Wrist Spin Bowling

[Jim2109]

Re: Wrist Spin Bowling

im trying NOT to bowl leg side, thats the whole problem!!! i just cant drag it inside leg stump, no matter what i do. occasionally il get one to work, generally i always end up back outside leg stump. if every batsman in the world was a leftie id be fine lol. having only played one match, field placings havent yet been an issue. the field was pretty much the same all game regardless of the bowler, and there were zero catching opportunities all game, everything got hit along the floor.

 

[someblokecalleddave]

Re: Wrist Spin Bowling

The ecb have taken short term profit over the long term interest of the game. Despite winning the ashes England still must have a problem as its best three batsmen are south africans not yorkshiremen.

Murdoch has dudded several sports this way. The ashes coverage will remain free in australia due to parliament but other cricket coverage can go to pay tv.

Hopefully the cricket got through to enough kids and parents to at least get them interested.

You'd hope so, I know that when my lads joined their club last year at the end of the season they did so with about 10 others. You'd imagine that given we've just won the Ashes the number of new kids should increase this year, I'll watch out for it at my own club as well. Trouble is crickets very much neglected here in the UK, it's generally not played in primary schools at all these days firstly because all the teachers are women and then there's a whole bunch of H&S laws that make it impossible. As for secondary schools (11-16) I think that the female teacher thing plays a big role still and it's just so rare these days that you'd get a sports teacher that was genuinely interested in cricket let alone wrist spinning like Jim had when he was a kid.

On a more positive note my Father in law is a caretaker at a primary school where there is a bloke teacher who loves his cricket and between them they're having their school field re-grassed and my F-in law is going to make sure that when they roll the field that they play special attention to the wicket area.

 

[someblokecalleddave]

Re: Wrist Spin Bowling

Ahhh now I see and I suppose you've tried bowling your delivery with your foot pointing straight down the wicket or to the off-side or where-ever it's needed to theoretically correct it and you've tried the 'stand start' a la' Beau Casson in the David Freedman clips? I take it you use your leading arm to point in the direction you want the ball to go as well?

 

[macca]

Re: Wrist Spin Bowling

It must have something to do with the tv coverage because even from here I can remember the bandwagon effect in 1981 and 2007 after England won the ashes at home. There were reports of big spikes in bat sales and kids joining clubs.

The only bad thing about England winning is it will be hard to get tickets to the Sydney test in 2011. I try to go every year but those tickets will go in hours and i hate sell-outs.

 

[macca]

Re: Wrist Spin Bowling

I haven't been to the nets with my son for a while because he has been playing enough cricket with his mates.
We have a net session organised for today with a couple of good batsmen.
It is getting that time of the year to start keeping it simple and basic. For the player and the coach.
My young bloke has been working on a slder, a flipper and this less obvious wrongun he has that spins just a little. I dont want him to bowl his flipper at all but he bowls it at school and gets wickets with it so it is hard to stop him.
The biggest improvement he made in the off season is he can now dart a faster flatter ball at the batsman without dropping short.

 

[someblokecalleddave]

Re: Wrist Spin Bowling

you couldn't get tickets here at all, they were bought within hours of them going on sale and I seem to remember in 2005 they had a couple of days when the matches went to the 5th day and on the tele they were saying 'If you're not doing anything tomorrow bring the kids down to Lords/oval and you can get in for a tenner' and I remember thinking yeah that's a good idea, I'd love to see Warne bowling but then never went cos my kids were so young and I thought it could be a long day and they'd get bored. I think the tickets for the potential 5th days were all bought up front as well!

 

[someblokecalleddave]

Re: Wrist Spin Bowling

I haven't been to the nets with my son for a while because he has been playing enough cricket with his mates.
We have a net session organised for today with a couple of good batsmen.
It is getting that time of the year to start keeping it simple and basic. For the player and the coach.
My young bloke has been working on a slder, a flipper and this less obvious wrongun he has that spins just a little. I dont want him to bowl his flipper at all but he bowls it at school and gets wickets with it so it is hard to stop him.
The biggest improvement he made in the off season is he can now dart a faster flatter ball at the batsman without dropping short.

The faster flatter ball as that still his leg break?

 

[Jim2109]

Re: Wrist Spin Bowling

The ecb have taken short term profit over the long term interest of the game. Despite winning the ashes England still must have a problem as its best three batsmen are south africans not yorkshiremen.

