Wrist Spin Bowling

[sadspinner]

Re: Wrist Spin Bowling

Hi Guys,

I found this forum when I started searching for a solution to blisters on my spinning finger. Didn't find a solution for that yet

Welcome. I wonder how many of you got blisters. I never got one but I spin with my middle finger, and there I have a big callous from the way I use my pens. It is either that or I am really a poor spinner!

 

[someblokecalleddave]

Re: Wrist Spin Bowling

Water Boy, I'll have a look as well at some point and make a comment. In the short term from my blog - this regarding the Flicker -

I eventually left the clubhouse at around 8.45 after listening to The Wizards account of his day and as I stepped outside Callum the Demon Leg-Spinner (He of a great many wickets and single handed destroyer of teams) was outside having a knock about with Ross. Just as I came out Ross was going and Callum said 'Now who's going to bowl at me'? Needless to say I offered and threw a few at him trying a few variations including The Flicker and the 2 or 3 that I bowled were on the money as such. He soon left and I thought I'd have another look at the flicker before I went home and I ended up bowling the Flicker at the fence for another 20 -25 minutes and whereas I only bowled the one in the match because it went wide - here and now they were coming out perfect - right on target. Of the 30 - 40 that I bowled maybe 2 or 3 went wide down the off-side. But I've now discovered that they have another attribute - they swing and they swing big, but this may be down to the nature of the balls that I use and the atmospherics as it was cloudy and warm. The balls I used are smooth on one side and artificially rough the otherside, designed to explore the potential of swing. But other than that they were coming out of the hand perfectly and rushing on when they hit the ground and breaking like an Off-Break ball, but they seem easy to aim despite the fact that they require an odd hand/wrist position. The success I had here in just a matter of minutes is so promising that it's inevitable that next week I'll be looking to use this ball in the game.
Neil made the point in the game today when I was mixing in Flippers with Leg Breaks that the oppo wouldn't appreciate the bowling at all and that someone like Cat who's a good batsman and watches the ball come out of the hand would appreciate and respect the variation. Neils comment came off the back of seeing a Flipper come in a lot faster than the bouncy Leg Breaks and skid in really low and still break towards off beating the bat and only just missing the off-stump by millimetres. So things are going well.

Coming away from the bowling session, the arm felt okay and I'd bowled without the stretchy support thing.

 

[someblokecalleddave]

Re: Wrist Spin Bowling

I'm not playing this weekend although my team is traveling for two games, unfortunately I earn my keeps in the team mainly as a batsman who can save bunch of runs or pull off a couple of good catches at point. So, I wont get a bowl in the match anytime soon, but we did have a double wicket tournament to get some practice on thursday- I got to roll my arm over for two overs - got the batsmen out thrice -

they dont take me too seriously as a bowler and started setting themselves up for a big swing down to midwicket - beat them in flight to get one guy bowled, and two top edges on sweeps. (I wouldn't rate them very high on batting abilities though )

As for the batsmen point of view when facing a spinner - I was advised (and this has served me well over time) that you play a spinner "as late as possible" and "off the backfoot as often as possible"
I remember Shane warne admitted after being hammered in 98-99 tour to india that he didnt remember ever having been cut as often as he was on that tour. So, the slower you are through the air, the more time you give the batsmen to get back to cut and pull. or if it is full enough to nudge him around for singles off the back foot. So, thats 6 off 6 easy pickings without any risk

Did you get players who did that to you a lot ?

Fortunately something I've not come across yet but it makes sense. I think If I was faced with this I might turn to much faster Flippers and bowl them as Yorkers which turn a little towards off and mix them up with Top Spinners and Lobby Flippers which drop in and almost stop. Not sure.... I'd have to do it in a game and see how it comes off?

 

[macca]

Re: Wrist Spin Bowling

The flicker , according to Bradman, either went straight on or broke as a small offbreak as you say yours does. The ball is harder to disguise than the flipper because the flicker is more of an offspinners flick, but Bradman said Grimmett disguised it with a turn of the wrist just after release. which you need to do against good players. The standard flipper is easier to bowl because the wrist position is already so much more like the standard leg break look.
Does it loop out slowly and and appear to gain pace more than any other ball?. I want to know why he would want to perfect it when he had a already deadly conventional topspinner. How does it compare to the flipper? The swing has to be explained as well.

