TheGreasyPole
New Member
Re: Wrist Spin Bowling (Part Two)
Hey Guys,
Another tarining update (if you're interested). Questions at the bottom if you aren't......
It's really clicking. I think I've passed the plateau I was previously on. Accuracy is getting better, and the spinning action is very much like the big flick I practice hand to hand now. Not, as before, "with all things happenning at different times".
Now I sorta snap my fingers, forearm and wrist at the point of delivery.......like, in "instantness" if not in action slapping the fingers (as in that annoying thing I did as a kid in the early nineties "Wicked ! Snap !"). At least from the elbow down everything is going into the action as I can get, with the right timing. (Body action and shoulder I might have to work on getting into the "snap !" more).
It really feels like I'm "putting it on the pitch" now, rather than just "lobbing a hand grenade in the general direction of the wicket". So I'm pretty stoked, although I think I still need to work more on all of action, spin and accuracy to be good, I'm starting to feel like real (if poor) bowler now. Humungous "to 2nd slip" drag-down wides are increasingly rare now, if nothing else and I "feel" like I have much more accuracy (even though it is probably, objectively, only marginally better).
I'm also working on bowling round the wicket, I figure I need a tactic against left-handers that I've practised a bit so am prepared to do if required (Dave ! I have learnt from your experience !), and this seems more natural than continuing to bowl over and aiming for what is normally "way down leg side". So I practice about 1/3 of my time now bowling round the wicket to an imaginary lefthander.
I've also gained another variation almost overnight. Once I got the leg spin "big flick" actually working (those good spells last week were this happenning, I have now realised and I now do it with every delivery) I found it incredibly easy to also bowl the "big-underspinning-leggie". The adjustment of the wrist feels really natural with the "karate chop" as I am a very "side" spinner in any case. I'm already almost as accurate with it as I am with my leggie and it spins more, in so far as I am able to judge it on reasonably uneven grass.
I also discovered that I can now vary my pace somewhat too. Before it was either fast or slow depending on the luck of the drawer at release and so the height it got (another reason for lousy accuracy). But I now find I can place it fairly accurately on the pitch in one of two speeds "slow and loopy" and "fast and flat". Again, I think I've been extraordinarily lucky in that (once I got the flick) this and the big leggie just seemed to come real natural. I just started thinking "this one fast" and bringing it round with a faster arm on a flat trajectory had as much accuracy as I had with my more natural slow and loopy action.
Anyway, now I'm practising 2/3rds leggie then maybe 1/6 big leggies and 1/6 top spinners (throwing the leggies and top spinners in occasionaly as they would be used in a normal over) and also varying speed occasionally (again as in a normal over... not overs and overs of fast, or slow)
Things have gone well. My copy of "the art of wrist-spin bowling" even arrived yesterday from amazon ! So I feel really encouraged for now........ no doubt the winter will raqin that out of me again at some point :->
Anyway........ the questions I've been thinking of........
1) The big/underspun leggie. Why isn't this our stock ball ? We're after big spin, and it has that. It seems to me to be very nearly as "easy" to bowl as the side spun leggie. Why doesn't the extra spin compensate for the extra bounce from the side or overspun leggie ?
Do you guys get wickets with your big leggies ? Or is there some drawback I am not currently aware of (but beknownst to all heavily-experienced leg spinners such as yourself) with using this as the stock leggie ?
Why NOT try it as a stock ball is what I am thinking ? Do you need the additional bounce from the side or overspun leggie to get the edges ? Even if you did, do you think that might be more effective as the 2 in 6 variation leggie rather than the 4 in 6 stock leggie ? Wouldn't the extra bounce work as a good surprise if the big leggie is the stock ball ?
2) Bowling round to left handers. First, I haven't got a googly. That only leaves me with straight and legspun balls for now. Given that, should I consider myself bowling at a left hander as (effectively) a normal (if big spinn ing) off-spinner facing a right hander and bowl accordingly ? Essentially pitching it outside off and of the line and length to clip the top of off if it spins, and catch the edge if it goes straight on and he's playing for spin ?
Is that a good way to think about that ? Or should I, in your opinion, approach it some other way ?
Hope all is just as good with your practice.......... and good luck Macca and Dave with the kids. Getting them to see the light and become a spinner in one case, and having the success in his upcoming matches to come over here as a spinner and terrorize the english one-day in the other.