Murdoch has dudded several sports this way. The ashes coverage will remain free in australia due to parliament but other cricket coverage can go to pay tv.

Hopefully the cricket got through to enough kids and parents to at least get them interested.

cricket will never be the number 1 sport in England. Football has a stronghold on that and it will never end. i dont know that it necessarily should though, it has as much of a heritage as cricket does. Football is the sport of the working classes, cricket is very much viewed as the sport of the middle classes. always has been and probably always will be, working class heroes like Andrew Flintoff however help people to relate to it, but at what expense? hes worshipped more for his drinking and shenanigans by typical football fans than his cricket skills lol. ive long thought that countries like Australia and South Africa have a huge advantage over us when it comes to sports like cricket and rugby simply because soccer isnt the dominant sport. over here 99% of kids will play football as their first choice sport, thats just the way it is. its never really hurt cricket in the recent past in terms of participation (all of the schools in my area had a team, most of them had at least one county standard player. we had exactly 11 players for our school team in my yeargroup, and out of 11 players 2 played for the county at youth level), id say the standard of coaching probably has more to blame than public awareness and exposure.

there has been some criticism on this thread of Sky Sports showing the Ashes coverage. on the other hand, as a subscriber to Sky, i wouldnt have wanted it any other way. BBC arent bad for their camera work, in fact they are up there with the best in the world. but ITV, C4 and C5 are cheap, i watch football matches on ITV and the picture quality is awful, the commentary is awful, the overall coverage is just of a poor standard. watch it on Sky and its in High Definition, money is no object when it comes to getting the best commentators and pundits possible, the analysis, replays, insight, even down to the lunch time articles are absolutely spot on. its a pleasure to watch, i can sit there all day listening. if it was on terrestrial television that wouldnt be the case if there was a slow batting partnership and nothing exciting was happening.

if the Ashes had been shown on C4/C5/ITV this year (theres no way the BBC would pay out for it) would we have had Shane Warne doing a masterclass on leg spin bowling? we certainly wouldnt have had the calibre of commentators that Sky offered. nor would we have had the dozens of £100k a piece HD cameras filming it from every possible angle, not to mention the several super slow motion cameras and all of the technology they employ (hawkeye, hot spot, snicko, run out cameras, super slow-mo, etc)

maybe it takes it away from the masses, but something like 40% of UK households now have Sky TV, and of the 60% that dont have it id imagine many are elderly or uninterested in sports (since anyone that likes football almost certainly has a Sky subscription!!) which skews the figures a little. so if half of the UK has access to it at home, theres a VERY good chance that any kid who doesnt has a good mate who does (whos house they can visit to watch it. when i was a kid we never had sky, i used to go round my friends house to watch it). im not sure its really an issue in terms of the future of English cricket. there will always be interest, there needs to be a better uptake of talented youngsters into county academies to further their abilities. the ECB are making their fortunes with T20 cricket at present, so they need to reinvest it in plentiful amounts at club and county level to find the talented youth players. as opposed to stuffing their pockets which im sure is what is happening at present!

 

[macca]

Re: Wrist Spin Bowling

When I first started bowling leg spin in school I would bowl with a hula hoop on the wicket about 9ft down. it was a great place to start. The teacher said that later we would introduce cones or something like that to bowl over to learn flight but we never got arounds to it.

years later I had a coaching session at old trafford and the coach put a disk about the size of a CD again about 9ft down on line or just outside leg stump. I hit it first time and hit off stump, the bloke thought I was a genius. The followinig 60 balls or so convinced him that I was not .

Hula hoop is a good size for a target. Not only is it more realistic than Benauds coin-sized target, it also shows how big the landing zone can be for a wristspinner who can spin the ball well.
Grimmett used big targets for coaching kids. His own target was usually a 10 inch square piece of material that he could hit blindfolded.
He always ended his training session by hitting the target 6 times in a row before going home!

 

[someblokecalleddave]

Re: Wrist Spin Bowling

40% of the UK population have SKY? That needs substantiating, but then of that 40% how many have the sports package which is almost the same price as the basic package that the majority of the SKY subscribers have? My point is that if it was on the BBC so many more people would have access to cricket and the sport might grow because everyone would be able to access it rather than it be exclusive to those that can afford it.