 

[someblokecalleddave]

Re: Wrist Spin Bowling

Is there anything to be had from gradually roughing up your skin pre-season so that you create minor blisters that then heal and repeat again and again so that the skin gets harder. I know that when I first started to play Guitar (Bass Guitar) I had crap guitar with a really high 'Action' and this caused real problems and soreness with the tips of my fingers so what I took to doing was basically roughing up the tips of my fingers at any opportunity I had - dragging then across walls and any hard surface and eventually the tips of the fingers became hard. Similarly with Surfing - I spent a couple of summers surfing back in the 80's and what more or less happened was when I got there in May I took my shoes off hardly ever to put them on again until November. By Mid June I was more or less 'Free-running' a la Parqure style' across the rocks like a goat in bare feet. I could run across gravel car parks by October and when I got back to Civi street and started to have baths again I must have lost 5mm of old dead skin within a week of my feet being washed with soap and hot water!

I reckon there may be some mileage by using as Macca says something rough like a pumice stone and get the skin hardened prior to the season?

 

[gundalf7]

Re: Wrist Spin Bowling

I have taken a video of me bowling in my driveway, can you guys see if my bowling action is alright and where I could improve. It is pretty bad quality, so if you guys can't really give good advice based on the quality, tell me here and I will upload a better quality video. I think I get nice drift on the second last ball but that might be the camera playing tricks.

YouTube - Me bowling in my driveway

the action itself looks fine, maybe a little more energy in the follow through but it looks good.

As for me still bowling regularish but the prospect of another game this season are looking increasingly slim.

 

[sadspinner]

Re: Wrist Spin Bowling

Macca we need you to get out the books and give us some anecdotes about o'reilly. I think he was much better than grimmett ( that was just a provocation). This will prove it if you look at how many runs each wicket cost. And we also have the dons word for it. What happened in australia in the 30's to 40's: Grimmett saying that trumper and hassett and kippax better than the don. The don saying o,reilly and ward better than grimmett? http://www.cricinfo.com/australia/content/player/7020.html

 

[someblokecalleddave]

Re: Wrist Spin Bowling

The flicker , according to Bradman, either went straight on or broke as a small offbreak as you say yours does. The ball is harder to disguise than the flipper because the flicker is more of an offspinners flick, but Bradman said Grimmett disguised it with a turn of the wrist just after release. which you need to do against good players. The standard flipper is easier to bowl because the wrist position is already so much more like the standard leg break look.
Does it loop out slowly and and appear to gain pace more than any other ball?. I want to know why he would want to perfect it when he had a already deadly conventional topspinner. How does it compare to the flipper? The swing has to be explained as well.

I've not noticed any dip which I'd kind of expect from a Top Spinner, but it certainly looks as though it gains pace off the wicket far more than my conventional Top Spinner. It seems that at the minute because of the hand position I'm not able to use the wrist to flick the ball in any way and that I'm putting more drive into the arm and shoulders seemingly right down to the core of the body in order to get it up there. This morning I've got muscle soreness in my stomach for some reason and the only thing I've done differently is bowl the Flicker?

The swing maybe the nature of the balls that are artificially rough on one side.

As for disguising it - I don't think there's that much call for it at my level, but I reckon it's a tricky one to hide.

 

[someblokecalleddave]

Re: Wrist Spin Bowling

I might start a new thread with this question "How do kids get recognised as having the skills to progress through to County level cricket and then on to playing for their country". Do any of us on here know? There's a kid at our club who's 14 and he's virtually dismissing whole teams of adults who've played cricket all their lives on a weekly basis. Strikes me that someone should be looking at what he does to see if it's going to go somewhere in the future.

 

[sadspinner]

Re: Wrist Spin Bowling

Stop press. I'm writing up my blog primarily tonight. But the headlines are -

4 for 31 off 5 overs

You are amazing. It is strange if you are obviously the main wicket taker, why you are not used to open the bowling and get rid of the top order batsmen. There still seems to be a reluctance to do so, especially if the fastish bowlers are not so successful on a regular basis. Do you think the shiny new ball would hinder you?

