Wrist Spin Bowling (part Five)

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UK season starts soon, indoor nets has been running since the end of Jan. My battings improved I reckon, but so has the bowling. I've carried on the advances I saw at the end of the season last year which then carried through to consolidating the conventional bowling action and getting rid of 'The skip' through October and November.

I've noted some interesting stuff when bowling in the nets and this has mean that I'm now bowling almost round the wicket and pitching the ball outside of leg 90% of the time. Last night I got a bloke 3 times who last year I couldn't do anything with, I got another bloke pitching the ball miles outside of leg - to the point where I thought "Crap...a wide". Only for it turn (On a mat) across the front of the batsman only just missing his bat and then hitting the top of the off-stump! The weaker bats just struggle with the ball coming in from outside leg if it's varied in speed, length, trajectory and spinning. With the stronger bats I bowl tighter to the stumps or into leg stump varying the speed and spin. I've found that I'm able to bowl and change between a regular leg break and a biggun this year with ease, the ball being flicked from the hand audibly and me having to grunt with the effort I'm having to put into it!

I've mowed our paddock - http://www.mpafirsteleven.blogspot.co.uk/2012/03/paddock-gets-its-first-mow.html today and had a few balls in there, again with all the new developments I'm producing some pretty good bowling, I just hope that both these practice scenarios convert to the real situation in a month or so's time.
 
chippyben said:
Lts hope you have a ripping season Dave and take a shed load of wickets. You deserve it.
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Yeah fingers crossed, things come together, I've had a bleak couple of seasons while I've been making all these changes to my bowling. It's odd thinking back to that season when I took all the wickets - I can't think how I did it now, I was bowling Flippers instead of leg breaks along with my wrong uns. It may have been helped by the captaincy, but that wasn't that different, the captain then - Neil Samwell used to bring me on around about the 20th over and that's about the same now at Basildon.
 
someblokecalleddave said:
Yeah fingers crossed, things come together, I've had a bleak couple of seasons while I've been making all these changes to my bowling. It's odd thinking back to that season when I took all the wickets - I can't think how I did it now, I was bowling Flippers instead of leg breaks along with my wrong uns. It may have been helped by the captaincy, but that wasn't that different, the captain then - Neil Samwell used to bring me on around about the 20th over and that's about the same now at Basildon.
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3 years back you had a blinder of a season with 4 wicket hauls every other week I remember. Maybe you should go back to your blogs and posts from then and see what you were thinking. Maybe you were just thinking less back then? You were right into flippers at that stage.
 
macca said:
3 years back you had a blinder of a season with 4 wicket hauls every other week I remember. Maybe you should go back to your blogs and posts from then and see what you were thinking. Maybe you were just thinking less back then? You were right into flippers at that stage.
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Yeah that was a good un, bowled really well all season except when it came to the Left-handers. I was basically a Googly bowler as several people pointed out at the time, with a good back-spinning Flipper. But everyone was saying 'But if you're a wrist spinner you need to have a Leg Break... you'll get far more wickets'. Then I spent the best part of 2 years trying to lose the googly and regain the leg break, then as part of that process it was recognised that my ever increasing Plantar Fascitis was due to my bowling action and that I should change the bowling action as well, so all that's been three years in the making and now I feel like I should be on the verge of some kind of break through. Yeah I was definitely thinking less in some respects, but in other ways I was trying 5 different versions of the Flipper and still trying to bowl leg breaks and Toppies, whereas now all I'm focused on is the Leg Break, I know I can fall back on the Googly and get that in a matter of a few sessions along with the Flippers. I'm no longer on the verge of the yips when I bowl and I shrug off bad balls these days. I'm probably far more self critical and I'm probably bowling against far better players, that year was Sunday 2nd XI friendlies, whereas these days I'm bowling with Saturday league 3rd and 4th XI's and there seems to be a lot of 1st and 2nd team bats turning up in these sides.

I was probably thinking 'This is pretty easy' and going out there with loads of confidence, I also had Neil Samwell behind me, he just used to give me the sense that he believed that I could do it and I'd always get 5 or 6 overs no matter how crap they were, whereas now there's the sense that if I don't get it right in the first over, I'm going to see 3 overs at best unless I get a couple of wickets and only go for 3 an over. So it's completely different environment.
 
someblokecalleddave said:
I was probably thinking 'This is pretty easy' and going out there with loads of confidence .
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Confidence, that's the word isn't it.