 

[macca]

Re: Wrist Spin Bowling

The faster flatter ball as that still his leg break?

Still a legbreak. just less flight and faster.

 

[Jim2109]

Re: Wrist Spin Bowling

40% of the UK population have SKY? That needs substantiating, but then of that 40% how many have the sports package which is almost the same price as the basic package that the majority of the SKY subscribers have? My point is that if it was on the BBC so many more people would have access to cricket and the sport might grow because everyone would be able to access it rather than it be exclusive to those that can afford it.

Sky's figures for 2009 (maybe 2008) said that 9.2m households have Sky. a quick google says there are about 24m households in the UK. thus 38.3%

obviously Sky Sports is then an extra, id imagine that most people who have Sky have it primarily for the sports coverage though, certainly anyone who would watch cricket will almost certainly have the sports package already. people who dont like sports are obviously irrelevant here as they are never going to take up playing cricket if they dont already have an interest in physical activities of some description.

if the BBC covered cricket, id imagine it would be world class coverage. they have the technology and the personnel to pull it off. any of the other terrestrial providers would be below par, they do everything cheaply and compared to Sky it just isnt enjoyable to watch.

 

[someblokecalleddave]

Re: Wrist Spin Bowling

Still a legbreak. just less flight and faster.

So his main ball is a more loopy bigger turning leg break? Does he pitch it up outside leg or on the off-stump and is good enough to have a look at the bat with regards whether they're good off the legs or off-side and then does he bowl to the bats weakness?

 

[sadspinner]

Re: Wrist Spin Bowling

Has anyone ever tried this ball. Looks very much like the carrom ball. Anyway should be a good straight ball CRICKETNDTV.com - Cricket Unlimited

 

[sadspinner]

Re: Wrist Spin Bowling

Still a legbreak. just less flight and faster.

Is it done by releasing the balll later, or by trying to use the spinning finger less, or does he accellerate the run up marginally more, or use a faster arm action? I presume he tries to get it straight to get more lbw's? I find the straight ball to be the toughest of all to get right . Even the mystery ball or flipper end up as offspinners.

 

[legspinenthusiast]

Re: Wrist Spin Bowling

Hi Guys,

I joined the big cricket forum for the wrist spin bowling discussion. It has been very informative and good knowledge.

I have two questions:

1] When I bowl legspin for 15-20 overs in the nets the skin on my 3rd spinning finger peels off. I get new skin again and later during the next net session it again peels off. I read somewhere that usually the skin hardens and this should not happen on a regular basis. Any comments or suggestions about how to handle it?

2] The second thing is that I get swelling in the knuckle area on the 3rd finger and it becomes painful. The exact pain is on the knuckle of the 3rd finger in my palm. It goes away in few days and then when I bowl again it comes back. Have any of you experienced this? Any ideas on how to tackle this?

3] I have been confused about the slider. Has anyone mastered it and can they shed more light on it?

I play cricket once a week during the summer and manage to bowl either good legspinners or top spinners. My brain is still not wired to bowl both together. Reading your discussions I think I might be able to figure it out. But overall either I get good purchase on legspinners or very fast bouncy topspinners..... Please answer.....

 

[someblokecalleddave]

Re: Wrist Spin Bowling

Is it done by releasing the balllater, or by trying to use the spinning finger less, or does he accellerate the run up marginally more, or use a faster arm action? I presume he tries to get it straight to get more lbw's? I find the straight ball to be the toughest of all to get right . Even the mystery ball or flipper end up as offspinners.

Personally I've got a ball like this and I just have it higher in the fingers and whip the front arm down a lot faster. My mystery ball spins away like a little off-spinner, but I quite like the fact that it does that.

 

[someblokecalleddave]

Re: Wrist Spin Bowling

There's a bloke on here (normally later on as he lives in Australia), he's got some ideas about something you can put on the skin to help. See what he says. The knuckle joints sounds a bit worrying and it sounds like you might be over-doing it - how old are you?

 

[sadspinner]

Re: Wrist Spin Bowling

Personally I've got a ball like this and I just have it higher in the fingers and whip the front arm down a lot faster. My mystery ball spins away like a little off-spinner, but I quite like the fact that it does that.

Higher in your fingers as in the tips of your fingers, or further in the palm?