 

[macca]

Re: Wrist Spin Bowling

Welcome. I wonder how many of you got blisters. I never got one but I spin with my middle finger, and there I have a big callous from the way I use my pens. It is either that or I am really a poor spinner!

You have an advantage there Saddo. An already built callous. It would help an offspinner more maybe, but you are using the Kerry O Keefe method of spinning off your second finger, which in theory is more accurate but less spinning.

Grimmett could have had the signwtriters lump on his second finger as well a legspinners on his third. I need to check the photos of his hands for any signs. It is something he might have got from practising the finger clicking flipper spin for decades also.

If you have seen a picture of Lance Gibbs finger at the end of his career, it is quite shocking and slightly sickening. His callous was huge.

 

[someblokecalleddave]

Re: Wrist Spin Bowling

Someone made that point this morning on the train about the shiny ball, but I don't really see how it makes that much difference to what I'm doing at the minute. In the future if drift becomes a part of my game I might have a different view but for the moment I don't reckon it'd make that much difference.

Macca I've got the Top Spinning flipper. I was bowling it over an hour and half yesterday while my kids were at their training session and I've got it pretty much 90% sussed hitting the stumps and getting it down the offside 90% of the time, so I will be bowling it this weekend - maybe quite a bit - I'll have to see how it goes. I'd like to get someone who bats quite well to face it and mix it with conventional flippers to see if they can see the difference - Conventional Flipper stalling and the 'Mystery Ball' speeding up off the wicket. I'll try and get some pictures shot for the Leg Spin blog and get a description uploaded there.

 

[macca]

Re: Wrist Spin Bowling

I have access to over 1,000 cricket books from the council and uni library. All the classics going back to the 1860,s. Books by a lot of the all time greats going right back. Most of them not for loan. I keep finding more stuff about Grimmett that has not been brought up before. It is obvious that Mallett was a great off spinner but poor researcher. I keep finding new stuff that changes the story everyday but I keep finding stuff that guys like Firth and Haigh have missed.

I also have gone back to the newspaper reports of the first day Grimmett said he bowled his flipper in a match. It did cause mayhem that day. Grimmett dismissed 4 batsmen in 15 minutes. Interestingly the two that Grimmett said he dismissed with his flipper with consecutive balls, were reported in the paper as falling victim to overspin. Remember Bradman was there that day in the field on the same side as Grimmett watching like a hawk, the greatest ball player of all time , a man who could beat champion tennis ,golf ,squash, billiards players at their own game and he did not see the backspin? I dont believe it Mr Mallett. Bradman is emphatic he said no bowler in cricket can put enough backspin on a cricket ball to effect it's behaviour. He talks like a man who never saw a Warne style backspinning flipper.

 

[someblokecalleddave]

Re: Wrist Spin Bowling

Peter Philpott in addressing the Flipper in his book ‘The art of Wrist Spin Bowling’ dedicates less than a few pages (500 – 600 words) to it and describes it in a confused manner. Interestingly when it comes to describing the use of the Flipper by Shane Warne Philpott uses a question mark (see below) suggesting to me that he’s unsure as to whether Warne uses the Flipper at all? But another interesting aspect to the Flipper section in his book is the initial description……. Hold the ball out in front of you and spin it back towards your body. This description sounds as though he’s going to follow up with using this initial technique in a basic bringing your arm over bowling technique combining the two to give you Grimmetts Mystery Ball. But instead he instructs you to Keep on spinning it. See how it is spinning towards you. Now stop. Reverse the direction of spin. At which point the description follows through to the bog standard Flipper.

But reading it, the description of how it’s bowled seems to be that of a bloke who’s describing a delivery that he’s read about but doesn’t actually bowl himself. Have a look yourself. Here it is transcribed from the book……..

"Grimmett developed the ‘Flipper’. Squeezed out of the front of the hand thumb underneath, this delivery had the flatter trajectory, the decreased angle of contact with the pitch which created ‘skid’ and ‘Keeping low’, and because the Magnus Effect kept it in the air longer, ‘it went on’, that is it landed closer to the batsman than first expected. It also sometimes squeezed back in from off.