"Confidence, concentration and persistence are the three cardinal virtues of the cricketer. Don't think of yourself on the field. Concentrate on the play and nothing else. Determination and the will to succeed destroy all thoughts of failure. You should be too fully occupied to think of anything else, and then your play will improve and you confidence will return"

Grimmett talking hard ball again.
 
macca said:
Confidence, that's the word isn't it.

"Confidence, concentration and persistence are the three cardinal virtues of the cricketer. Don't think of yourself on the field. Concentrate on the play and nothing else. Determination and the will to succeed destroy all thoughts of failure. You should be too fully occupied to think of anything else, and then your play will improve and you confidence will return"

Grimmett talking hard ball again.
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Yeah, going back to your original point, part of me is still pre-occupied with thoughts of 'Land side on, get up on the toes, bring the arm through past the hips', when I'm on my mark, whereas I should be somewhere else I reckon, that's why I'm trying to nail the run in and action through the crease aspect so that it becomes wholly natural.
 
macca said:
Confidence, that's the word isn't it.

"Confidence, concentration and persistence are the three cardinal virtues of the cricketer. Don't think of yourself on the field. Concentrate on the play and nothing else. Determination and the will to succeed destroy all thoughts of failure. You should be too fully occupied to think of anything else, and then your play will improve and you confidence will return"

Grimmett talking hard ball again.
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That is a truly fantastic quote for all disciplines of cricket. I'm determined to be as flinty and hard nosed as Grimmett this season. I think I've spent too long being a carefree Mailey type and at my level of cricket it just doesn't get you very far as you get taken off! although every once in a while it does go spectacularly right.
 
someblokecalleddave said:
Yeah, going back to your original point, part of me is still pre-occupied with thoughts of 'Land side on, get up on the toes, bring the arm through past the hips', when I'm on my mark, whereas I should be somewhere else I reckon, that's why I'm trying to nail the run in and action through the crease aspect so that it becomes wholly natural.
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Yeah, preoccupied with thoughts as technical as 'land side on' when you are on your mark in a match could be a big problem. If you had a coach, other than yourself, thats the sort of thing he should worry about.

I know Jimmy always has a tune or song in his head when he bowls. He has always done that, and then we found out that was something glen mcgrath always did. My late wife was a neuropsychologist and she would probably have had a theory on why something musical happening in the brain might help a bowler.

I think it shows how relaxed he is to start with that a tune pops in his head sometime before the match and he carries it in his head and can enjoy it while he bowls. Same with Mc Grath.

I dont think it would work if it didn't happen naturally. It might even backfire and just be something else to worry about.
 
Definitely an issue, but there's still some time. Being a college lecturer I've now got a full two weeks off where I can spend a few hours each day, if not more, trying to get the approach to the crease and my action through the crease sorted, hopefully I can get the kids involved as well, so I'm not bowling at just the stumps. Does anyone reckon there's anything to be gained by repeatedly going through the action without using the ball? When I go through the action without the ball, it feels a lot better and easier - I suppose it's because I'm focusing on just that aspect?
 
someblokecalleddave said:
Definitely an issue, but there's still some time. Being a college lecturer I've now got a full two weeks off where I can spend a few hours each day, if not more, trying to get the approach to the crease and my action through the crease sorted, hopefully I can get the kids involved as well, so I'm not bowling at just the stumps. Does anyone reckon there's anything to be gained by repeatedly going through the action without using the ball? When I go through the action without the ball, it feels a lot better and easier - I suppose it's because I'm focusing on just that aspect?
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There is some merit in terms of 'grooving', but I think its probably as much as a comfort and anything else although I do like to see bowlers bowling into the sides of the net as you then also get a feel for the release, if not the outcome, which I think helps with the follow through. Try to think of your run up and delivery as being like driving - in a couple of years Ben and Oli will be all about clutch control and changing gears whereas we (most of the time) are more worried about whats going on outside of the car - thats the place to get to with your bowling. Best of luck
 