 

[legspinenthusiast]

Re: Wrist Spin Bowling

There's a bloke on here (normally later on as he lives in Australia), he's got some ideas about something you can put on the skin to help. See what he says. The knuckle joints sounds a bit worrying and it sounds like you might be over-doing it - how old are you?

I am 28 yrs old, 5feet-9inches or 176cm, 165lbs. The pain in the knuckle is only in the spinning finger......and it goes away if I take break for a week. Do you think I am imparting too much pressure? I am not the fittest person but I am really fascinated by spinning big.. and my top spinners are always above the waist of the batsmen and sometimes in there rib cage.

 

[sadspinner]

Re: Wrist Spin Bowling

By the way did you ever see Kaneria bowling live with Essex Dave? He might join the forum and get a hang of Macca's mystery ball.

 

[someblokecalleddave]

Re: Wrist Spin Bowling

I am 28 yrs old, 5feet-9inches or 176cm, 165lbs. The pain in the knuckle is only in the spinning finger......and it goes away if I take break for a week. Do you think I am imparting too much pressure? I am not the fittest person but I am really fascinated by spinning big.. and my top spinners are always above the waist of the batsmen and sometimes in there rib cage.

Ah right that kind of throws a different kind of light on the matter. Having worked on building sites when I was around your age as a labourer and having to use tools and equipment that cause blisters. Also from my experience of playing guitar (Fingers on the strings) I reckon what's happening is it sounds as though in the matches that you're playing you're wearing the finger so much it's causing blisters, but then a whole week passes allowing the skin to repair. But that brand new skin which has only just grown back is then subjected to a pulverising again and never gets a chance to grow back. What I think needs to happen is that the skin needs to be subjected to the ball regularly or some other abrasion every day in order that the skin can be partially damaged but at the same time given the chance to slowly harden up. For instance if you work on a buidling site you just have to live with blisters and because the damage is daily rather than weekly, the new skin just hardens up and becomes a callous. In the same way with the fingers and guitars in order that I'd toughen up the tips of my fingers I'd just drag my fingers across any rough surface at any opportunity to make them hard and tough. So in short I think you're leaving the fingers too long in between bowling session, you need to wear that skin a lot more frequently in order that it toughens up. But I may be talking nonesense and someone who knows about dermatology may warn against this approach.

But having said that it also sounds like you're doing too much if you're getting swollen joints and I reckon you should post the details on one of the fitness and nutrition threads or email Liz Ward direct and ask her what she thinks as this sounds like it might be something serious.

I found that when I was learning one of my deliveries because of the new action my fingers suffered a bit and the joints ached, but that was because it was the use of the fingers in a new way. I'd get it checked out.

But other than that you're spinning the ball well and you seem happy with the results you're getting. Perhaps if you're alluding to the fact that maybe your grips a bit hard just try and loosen up a bit and see how it goes. My biggest turning Leg Break relies on a very loose grip and I think some of the others on here will testify to the fact that their grips are also loose. Additionally the master himself (Warne) advocates the use of a loose grip.

 

[someblokecalleddave]

Re: Wrist Spin Bowling

Higher in your fingers as in the tips of your fingers, or further in the palm?

Out of the palm, higher into the fingers and very orthodox 2 fingers up 2 fingers down.

Just looked at my clubs bowling stats http://www.gandccc.webeden.co.uk/cgi-bin/download.cgi they've just been updated for the 1st time in weeks and it looks like I've got some work to do if I'm going to maintain them this weekend or improve them. Don't know who I'm playing so it should be interesting.

 

[someblokecalleddave]

Re: Wrist Spin Bowling

Adil Rashid. There's been a lot of stuff in the press about this bloke just recently here in the UK. There are some that claim he is a key contender to take Flintoffs crown as Englands next great all-rounder and in the Times today even Warne was on the case bigging him up in front of Stuart Broad as Englands Flintoff replacement. The only thing is there's so little out there about these blokes that it's not that easy to get a sense of how good they are. Who are the up and coming Leg Spinners at the moment and is there such a thing as the top 10 Leg Spinners? Let's have some names.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/cricket/article6802109.ece
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/columnists/shane_warne/article6808518.ece

 

[someblokecalleddave]

Re: Wrist Spin Bowling

By the way did you ever see Kaneria bowling live with Essex Dave? He might join the forum and get a hang of Macca's mystery ball.