All of this of course, because of the back-spin. How was it achieved – still is achieved, if you watch Shane Warne carefully? Unlike all the other variations mentioned so far, the Flipper is not created by wrist spin action. As we have seen from Big Leg Break right round to Big Wrong’un all are the same action, the same spin, except the wrist position is adjusted. To understand that was the point of ‘going around the loop’.

No, the ‘Flipper’ is quite different. Hold the ball out in front of you and spin it back towards your body. Normal wrist spin as we have been practicing so long. Wrist and fingers over the top, all the levers working. Remember that is specific practice of the side spin, your biggest angle of leg spin.

Keep on spinning it. See how it is spinning towards you. Now stop. Reverse the direction of spin. The thumb and the index finger will begin the flick, away from you now, in the opposite your leg spin. So it’s an off-spin, but flicked. Again use all the levers to flick it away from you. Keep Flicking. Keep working. Keep watching. Note the spin now is going away from you.

When you have mastered this, put both hands out in front of you with elbows comfortably bent. That, of course is the position you began with to roll your fingers and hands over the top of the ball, propelling it from right-hand to left across your body, to create leg-spin.

Now perform that reversed spin described above where the thumb and index finger begin the flick of the spin opposite to leg-spin. Do that for a while in your right hand only, then propel it across your body from right to left hand. If you’re following the instructions, and doing it correctly you will note that the ball is spinning backwards – it has underneath spin, back-spin on it.
If you’re having problems, go back to the beginning of this section on ‘The Flipper’ and start again. But of you have achieved the back-spin from right hand to left across your body, you have succeeded in bowling ‘The Flipper’. Certainly, at this stage, it is only from hand to hand, but having got that far, as always, the rest is up to you.

Work from hand to hand, strengthening your wrist for the strain is quite great. Gradually lengthen the distance to a partner".

Peter Philpott – Pages 42-43; The Art of Wrist Spin Bowling; Crowood Press LTD; 2006. ISBN 1-86126-063-6.

 

[someblokecalleddave]

Re: Wrist Spin Bowling

Who's is the quote relating to the backspin - Mallett or Bradman or both? Another thing to consider although I don't really want to be disparaging to Mallett as I don't know how educated he is, but I'd be surprised if he was an academic and therefore his research skills may not be up to the scrutiny you're employing Macca. The book deals with loads of figures and uses the figures, names of places and batsmen to get across the point that Clarrie was special. I don't think he dwells on the intracasies of spin and Clarries craft enough to demonstrate that he's that interested in that aspect of the story. It may be that like some of the others he didn't think that these variations were physically possible or had any real relevance to his story as such? For instance when the book was written was anyone bowling Flippers? It may be that he thought the Fox was being crafty and just trying to keep up the pretence of having all of these variations, when in fact maybe Mallett just thought it was just a part of who Grimmett was as a player?

 

[macca]

Re: Wrist Spin Bowling

I have so much stuff to check out. Philpott may have found out post warne how to bowl it "properly", before hand I am not sure he understands the benaud flipper, but that is hard to believe, they played together a fair bit. I still have an open mind on all this. When I get all this stuff in order I will contact Philpott somehow and find out what is going on. Thanks for posting that.

 

[macca]

Re: Wrist Spin Bowling

Was this Malletts response in your recent emails? Who's is the quote relating to the backspin - Mallett or Bradman or both?

Dave I will keep you updated via email some of this stuff is dynamite and I dont want to get ripped off. I keep on changing and refining what I have got , you only have a rough sketch and it changes every day. I have really unlocked some stuff.
Dave it would be good to have some pics of the " flicker" in the same series as your other leg break photos. Also some footage of the two balls in question. The first question I asked is why he would overspin his flipper when he had an already ,by all accounts deadly, topspinner. You have to study the theory and behaviour of the two balls as well.
The difference between backspin and underspin, topspin and overspin. One of Grimmetts deliveries was described as " going half as slow through the air and twice as fast off the pitch", that is how the overspinner behaves, it seems to defy science how it takes off after slowly looping out and dropping sharply, the underspinner hurries on more through lower trajectory, fast spin propulsion, faster arm movement but as a underspinner it skids on low but does not seem to gain pace the way the overspinner does. The backspinner still traps batsmen half way through a shot on the backfoot more often then not as well as the other ball. But by different means.