TonyM said:
There is some merit in terms of 'grooving', but I think its probably as much as a comfort and anything else although I do like to see bowlers bowling into the sides of the net as you then also get a feel for the release, if not the outcome, which I think helps with the follow through. Try to think of your run up and delivery as being like driving - in a couple of years Ben and Oli will be all about clutch control and changing gears whereas we (most of the time) are more worried about whats going on outside of the car - thats the place to get to with your bowling. Best of luck
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I had an interesting afternoon, I tried a couple of new things, both of which yielded some results. Years ago (Pre Googly syndrome) when I was doing well with my leg breaks I spent a few days bowling with eyes closed when I practiced and I tried it again today. This time around it was probably better than the previous experiments as I was closing my eyes 2 o3 steps before the bound and in one over at the start I hit the stumps 4 times consecutively. Another thing I tried as I was feeling pretty smoother with the run up was a Warne approach - several steps and then the burst into the bound and again that came easy and looked to be useful. But I then reverted back to my own method and that went well too. I think today the most aggravating thing was that about every 7 balls when I was looking to spin the ball harder it just ended up 8' outside the leg stump. I found that really depressing... Really depressing...
 
Had another relatively poor practice session this afternoon, spraying the ball all over the place. I tried to the two run in approaches that I'm testing at the minute -one's a Warne style approach with the explosion in the last 2 or 3 steps and the other is more like a run - in - more akin to Macgills run in. Neither seemed to make any difference and my bowling was still crap. Then I closed my eyes and tried both methods and my Mcagill approach worked, same as before, start the run in and then about 3 or 4 steps from the release I close my eyes and 'Feel' the action, rather than look at something and try and do something specific and guess what it worked again, hitting the stumps several times, and the ball turning away from the off-stump with spin. Generally much better bowling, with the ball actually spinning hard and me feeling it coming off the 3rd finger.
 
someblokecalleddave said:
Had another relatively poor practice session this afternoon, spraying the ball all over the place. I tried to the two run in approaches that I'm testing at the minute -one's a Warne style approach with the explosion in the last 2 or 3 steps and the other is more like a run - in - more akin to Macgills run in. Neither seemed to make any difference and my bowling was still crap. Then I closed my eyes and tried both methods and my Mcagill approach worked, same as before, start the run in and then about 3 or 4 steps from the release I close my eyes and 'Feel' the action, rather than look at something and try and do something specific and guess what it worked again, hitting the stumps several times, and the ball turning away from the off-stump with spin. Generally much better bowling, with the ball actually spinning hard and me feeling it coming off the 3rd finger.
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Seriously Dave, I would stick to the old run in and forget the new one at this stage of the season.

Closing your eyes and feeling your action 3 or 4 steps from release worked for you above but was there a batsman at the other end? Would you do it like that in a match?

The practise before last you were spraying about every 7 balls. That is pretty good really. Maybe it means you should be bowling in 6 ball sequences and have a small break and then another 6. Then ball 7 might vanish all together :) .
 
macca said:
Seriously Dave, I would stick to the old run in and forget the new one at this stage of the season.

Closing your eyes and feeling your action 3 or 4 steps from release worked for you above but was there a batsman at the other end? Would you do it like that in a match?

The practise before last you were spraying about every 7 balls. That is pretty good really. Maybe it means you should be bowling in 6 ball sequences and have a small break and then another 6. Then ball 7 might vanish all together :) .
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There's still 4 weeks or more till the first match (if I get selected) and I'm off work for almost 2 weeks, the approach I've described as the 'Macgill' is the one I've been working with for months and that's the one I'm getting the results with if I close my eyes and bowl. Bowling with my eyes closed seems to bring with it a far smoother and effortless run in and explosion through the crease with all the right things happening with the ball going through the air. Someone else was saying a couple of days ago about the limitations of bowling at empty stumps and I'm not sure if it's doing me any good because I'm bowling poorly in that kind of scenario, whereas if someone bats - even if it's my son Joe, I just bowl far better, good length or full, but generally far more accurately. *Maybe, I'm just not focusing and concentrating enough when it comes to empty stumps or perhaps being far too critical of what I'm doing, if you watch this vid with Jenner and listen to what he says at 3'30" he's talking about your target being large if you're spinning the ball hard, whereas I'm almost definitely focusing on accuracy with my 12x12" mat at the expense of the spin. Whereas if I bowl with my eyes closed everything comes together, it seems I'm less tense and have the belief that I can do it and the whole process becomes far less complex and it all works.

* Or perhaps the opposite - thinking too much and trying too hard?
 
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