Saddo, I've never seen Essex play, it's a bit too expensive for me and I've got very little time what with all the practicing I do! Yeah come on Danish get on the forum and gives us some guidance and ideas please?

 

[someblokecalleddave]

Re: Wrist Spin Bowling

Has anyone ever tried this ball. Looks very much like the carrom ball. Anyway should be a good straight ball CRICKETNDTV.com - Cricket Unlimited

Looks good in the nets there in the way that it simply doesn't bounce. I didn't know Ian Pont was a spin guru as well. I haven't tried it but as you say it kind of looks like the Iverson Gleeson ball. I may give it a whirl but I'm really focusing on 4 deliveries at the moment -

Std Leg Break
The Big Muvver (AKA the Biggun).
Top-spinning Flipper
Wrong Un

Although I feel I'm neglecting my once loved Top-Spinner and I felt as though I could have used it on Sunday, but I've bowled it so little in the last 2 months I didn't trust myself to give it a go. I'm obviously not practicing enough!!!!

 

[sadspinner]

Re: Wrist Spin Bowling

Saddo, I've never seen Essex play, it's a bit too expensive for me and I've got very little time what with all the practicing I do! Yeah come on Danish get on the forum and gives us some guidance and ideas please?

I did not like his idea of the flipper much though on that you tube video though. Yes, I am sorry for you, hard life having holidays and practicing. Sounds like a dogs life to me.

 

[big spin]

Re: Wrist Spin Bowling

Hi, this is my first post on here, there's been some interesting stuff on this thread.

I've had a little go with that knuckle ball that goes straight. It's OK i think, but you have to a bit crafty with the grip. If you run up with your middle finger behind the ball the batsmen will know something's up. I did it changing grip at the last second and it's not too hard.

The problem with it is that it doesn't spin very much, so doesn't skid on as much as a flipper or slider. Nor does it land fuller than expected, like the flipper or slider, because of the lack of backspin. It's fun though, and if it can be disguised well it could be useful...

Dave, this topspinning flipper sounds interesting, does it behave much differently than a normal topspinner?

 

[someblokecalleddave]

Re: Wrist Spin Bowling

I did not like his idea of the flipper much though on that you tube video though. Yes, I am sorry for you, hard life having holidays and practicing. Sounds like a dogs life to me.

Yeah it's hard work!

No I didn't like his Flipper explanation either, in fact I reckon he wouldn't know a flipper if it slapped him round the face and his vid looks like his Mum shot it - YouTube - BigHitterMag.com Danish Kaneria's Master Class. Bowling the flipper

 

[someblokecalleddave]

Re: Wrist Spin Bowling

Hi, this is my first post on here, there's been some interesting stuff on this thread.

I've had a little go with that knuckle ball that goes straight. It's OK i think, but you have to a bit crafty with the grip. If you run up with your middle finger behind the ball the batsmen will know something's up. I did it changing grip at the last second and it's not too hard.

The problem with it is that it doesn't spin very much, so doesn't skid on as much as a flipper or slider. Nor does it land fuller than expected, like the flipper or slider, because of the lack of backspin. It's fun though, and if it can be disguised well it could be useful...

Dave, this topspinning flipper sounds interesting, does it behave much differently than a normal topspinner?

I find that I'm more accurate with it and can bowl it a lot faster than my normal Top-Spinner, but at the same time I can easily toss it up loopy and have it dip. I generally seem to be using it as a faster on the stumps approach, I can normally just change from bowling my leg Break straight into this with no problem, whereas with my orthodox top-spinner as on Sunday I feel a bit cagey about bowling it with confidence. The other thing is with this ball it swings and then breaks like a small off-spinner. I've not taken any wickets with it as it's a variation and I've not generally bowled it in games till very recently. It's Grimmetts 'Mystery Ball' he invented the Flipper and applied the 'Round the loop' theory to the Flipper and of the 4 basic Flipper variations this is the one he preferred, rejecting the back-spinning flipper that Benaud went on to hijack and claim as his own, the same ball we see Jenner and Warne demonstrating frequently. Grimmetts Top Spinning Flipper I'm beginning to agree is the better of the 4 flipper variations.

BigSpin - yeah join in mate, let us know how you bowl your stuff, as we're all looking to learn stuff on here and any insights and advice is always appreciated.