 

[sadspinner]

Re: Wrist Spin Bowling

Keep on spinning it. See how it is spinning towards you. Now stop. Reverse the direction of spin. The thumb and the index finger will begin the flick, away from you now, in the opposite your leg spin. So it’s an off-spin, but flicked. Again use all the levers to flick it away from you. Keep Flicking. Keep working. Keep watching. Note the spin now is going away from you.
[/QUOTE]

It is true, in the first part it looks like he is explaining the mystery ball macca told us about. Then he reverts to the flipper we know about. I suspect that the first part may have been written in his earlier days, posssibly in some earlier book. The second part when he learned how it is bowled later on , that is my suspicion.

The funny thing is he says it is a sort of offspinner ball. Both of them when i bowl do not go straight on when pitching, but tend to move like a fast offbreak. I had missed the fact that grimmetts flipper had a tendency for some offspin on pitching.

 

[macca]

Re: Wrist Spin Bowling

Who's is the quote relating to the backspin - Mallett or Bradman or both? Another thing to consider although I don't really want to be disparaging to Mallett as I don't know how educated he is, but I'd be surprised if he was an academic and therefore his research skills may not be up to the scrutiny you're employing Macca. The book deals with loads of figures and uses the figures, names of places and batsmen to get across the point that Clarrie was special. I don't think he dwells on the intracasies of spin and Clarries craft enough to demonstrate that he's that interested in that aspect of the story. It may be that like some of the others he didn't think that these variations were physically possible or had any real relevance to his story as such? For instance when the book was written was anyone bowling Flippers? It may be that he thought the Fox was being crafty and just trying to keep up the pretence of having all of these variations, when in fact maybe Mallett just thought it was just a part of who Grimmett was as a player?

I am not an academic either I am an old fashioned paint and brush signwriter like Grimmett was. That is how I got interested in him and the legspin of course. I have read and heard first hand accounts of the era in question. But I did not mean to start the research until I read all the accounts of grimmett and I knew something did not add up. I have cracked the finger clicking story as well. I cant believe no body has gone back to the sources . Mallett gets that all wrong too. Same as the wrong wrongun.
Peter Philpott ,pre Warne at least, I am sure is taking his flipper from Grimmett and not Benaud. Richie seems to have guarded the secret more than anyone. Does Philpott ever call it a backspinner. The photo of release and the " off spinners " flick describe the overspinner. Bradman said Grimmet disguised this flick by a turn of the wrist after delivery. As we know Philpott can call a backspinner a topspinner ( backspinning topspinner) and get away with it.

 

[sadspinner]

Re: Wrist Spin Bowling

Someone made that point this morning on the train about the shiny ball, but I don't really see how it makes that much difference to what I'm doing at the minute. In the future if drift becomes a part of my game I might have a different view but for the moment I don't reckon it'd make that much difference.

What I meant if it is shiny it may be more difficult to grip the ball and give it a good tweak. I did not mean to refer to swing or drift

 

[someblokecalleddave]

Re: Wrist Spin Bowling

Yeah I've been really impressed with The Flicker so far and was really excited when it first started to come together and I almost made a video there and then in the same way that my Grimmett Flipper exists on you tube. But I've held back whilst I'm trying to get the Flicker together. I've got a game tomorrow and I'll give a go before I bowl with our bats if I get a chance and may actually use it in a game because it's coming together nicely. What you're saying about it coming off the pitch faster than it comes in is a definite possibility but it's tricky to see from the bowlers view and tonight I was considering filming it from the side to see if I could evidence that this is indeed what happens? And with regards the blog - yeah that's something I want to do as well soon and was planning last night. I'm up to my neck in stuff at work at the minute so as soon as that all tails off around July 1st I'm hoping to get all this stuff together. I still haven't accessed the files you've sent as I was so busy at work I just didn't remember to have a look at my Yahoo account. By which time hopefully I'll have a Flicker that works quite well.

