.Is it the time to start on my variations ?
 
Saradhy Krishnan said:
My sir says i dont have any variations.But I do as I saw in many of the video's and read you should work on your legbreak first so I never took too much consideration to my variation,but I wanted to prove to my sir that I do have variations.He padded up and told me to bowl I setted him up with 3 peach of a legbreaks which my "sir" coach loved and bowled a perfect worng'un my sir was stunned.I started bowling leg spin approx. 12-18 months ago and can land a perfect leg break.Is it the time to start on my variations ?
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It's good that you've been able to produce that Wrong Un out of nowhere, I'd say now you've seen that can bowl the wrong un, try it every now and then. But..... Don't ever spend too much time on it because it can be to the detriment of your Leg Break (Googly Syndrome). Maybe every seven - ten overs you bowl Leg Breaks then bowl an over of Wrong Uns, but if it doesn't work out with the over of Wrong Uns, don't be tempted to bowl more Wrong Uns, go back to the Leg Breaks and check that they're still coming out right. Googly Syndrome is fatal and may happen to you if you focus on bowling the wrong un. Make sure you keep bowling your Leg Break.

The other option is to work with your Leg Break, see if you can bowl a big turner and a small turner as and when you want to. The work with the small turning Leg Break with far more over-spin towards it becoming a Top-Spiner, then look to increase the amount of dip you get.
 
Saradhy Krishnan said:
My sir says i dont have any variations.But I do as I saw in many of the video's and read you should work on your legbreak first so I never took too much consideration to my variation,but I wanted to prove to my sir that I do have variations.He padded up and told me to bowl I setted him up with 3 peach of a legbreaks which my "sir" coach loved and bowled a perfect worng'un my sir was stunned.I started bowling leg spin approx. 12-18 months ago and can land a perfect leg break.Is it the time to start on my variations ?
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Sounds like your ready and if you are out of season and not playing in matches at the moment you cant do much harm by experimenting with some variations. Dont forget one of the best variations is a faster, slightly shorter, straight ball.

We like to bowl the variations a lot in the off season. You can bowl a whole session of wronguns or whatever. But when the season is underway we like to practise them as you would bowl them in a match and that might be only once in 5 or 6 overs.

We are in a 4 week break now so we have been doing a bit of extra work on my sons wrongun and flipper but when the club and school cricket starts up again in a few weeks we will go back to one variation a training session!

I suppose that is all down to my belief in the ultimate importance of the legbreak. That is the be all and end all of legspin bowling. I almost dont include the topspinner as a variation. You can bowl 2 or 3 of those an over no worries. On our wickets you need to use a fair bit of topspin on your normal legbreak so a pure topspinner is not that much of a stretch.

Get as technical as you like about how to produce the different types of deliveries but in the end after you learn them you have to keep it simple so as to be able to bowl them in a match situation.
 
Here in the UK we're in the depths of winter, it's nowhere near as cold as it was last year and todays been relatively mild at 11 degrees. With winter nets approaching at the end of this month I've been out and had a bit of a bowl, probably did the equivalent of about 10 - 12 overs. It went okay considering how unfit I've got in the last 6-8 weeks, all my niggles seem to have repaired themselves, the knee feels pretty good - no soreness from that, my plantar fasciitis is pretty much under control and non existent, so as long as I get a good warm up regime in place I'm looking forward to a better year this year as the last two, what with the root and branch changes to my bowling action along with the recovery from the Googly syndrome meant that I've had a bad couple of years.

At the moment my focus is going to be on what's happening bodily, out of the bound I'm looking to get nicely side on, looking over the leading arm shoulder. I'm going to try and extend the length of my stride a little into the pivot and there I'll be looking to get nice and tall and up on to the ball of the foot, the final bit will be the arm speed factor. I bumped into my protoge Frank Farrington today with his Dad as I was finishing up and he grabbed a ball saying that it was the first time he'd thrown a ball since late Oct and the thing I noticed straight away was his fast arm speed, he really whips his arms over and I reckon this has a lot to do with his success as a wrist spinner. So this is another key area I'll be looking at. The objective between now an April when the season starts will be to tie all these things together and get the action through the crease nice and smooth and consistent. Some upper body fitness work is going to be required as that seems to be the weak point tied in with some core strength work. So it'll planks and rotational press ups for me and as from tomorrow I'll be attending Yoga classes as well.
 
Just found this site and though I'd introduce myself. Just switched club and finally downed the keeping gloves for what has always been the dream of being a twirlyman and saw this when looking for tips and drills. Been dabbling in nets for a couple of years now with some degree of focus towards the end of last season, lots of work over the current off season and I'm feeling not too bad before the start of pre-season nets. The one issue I'm having is having worked on flexibility to allow me to ball a half decent googly I've found more often than not my top spinners are coming out with the seam pointing towards a very fine leg. I find if i keep my thumb off the ball and really focus on pointing it towards the batsmen then it will carry on straight or turn a bit to off but I'm worried this will make it really easy to pick. Anyone got any ideas or tips for a relatively quick fix rather than another season of toil and practice? Just wanted to finish by sating thank you to all who have and continue to contribute to this site/thread as it's been a real joy to read through for thinking points as well as tips and encouragement.

JC
 
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