Leg spin bowling

So, this is where I'm at with the new bowling technique after less than an hours worth of work on it. No skip, just a steady walk-in and keeping everything pointing down the wicket. At this point I'm not even giving the ball a flick, the Wrong Uns at the end look okay, but the length is a bit iffy and the final out of the front of the hand Clarrie Grimmett flipper a lot faster but lacking the accuracy. But overall I'm pleased with the progress so far.

Re vamp

It's the end of the season here in the UK and another year of wrist spinning experience under the belt and time to reflect on what I've learned and transfer some of that learning and reading across to the blog. So, over the coming months I'll be looking to get rid of some of the dead links and hopefully upload some new links to a series of training drills that I'm currently looking at and experimenting with. You can see these at these early stages at my Youtube channel here - http://www.youtube.com/user/someblokecalleddave1?feature=mhum

I was hoping to buy a high speed camera so that I could video the releases for each of the deliveries in slow motion, but that's been put on hold for the minute. It's something I still intend on doing it but when remains subject to justifying the cost of the camera.

Update see below

Update

Another update.

As the season comes to an end here in the UK, I've had an indifferent season with very few games and in the majority of the games I've not bowled that well, but this isn't unusual for Wrist Spinners as this article here would suggest (Bryce McGain) http://www.cricinfo.com/magazine/content/story/476824.html

What I have done this season is move away from bowling 57 varieties of variations and stick with more or less just three... The Leg Break, The Wrong Un which I bowled very rarely and with little success if I'm honest and the out of the front of the hand Flipper, which has been a bit of a revelation. All that aside the ball that I've been working on as a developmental project is the genuine Leg Break, the one with the big pronounced flick that'll leave the hand spinning perpendicular to the direction of flight. Over the last few months I've been trying to get to grips with it and bit by bit it's coming together. The key to getting it sussed appears to be doing as Peter Philpott advises in his book The Art Of Wrist Spin Bowling .......

1. Spin a ball or an object in the manner in which you're trying to learn as much as you can. So Apples, Oranges anything spin in it all the time and start to imprint on your brain that muscle reflex that's required to produce the wrist action that'll give you the delivery that you want.

2. Visualise it and practice the action, and simply flick the ball upwards above yourself so that you can see the balls rotation. Stay relaxed and loose.

The action that is required is the inward spinning action similar to that required to bowl the back-spinning slider http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zob1Md0HVqs the difference between the two is minimal and it may be just me, but feeling the difference in the wrist angle as you bowl, I find so subtle I've been unable to tell as the ball is released whether I've got it right. With the increase in practicing the flick, the subtleties between the two deliveries is becoming increasingly apparent and I'm noticing that with the Big Leg Break which is what I'm after, the fingers, especially at the tips on release are integral in getting the ball rotating. I now know as it leaves the tips of the fingers whether I've managed to combine the right combination of hip and shoulder rotation, with arm, elbow and wrist - because when it's right it rips off the fingers.

It's not the finished product by a long way yet, but there's light at the end of the tunnel. This time last year or maybe even more recently I was so disillusioned with the fact that I couldn't get anywhere near producing this ball over any real distance. I'm convinced too that if I can get a number of different types of balls to turn considerably on different smooth surfaces, if I was to ever land a ball in a decent bit of rough it would turn in the desired manner. Perseverence and determination seem to the producing positive outcomes.