Using the Gibbs Reflective Practice model
We're 4 games into the season, 2 friendlies and 2 league matches and my current figures are...
18-2-71-5 a strike rate of 21.6.
All my recent practice sessions have gone really well. I've changed the way I bowl completely - relying on how I feel and whether it feels right.
Feelings - What are you thinking and feeling?
At the moment - I'm really confident and pleased with my bowling and feel as though if I keep up the fitness routines thing might even get better or least be sustained?
Evaluation What has been good and bad?
Good has been my general bowling performances, bad is that I seem to have not found a way to get into the classic side-on delivery stride and I'm now looking at scrapping that in the short to middle term.
Analysis What sense can you make of the situation?
I've had a radical over-haul of how I approach the start of the season and the way I bowl. I'd recognised that over the last two seasons that my bowling didn't really get going till July/August time. This seems to have been off the back of going on holiday and surfing for two weeks and walking up and down a bloody great hill sometimes 2 or three times a day when there.
So this year, since Christmas, I've been doing a lot more fitness work and it looks as though this might be having a really positive affect. Additionally I've scrapped trying to get side on out of my bound because it just seems to create massive inaccuracy. So, I've changed my bowling action to one that feels right and provides the accuracy I've been looking for, but isn't at all detrimental to the amount of turn I get with my stock ball. Along with the accuracy I'm able to bowl a Leg Break, Top-Spinner and a ball that goes straight on and stays low which I can only imagine lands on the shiny part of the ball yet spins like big turning leg break? What you might call a slider although I'm loathed to call it that, but the bowling action I reckon must look like I'm bowling a leg break.
In addition to the Leg Break and Top-spinner I've got three flippers that are coming out well, one out of the front of the hand that breaks like off-spinning ball, the conventional back-spinner which is unpredictable and seams all over the place and another back spinning ball with the seam angled towards slips, that stalls massively. All these flippers though are still being worked on and not quite ready for a game scenario yet.
The new bowling action I'm aware doesn't look like a conventional bowling action, but is faster, accurate and I get good and controllable variations with a decent amount of turn and over-spin.
But the key thing does seem to be fitness and agility and I've now come up with a series of drills and exercises that seem to be making a significant difference.
Conclusion - what else could you have done?
I'm beginning to think the only way I could ever develop a side on action is if I did nothing all summer or preferably all winter. If I did it in the summer, I'd probably bowl 3 overs a spell and get hit for 12 an over and take myself off! The only other thing would be to pay for one to one coaching with someone who new what they were talking about who could assess me and point me in the right direction and produce some definite measurable outcome.
Action Plan -
Going forwards the best plan of action is to stay with what I've got at the moment and keep working on my overall fitness and agility. I might spend 10 minutes every now and then just trying to see if anything positive comes out of trying to get side on, but I'm not going to get hung up on it.
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