Again I was looking at it tonight after someone on another thread was talking about watching the ball out of the hand so I was looking at the Flickers appearance compared to the Slider. As you know the Slider when it goes wrong comes out as the Biggun whereas the Flicker which I reckon looks similar out of the hand to the Biggun breaks like a Wrong Un with top spin - but better!

I'm off now but I'll be back tomorrow night with a match report and news as to whether I bowl it in the match.

 

[someblokecalleddave]

Re: Wrist Spin Bowling

Again I would say with my limited experience and my teachers soft hands I wouldn't say that there's a big difference between an old or soft ball. From my own experience I'd say that I might put more rev's on a ball with a new seam that's not been damaged?

 

[someblokecalleddave]

Re: Wrist Spin Bowling

Yeah Philpott in his 'Art of' definitely acknowledges the Flipper as a back-spinner but then goes on to advocate the use of the Slider seemingly preferring the Slider, I'll look at it now and check it.........

 

[someblokecalleddave]

Re: Wrist Spin Bowling

I think Philpotts description along with the use of the Grimmett image and the image that he's included do more to confuse people as to what a basic flipper is. With regards the Flipper - the far better explanations come from both Warne and Jenner via the very well known video clips on the internet (You tube) and now hopefully mine with the introduction of the slightly different Grimmett approach. In time I will work on a similar video clips demonstrating the other 3 variations of the Flipper starting with the 'Flicker'.

 

[someblokecalleddave]

Re: Wrist Spin Bowling

Actually - I've just spotted something I missed 1st time round. I'll have to re-read it and let you know because just skimmimg through it it does sound as though he describes the Top-Spinning Flipper.....

Ah! It seems that he starts off describing the Flipper using the Top-Spinning version as a starting point alluding to the point that it produces off-spin, but he goes on to say then move on from spinning it back into to your body to hand to hand and then forwards where he kind of describes it a revelationary manner that it's now a ball that is using back-spin, as though the initial stage with the Top-spin is of no consequence!!!!

I'll have to go, I'll re-read it again to check to see if I'm right and maybe I'll transcribe the whole section.

 

[macca]

Re: Wrist Spin Bowling

I have Philpotts older books from the 70,s here and he does not really teach you how to bowl it or seem to describe it that well but that might not be his fault. Someone took daves advise at the start of the this blog to "beg steal or borrow" the art of wrist spin and it is one book not in this huge collection of cricket books I found. But i can inter borrow it soon.
But they do have all the classics. There are bios and autobios of all the great Australian and English leggies going all the way back Horden ,Mailey( he is aother favorite of mine. that clip of mailey that saddo found shows him ball tampering and laughing about it, something Mailey was often accused of) Peebles ,Mc Cool, OReilly, etc. But Grimmett takes all my time at the moment.

 

[water_boy]

Re: Wrist Spin Bowling

I have taken a video of me bowling in my driveway, can you guys see if my bowling action is alright and where I could improve. It is pretty bad quality, so if you guys can't really give good advice based on the quality, tell me here and I will upload a better quality video. I think I get nice drift on the second last ball but that might be the camera playing tricks.

YouTube - Me bowling in my driveway

 

[sadspinner]

Re: Wrist Spin Bowling

I am reading a book by Peebles right now. Macca are there any books about fleetwood smith, he sure seems one hell of a character. Some say the biggest spinner of a ball but more interested in having fun than practicing. I think he ended very poor though ( ??? syphylis). Hordern as far as I know was a dentist and stopped playing to pursue his carreer.

Also about SF Barnes ( Boycott considers him the best bowler ever from his stastistics), was he similar to O'Reilly/Kumble do you reckon?

 

[macca]

Re: Wrist Spin Bowling

I have taken a video of me bowling in my driveway, can you guys see if my bowling action is alright and where I could improve. It is pretty bad quality, so if you guys can't really give good advice based on the quality, tell me here and I will upload a better quality video. I think I get nice drift on the second last ball but that might be the camera playing tricks.