Yours,
TGP
Hey Guys,
Another tarining update (if you're interested). Questions at the bottom if you aren't......
It's really clicking. I think I've passed the plateau I was previously on. Accuracy is getting better, and the spinning action is very much like the big flick I practice hand to hand now. Not, as before, "with all things happenning at different times".
Now I sorta snap my fingers, forearm and wrist at the point of delivery.......like, in "instantness" if not in action slapping the fingers (as in that annoying thing I did as a kid in the early nineties "Wicked ! Snap !"). At least from the elbow down everything is going into the action as I can get, with the right timing. (Body action and shoulder I might have to work on getting into the "snap !" more).
It really feels like I'm "putting it on the pitch" now, rather than just "lobbing a hand grenade in the general direction of the wicket". So I'm pretty stoked, although I think I still need to work more on all of action, spin and accuracy to be good, I'm starting to feel like real (if poor) bowler now. Humungous "to 2nd slip" drag-down wides are increasingly rare now, if nothing else and I "feel" like I have much more accuracy (even though it is probably, objectively, only marginally better).
I'm also working on bowling round the wicket, I figure I need a tactic against left-handers that I've practised a bit so am prepared to do if required (Dave ! I have learnt from your experience !), and this seems more natural than continuing to bowl over and aiming for what is normally "way down leg side". So I practice about 1/3 of my time now bowling round the wicket to an imaginary lefthander.
I've also gained another variation almost overnight. Once I got the leg spin "big flick" actually working (those good spells last week were this happenning, I have now realised and I now do it with every delivery) I found it incredibly easy to also bowl the "big-underspinning-leggie". The adjustment of the wrist feels really natural with the "karate chop" as I am a very "side" spinner in any case. I'm already almost as accurate with it as I am with my leggie and it spins more, in so far as I am able to judge it on reasonably uneven grass.
I also discovered that I can now vary my pace somewhat too. Before it was either fast or slow depending on the luck of the drawer at release and so the height it got (another reason for lousy accuracy). But I now find I can place it fairly accurately on the pitch in one of two speeds "slow and loopy" and "fast and flat". Again, I think I've been extraordinarily lucky in that (once I got the flick) this and the big leggie just seemed to come real natural. I just started thinking "this one fast" and bringing it round with a faster arm on a flat trajectory had as much accuracy as I had with my more natural slow and loopy action.
Anyway, now I'm practising 2/3rds leggie then maybe 1/6 big leggies and 1/6 top spinners (throwing the leggies and top spinners in occasionaly as they would be used in a normal over) and also varying speed occasionally (again as in a normal over... not overs and overs of fast, or slow)
Things have gone well. My copy of "the art of wrist-spin bowling" even arrived yesterday from amazon ! So I feel really encouraged for now........ no doubt the winter will raqin that out of me again at some point :->
Anyway........ the questions I've been thinking of........
1) The big/underspun leggie. Why isn't this our stock ball ? We're after big spin, and it has that. It seems to me to be very nearly as "easy" to bowl as the side spun leggie. Why doesn't the extra spin compensate for the extra bounce from the side or overspun leggie ?
Do you guys get wickets with your big leggies ? Or is there some drawback I am not currently aware of (but beknownst to all heavily-experienced leg spinners such as yourself) with using this as the stock leggie ?
Why NOT try it as a stock ball is what I am thinking ? Do you need the additional bounce from the side or overspun leggie to get the edges ? Even if you did, do you think that might be more effective as the 2 in 6 variation leggie rather than the 4 in 6 stock leggie ? Wouldn't the extra bounce work as a good surprise if the big leggie is the stock ball ?
2) Bowling round to left handers. First, I haven't got a googly. That only leaves me with straight and legspun balls for now. Given that, should I consider myself bowling at a left hander as (effectively) a normal (if big spinn ing) off-spinner facing a right hander and bowl accordingly ? Essentially pitching it outside off and of the line and length to clip the top of off if it spins, and catch the edge if it goes straight on and he's playing for spin ?
Is that a good way to think about that ? Or should I, in your opinion, approach it some other way ?
Hope all is just as good with your practice.......... and good luck Macca and Dave with the kids. Getting them to see the light and become a spinner in one case, and having the success in his upcoming matches to come over here as a spinner and terrorize the english one-day in the other.
Yours,
TGP