 

[Jim2109]

Re: Wrist Spin Bowling

Still a legbreak. just less flight and faster.

ive discovered a delivery like this, more by accident than anything else. i can bowl it on demand now, its pretty much exactly as you describe - flat in flight but faster to the bat. it still turns well though. i reckon it could work well in conjunction with an "arm ball", one that is the same but doesnt turn at all. bowl the straight one, then bowl what looks to be exactly the same but with turn and it might find an edge.

i can do a similar thing with my flipper, but less consistently. if i keep it flat it is LOADS faster than anything else i bowl, probably up around the 60mph mark if i had to estimate. and then the backspin gets it zipping through and staying low off the bounce. might be good for LBW's.

Ahhh now I see and I suppose you've tried bowling your delivery with your foot pointing straight down the wicket or to the off-side or where-ever it's needed to theoretically correct it and you've tried the 'stand start' a la' Beau Casson in the David Freedman clips? I take it you use your leading arm to point in the direction you want the ball to go as well?

ive tried pretty much everything lol. my leading arm isnt very controlled, maybe that is something i should look to improve. it always does the same thing, but i dont actually know what it does, it just kinda flaps around in front of me. i dont get my whole arm high, i have it bent, but i get my elbow up in front of my face, arm pointing backwards. thats how i got told to bowl when i was about 12 and they showed us the absolute basics at school. that and the brush your ear with your bowling arm thing. 10 years or so later and most stuff i see says to disregard both points lol. a little knowledge is a dangerous thing it seems, especially in a sports teacher at school!!

where is the video you are referring to? i swear ive seen it once, and have never been able to find it again. might be worth me having a look at for some ideas.

 

[someblokecalleddave]

Re: Wrist Spin Bowling

The other thing is that it looks odd coming out of the hand and is likely not to be picked.

 

[someblokecalleddave]

Re: Wrist Spin Bowling

where is the video you are referring to? i swear ive seen it once, and have never been able to find it again. might be worth me having a look at for some ideas.

It's here YouTube - David Freedman legspin coaching video I reckon this is the best video resource on the internet with regards to Wrist Spin, there is so many little things in here to note and make use of and this was very instrumental in me regaining my Leg Break.

 

[big spin]

Re: Wrist Spin Bowling

Yeah I can imagine it looks strange coming out, would definately confuse the batsmen. I don't think i would be able to bowl it well. My arms pretty low so i can get a lot of side spin, but can't get my wrist round far enough for a googly, and it sounds like you'd have to get your wrist all the way round for a topspinning flipper.

Where did you find that stuff that Grimmett said? I had a look to get hold of his books, but you have to pay a few hundred pounds to a cricket memorabilia collecter!

 

[someblokecalleddave]

Re: Wrist Spin Bowling

Saddo do you have SKY and watch the Ashes? If not can you access this Demand Five | watch Cricket On Five, Season 2009 - episode 23, England v Australia - 5th Test - Brit Oval - Day 3 Macca might want to look away not that I'm saying the outcome is a foregone conclusion - this is the Ashes after all!

 

[someblokecalleddave]

Re: Wrist Spin Bowling

Yeah I can imagine it looks strange coming out, would definately confuse the batsmen. I don't think i would be able to bowl it well. My arms pretty low so i can get a lot of side spin, but can't get my wrist round far enough for a googly, and it sounds like you'd have to get your wrist all the way round for a topspinning flipper.

Where did you find that stuff that Grimmett said? I had a look to get hold of his books, but you have to pay a few hundred pounds to a cricket memorabilia collecter!

One of his books 'Taking wickets' comes up every now and then on antique book websites and I think they get simultaneously listed on Amazon (About 30 quid). You just have to keep looking around and they turn up. The rarer 'Tricking batsmen' is far more difficult to get hold of. There's some bits of it in the new Bob Woolmer cricket book, but not a lot. There's probably more in this thread than anywhere else on the internet about Grimmett as we're pretty impressed with his contribution to the game.

Yeah the grip and wrist angle for the Top Spinning flipper is dead awkward and it'll cause you grief if you're looking to bowl it, it'll take a couple of weeks spinning it out of the fingers hand to hand going through the pain barrier as your muscles and tendons get used to the new action, but you get there eventually. I don't know how far back you've read through the thread but some of the big name spinners like Ashley Mallett and Jenner both claim that it's physically impossible to bowl 22 yards. It's not.