YouTube - Me bowling in my driveway

Mate, I would say great basic action to work with. I am not good at breaking down the bio dynamics of bowling actions and analysing faults other than obvious ones. you are doing lots of things right but some of the more observant posters like Sadspinner and EOW may notice some things you need to look at.
The two most important things are your head and your hand. That is where it starts and finishes.

 

[someblokecalleddave]

Re: Wrist Spin Bowling

I have taken a video of me bowling in my driveway, can you guys see if my bowling action is alright and where I could improve. It is pretty bad quality, so if you guys can't really give good advice based on the quality, tell me here and I will upload a better quality video. I think I get nice drift on the second last ball but that might be the camera playing tricks.

YouTube - Me bowling in my driveway

I tried to have a look at this to comment on it but can't seem to get it to work.

 

[The Edge Of Willow]

Re: Wrist Spin Bowling

I have taken a video of me bowling in my driveway, can you guys see if my bowling action is alright and where I could improve. It is pretty bad quality, so if you guys can't really give good advice based on the quality, tell me here and I will upload a better quality video. I think I get nice drift on the second last ball but that might be the camera playing tricks.

YouTube - Me bowling in my driveway

That looks pretty good to me. I can't really see anything wrong with it. It's side-on, you are looking to the left(bowlers view) of your front arm, so it is not a mixed action(as side on bowlers need to look to the left(assuming a right handed bowler of course) of their front arm to avoid that); you have a nice high front arm, and the front foot lands to the right of the back foot(bowlers view), allowing a full pivot.

 

[someblokecalleddave]

Re: Wrist Spin Bowling

I read over the Flipper section again in Philpotts book through the Richie Benaud bit and towards the end of that section he makes the point that I've made before that most batsmen even at first grade level and test level wouldn't know a Flipper from a Slider. He then goes on to say that many eminent commentators show themselves up and make fools of themselves when they choose to comment on wrist spin variations and earlier in the book he makes the point that Wrist Spin to most players (including spinners that bowl the leg break and the wrong un) is at all levels is a dark art that they've got no understanding of whatsoever. So increasingly I'm not surprised when Macca comes across this information and the people that you'd imagine would know about it are completely ignorant of it. Macca you're doing a superb job!

I opened your email yesterday and had a read through it. Yeah it's fine keep going!

 

[sadspinner]

Re: Wrist Spin Bowling

I have taken a video of me bowling in my driveway, can you guys see if my bowling action is alright and where I could improve. It is pretty bad quality, so if you guys can't really give good advice based on the quality, tell me here and I will upload a better quality video. I think I get nice drift on the second last ball but that might be the camera playing tricks.

YouTube - Me bowling in my driveway

Welcome aboard. I am no expert, so the few points I may make take with a pinch of salt.

The first thing is you have a nice rhythm and action. The run up is a bit short, so you have to have loads of power in your shoulders, arms, forearms etc. It could be that there you do not have much space for your run up. You seem to load well and get in a nice side on position, with a good front arm. I like the pivot and the right leg coming up and over, helping in putting revolutions on the body. Another possible thing to improve is getting your left arm and elbow more tucked into your chest, to better keep your balance and increase the power of your action before 'throwing' it back. Obviously if you have a longer run up ( not much longer maybe a couple of steps ), your action and follow through will have more energy.

Finally if it ain't broke don't fix it. They are only ideas, and if your action is going well do not tinker too much with you. I tried to change mine from the roundish arm grimmett like action to more vertical and found I lost all my turn. So beware of changing too many things once again. The next best thing is to wait for england's most successful spinner's advice. He has taken about 8 wickets in about 20 overs for peanuts. Rightly so, on this forum he has proven to be the most successful of all us forumites. On the other hand Macca can fill you inas well, as he has seen some of the most successful leggies down under over the last 40 years. And EOW is wonderful at dissecting your action I am sure. And Gundalf, well he might be somewhere studying, or is he working now. Good luck, and always spin it hard.

 

[shrek]

Re: Wrist Spin Bowling

I am reading a book by Peebles right now. Macca are there any books about fleetwood smith, he sure seems one hell of a character. Some say the biggest spinner of a ball but more interested in having fun than practicing. I think he ended very poor though ( ??? syphylis). Hordern as far as I know was a dentist and stopped playing to pursue his carreer.

