The weather is holding out here in the UK and I've been able to bowl at the weekend and in the evenings and work with this new action. The aspects that I've been working on have been the approach to the crease - the length of my run up. I seem to have established that and it's progressively getting smoother and the bowling is pretty good too.
2. How do I feel about the situation?
I've uploaded some video footage on-line shot at different angles and at different focal lengths and the earliest ones were a little disappointing. How I think I bowl and how I actually do bowl are quite different and I was a little deflated on seeing the first video shot with a compressed perspective with a long lens..
But, with further practice and a more orthodox camera angle over the last week or two it has come together and I'm feeling a little more positive about the whole thing.
Additionally I do encourage feedback from the blokes on the Spin Bowling Thread on Big Cricket and that sometimes is hard to take, because it is honest and somewhat brutal at times. But overall it feels like things are coming together.
3. What was good and what was bad (Evaluation).
It's been pointed out that that I fall away to the right when viewed from the batsman's perspective which means the energy isn't going towards the batsman as it should. People have also said that my leading arm is flailing about all over the place and looks as though if anything it is detrimental to the outcome. Good so far is the actual run-up. This I feel as though for the first time since I started bowling wrist spin is now set... This is how I now run-up and bowl my leg breaks, no questions, no doubts this is it until my legs or hips give up forcing me to bowl differently. Incidentally someone pointed out on Big Cricket that it looks like Mushtaq Ahmed a bit. I took that as an indication that it is moving towards being half decent and a definite improvement on how I've bowled previously.
4. Analysis.
At the moment I'm doing only two things when I bowl so as not to confuse the issue. Also the idea is that I'm building the action stage by stage addressing certain aspects of it as I go.
1. I'm bowling off of the exact same run-up every time. I measure it by using my feet, it is 11 foot exactly from the bowling crease. I now always lead with the left foot and have developed this throwing of both hands forwards which seems to increase the momentum. This is something that Mushtaq Ahmed does, but it's not something I copied, it just seemed to be the right thing to do to help with balance and getting the momentum going.
There's a couple of things that are interesting in these images. 1. Is that the action is almost identical, the left foot going forwards is in synch with the arms being raised in this initial movement. 2. Look at the wear marks on the floor, that's never happened as far as I can recall and this reinforces the fact that I am building a repeatable and consistent bowling action!
The next stage which I'm still working on is the leading arm - how do I use it, where does it go and how do I start the gather? Already I've been visualising what's needed to be done and I've got a plan for the weekend in place to work with. Then this evening I've looked around internet and found that I've previously discussed this in the blog back in 2013.
http://mpafirsteleven.blogspot.co.uk/2013/11/the-gather-in-bowling.html
Looking at the stuff that already exists on the internet it is an integral part of what we do and it's connected to the 'Dynamism' through the crease, accuracy, speed and spin.
I've just looked at some video footage and seen how messy my approach and movement through the crease is if viewed frame by frame. I still think I've made some massive steps forwards and this represents the potential for a better season next year, but still needs some work.
Looking back at this, I can see that the gather aspect with getting the hand up around the ears isn't there (See link above). Without actually trying to bowl and thinking going through the process it seems to be a fairly easy thing to incorporate, but that does remain to be seem.
5. Conclusion
The whole thing is going well, and I'm very optimistic as to the final outcome, some of the stuff I already do with the wrist and hand may need to be adjusted and worked with and I'm expecting that the adjustment with the leading arm may be problematic, but that remains to be seen.
6. Action Plan
Over the weekend try and get out and bowl and maybe look at the action without the use of a ball and record it. Continue with all of the other aspects and add the arm/gather over the coming few days or weeks and see how it goes. This here is the latest video...
Check out my other blog here - this is all about Leg-spin bowling and nothing else. Double click on the image below.