 

[doctortran]

Re: Wrist Spin Bowling

ive tried pretty much everything lol. my leading arm isnt very controlled, maybe that is something i should look to improve. it always does the same thing, but i dont actually know what it does, it just kinda flaps around in front of me. i dont get my whole arm high, i have it bent, but i get my elbow up in front of my face, arm pointing backwards. thats how i got told to bowl when i was about 12 and they showed us the absolute basics at school. that and the brush your ear with your bowling arm thing. 10 years or so later and most stuff i see says to disregard both points lol. a little knowledge is a dangerous thing it seems, especially in a sports teacher at school!!

Hi all! I'm new to posting at these forums, but I have been reading every few months when I need some reassurance that there is another leg-spinner out there learning the craft too. You've been a great help.

Anyway I thought I'd make some suggestions. I went through this problem for a while and I think I might know what's going on.

Three things
1) Front foot should be pointing straight down the wicket. But you might have a different action. Try front leg pointing to 11 or even 10 o'clock - anywhere pointing on the off side might work. Also notice where your chest is... the concept of pointing your front leg relies on the premise that your chest moves too. Summarising - think about your front leg, be rigid with your front leg, but not with your upper body.

2) Back foot should be pointing to the off side - 3 o'clock to even 12 o'clock for the flipper. Warney has it at about 2:30.

3) Finally - where is your front leg in comparison to your back leg? Forget now where your feet are pointing. Think of where you place your front leg. Is it straight in front of your left leg? Or is it to the right, so you can spin over your front leg? In theory bowling over your front leg moves it more to off - where as having one leg directly in front of the other is used to bowl around the legs. This is where I had my problem.

Hope this helps!

 

[macca]

Re: Wrist Spin Bowling

Hi, this is my first post on here, there's been some interesting stuff on this thread.

I've had a little go with that knuckle ball that goes straight. It's OK i think, but you have to a bit crafty with the grip. If you run up with your middle finger behind the ball the batsmen will know something's up. I did it changing grip at the last second and it's not too hard.

QUOTE] My son came up with that exact same delivery a few months back. Like you say hard to disguise but it has possibilities as a variation.

 

[sadspinner]

Re: Wrist Spin Bowling

Saddo do you have SKY and watch the Ashes? If not can you access this Demand Five | watch Cricket On Five, Season 2009 - episode 23, England v Australia - 5th Test - Brit Oval - Day 3 Macca might want to look away not that I'm saying the outcome is a foregone conclusion - this is the Ashes after all!

No I do not have sky but see bits and pieces elsewhere. Unfortunately, that link does not work outside the uk. I am an independent viewer, but prefer the underdogs usually ie england. I have a feeling the autralians will still win it as the wicket is playing well despite it being described as a minefield, and the fact that there will be no cloud cover, so no swing. It will have to take something special by swann to win them the match or some cutters by broad or collingwood. You poms were called pu****s by langer after all!

 

[someblokecalleddave]

Re: Wrist Spin Bowling

I know this is off topic slightly, but in reposnse to an earlier posting by Jim.

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there has been some criticism on this thread of Sky Sports showing the Ashes coverage. on the other hand, as a subscriber to Sky, i wouldnt have wanted it any other way. BBC arent bad for their camera work, in fact they are up there with the best in the world. but ITV, C4 and C5 are cheap, i watch football matches on ITV and the picture quality is awful, the commentary is awful, the overall coverage is just of a poor standard. watch it on Sky and its in High Definition, money is no object when it comes to getting the best commentators and pundits possible, the analysis, replays, insight, even down to the lunch time articles are absolutely spot on. its a pleasure to watch, i can sit there all day listening. if it was on terrestrial television that wouldnt be the case if there was a slow batting partnership and nothing exciting was happening.

!

Jim here's something you might want to have a look at

"The viewing figures tell the story plainly. For the final Oval Test which sealed England's great Ashes victory in 2005, Channel 4's free-to-air coverage averaged just short of 3m people, and a triumphant 7.2m peak in the final quarter of an hour when the Test was won. On Sunday, Sky's Oval coverage attracted an average of 856,000 viewers, and a peak, at 5.45pm, of 1.9m - remarkable for pay TV cricket, but not a great chunk of the nation".

This is a small section from here England's glorious Ashes win makes the case for cricket to be on free-to-air TV | David Conn | Sport | guardian.co.uk