Also about SF Barnes ( Boycott considers him the best bowler ever from his stastistics), was he similar to O'Reilly/Kumble do you reckon?

wasn't syd barnes more of a seamer. I read an article about him a long time ago and it mentioned that he got a lot of wickets by bowling seamers

 

[Nesh]

Re: Wrist Spin Bowling

thanks for the advice

i'm batting more than bowling at the moment but am trying leg spin as i think it would be useful.

i was thinking of just bowling a stationary position and then kind of build up the action from there just to get the fundementals right, would this be the best way to go about improving.

 

[sadspinner]

Re: Wrist Spin Bowling

wasn't syd barnes more of a seamer. I read an article about him a long time ago and it mentioned that he got a lot of wickets by bowling seamers

I think he bowled seamers , swung the ball and bowled fast leg breaks, but do not know much about him. He said he did not need a googly, implying that what he bowled was enough to get the batter out. He must have been very special though. Even Peebles from what I am reading bowled fastish leg breaks. Macca will fill us in, that's for sure, but the mystery ball is what is haunting him right now.

Are you from USA? How popular is cricket there? And is leg spin popular? Do they and you bowl variations apart from the leg break? Is a 20/20 league still to be set up? If I am not mistaken Hadlee is the sort of co-ordinator.

Hope your blisters are better.

 

[someblokecalleddave]

Re: Wrist Spin Bowling

Stop press. I'm writing up my blog primarily tonight. But the headlines are -

4 for 31 off 5 overs and I bowled the 'Flicker' for the first time in a game. But later on I had 20 minutes bowling it intensively in practice mode and man is this ball looking like a killer ball and it's got another attribute that I didn't consider. Check the blog out as I put it together!!!

 

[macca]

Re: Wrist Spin Bowling

I am reading a book by Peebles right now. Macca are there any books about fleetwood smith, he sure seems one hell of a character. Some say the biggest spinner of a ball but more interested in having fun than practicing. I think he ended very poor though ( ??? syphylis). Hordern as far as I know was a dentist and stopped playing to pursue his carreer.

Also about SF Barnes ( Boycott considers him the best bowler ever from his stastistics), was he similar to O'Reilly/Kumble do you reckon?

I have got the fleetwood smith bio. SF Barnes may have been the best. I know they had soft wickets sometimes then but Barnes's spin could drill big holes in the pitch it was so vicous. He did not have a wrongun but he did not need one.
I rate Grimmett no 1, way out in front in the sleight of hand, chess like approach to bowling.
No-one in history has bowled or will ever bowl as many cricket balls as the little battler, who somehow always won in the end. No other Australian criketer was as loved as Grimmett, and when he left the stage at 50 years of age after 30 years of outfoxing the greatest batsmen of the golden age of cricket, grown men that had first been taken to see "the fox" by their dads years before had lumps in their throats and tears in their eyes they knew they had seen the greatest of them all enter cricket immortality.

 

[someblokecalleddave]

Re: Wrist Spin Bowling

thanks for the advice

i'm batting more than bowling at the moment but am trying leg spin as i think it would be useful.

i was thinking of just bowling a stationary position and then kind of build up the action from there just to get the fundementals right, would this be the best way to go about improving.

Yeah - have a look at the David Freedman video on youtube with Beau Casson - he works from a stand start - so that's definitely an option.

 

[spin wiz]

Re: Wrist Spin Bowling

Hello chaps, i'm a newbie here but an avid fan of leg break. I'm a youngie, in my last teenage year. I'm an active cricketer and have great plans to try and make it on the international scene.

I can spin the ball very big but i'm kinda erratic with my accuracy and release at times don't feel right - I guess that's either down to wrong grip or something of the sort. When I'm on song, I'm quite a deadly bowler because of the amount of spin and dip I can get.

yesterday, i bowled a leg break that pitched just on leg and spun out to the wide zone for ODI's. I have all the variations too, the slider and top spinners are ok but lately, i've loss touch in turning my googly but i don't practice the flipper much but i do get the seam out nice and the skid is there.