I haven't bowled regular Flippers of any type for years. Most of the ones that I tried and used to use, linked to the video above I've discarded for a number of reasons. One of the main things that I came to realise was that, in trying to develop all of these, you end up with a so many variations, you're never really any good with any of them. The other thing I've come to realise is whilst you think you're doing x or y when you're bowling the reality is more than likely very different, not that this matters that much, because you're still bowling a variation of some sort, although it's possibly not doing what you intended it to do.
I still reckon that if you're interested in bowling a Flipper of some type, it's still worth trying most of the ones that I demonstrate in these videos and just look for the one that suits you. The only ones that I'm able to bowl with a little practice is the basic back-spinning Flipper and this one in the video above - the Off-Spinning Flipper. It's this one that nearly got the bloke that slaughtered me and I've got good batsmen previously with it.
What I've come to realise over the years and is the case with this particular delivery (Off - spinning Flipper) is that you do as much as you can to get your wrist and hand in the correct position when bowling it, but when it comes down to it, unless you're very lucky, to be honest you're unlikely to hold the wrist in the perfect position through the action. I find the basic back-spinner relatively easy to bowl with the seam dead straight and offers one option. The off-spinner, despite all my efforts to control my wrist position doesn't come out with the seam anything like a conventional off-break e.g. angled with over-spin, but, instead comes out of the hand with the seam angled towards the leg-side, but spins backwards which is pretty unusual. The results is the ball holds its line through the air and doesn't dip like balls with over-spin, so it keeps really low and with the angled seam some of them nip in to the right-hander.
So, if you try Flippers, don't get too hung up on whether they work in the way that you want or expect them to, instead be content that they give you simply another variation. The only other thing I'd say about them is that you've probably got to use them sparingly especially against better batsmen.
So the last couple of practice sessions I've been working with the Flipper bowling alternate over-spun leg breaks and the back-spinning off-spinning Flipper. Both of them in my case require a pretty vertical arm, so there's not the obvious give-away in that aspect of the delivery. So far the practice with the Flipper seems to have gone okay and I'll continue with this week. What I want to be able to do is bowl a series of Leg-Breaks and then just pull the Flipper out of the bag and execute it well, so that's what I'll be working on this week, so far it's gone okay.
