Gatorlad

As well as keeping the blog here I also ask shed loads of questions and comment on threads in the bigcricket.com website and through that I pick up little tips and pass on stuff that I find and learn as I try and develop my wrist spin bowling. Generally all the blokes on the website tend to be learners and it's virtually unheard of that anyone with any real knowledge ever joins the discussions. But today we had a bloke called Gatorlad who specifically appears to have signed up to the discussion board to make the following comments regarding my bowling. What was interesting too was that he either follows the blog here or the comments I've been making on the forum and he says......

Dave, read through a lot of your work and it's extremely thorough. I watched your youtube videos with interest, and (for what its worth), thought that the keys to you improving were as follows:
Front Arm: Your arm, whilst positioned relatively well, seems to be generally used for decorative purposes. I feel that it really needs to be pulled back into your body as it is brought down, rather than away to the side. The reason for this will be explained at the end.
Approach to the crease: It appears that you are going through the motions in terms of your movement through the crease. The use of momentum through the crease to generate the velocity of the ball will save wear on your shoulder. Your current speed is not going to be sufficient against a high calibre of opposition as you're simply giving them too much time to get to the pitch of the ball. Without becoming "warne-centric" it is interesting to note the manner with which he tended to explode towards the end of his run-up and approach of the crease. The key to not draggind down the delivery with the increase of momentum is to ensure that you don't stop at any point in the action, and for gods sakes, make sure that your right leg does some work!
Follow through: The most underrated part of a leg spinners action. It is important to remember that your arse has an extremely important roll to play if you want to get dip and zip off the pitch. Personally, I have found that a great way to ensure this occurs is to try and kick your right bum cheek with the back of your right foot as you deliver. The difference this has created in my personal experience is extremely noticable, so if done correctly you'll definitely realise it! Anyway mate, I hope this helps. I'm of course still learning myself, but these are some of the more important points that I've been taught by various coaches over the years. Best of luck.

In response I've commented - Gatorlad - Cheers Bloke, this is very much appreciated. I was thinking about some of this stuff today at work. Last night I was watching Warne on a Ashes 2007 DVD and remembered that my run in/walk in used to be described as being Warnesque and it so obviously isn't any more! In fact this evening working on some fielding practice indoors with my younger son I was practicing it (The Warne way) to see if I could get any sense that it added to the explosion through the crease. One of the big criticisms of my team mates is that my bowling just isn't fast enough - so it's something I need to work on.I've looked back at my videos and my leading arm and compared them with the Beau Casson clips that I've been using to learn this stuff with and from my uninitiated point of view I can't see a great deal of difference with where it ends up, but that's not to say that I don't think it's an issue, as I know full well that the 'Whip' action that my own teams captain uses when he bowls is massively faster than mine and I can also see this in Warne and Casson's bowling examples.I like the point you make about saving the shoulder by speeding up the movement through the crease a la' Warne. But I'm lost on your last point about kicking my arse - again looking at the Beau Casson clip YouTube - David Freedman legspin coaching video I've noted that at 4.09 into the clip he's doing the explode through the crease follow through drill and at this point he does almost kick his arse - is this where you mean? I don't know which bit of my internet writing you're following whether it's this or my blog, but your comments are appreciated and I'll certainly have a look at the points you've raised and I'm sure all the lads on here who are trying to learn this will take noted too and consider your points. The thing I like about all of your comments and it's something I've commented on before is that none of it relates to spinning the ball and the wrist. The other aspects to wrist spin bowling such as all the points that you've made I feel are far more important to learners than the ability to bowl a whole bagful of variations. I only wish that I had this input when I started out 3 years ago!Cheers for the comments and I'd appreciate it if you would clarify the point regarding kick your arse!!!Dave

Other than that me and Joe had a sneaky 40 minutes in the Badminton bays while Ben was doing his Karate. We did some catching drills - general catching, catching whilst on the move, running forward to catch the ball. Long Barrier practice and a little bit of bowling practice. The one that Joe enjoyed the most was the fielding technique where you have two players chasing the ball. The lead fielder reaches the ball scoops it up behind him so that the follow up fielder catches it in a standing ready position almost and gets it back in. He loved that. The irony of all this is that he's the bowler in his team that bowls spin and it's his team mates that will need to be able to catch when the time comes!

Other than that the weather is still crap and cold. It's pretty much rained all day and night and overnight it supposed to be snowing again. Having watched the forecast though it looks as though as the morning comes the snow will turn to rain so hopefully by the time I have to go to work it'l have turned back to slush or have melted? All this rain and snow has meant that our local field has been too wet (or cold) or covered in snow for there to have been any football matches played on it, so this means it hasn't sustained any further damage and the wicket will have stayed intact. With it almost nearing the end of February there's a vague chance that the rain may cease and we get some milder weather as we enter March and I'll have to start thinking about a rolling strategy. Having said that the rumor still remains that the lease of the field is due to expire and that the council will offer the land up for development either this year or next. This means potentially it may not be cut/maintained and may be left to over-grow. We'll have to wait and see? Although if that does happen we do have a contingency plan for a field that is a bit further afield but at the same time is bigger and better maintained and the green-keeper is an ex - cricketer. There's a good chance that if we're discreet he may either cut a wicket for us to use or let us cut it, and either way I'm fairly certain that the bloke would then roll it as well every now and then as he's such a good bloke.

I just did a Google search for Wrist Spin Bowling and either my blog, video's or my forum entries come up several times in the first 3 pages, so that's good. I came across this which looks very interesting although as yet I've only skimmed it quickly - http://images.google.co.uk/imgres?imgurl=http://www.planetnz.com/palmheads/images/grips2_2.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.planetnz.com/palmheads/myhacks.php%3Fpg%3Dbent_finger&usg=__adTe_YljuWYciu_TL5pSUIGwa-w=&h=367&w=580&sz=23&hl=en&start=11&um=1&tbnid=EQdbxRnVADtSLM:&tbnh=85&tbnw=134&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dleg%2Bspin%2Bbowling%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26safe%3Dactive

The Knuckle Ball gets a mention too.