Wrist Spin Top Tips - The Flipper

Top Tips for the Flipper.

If you've pretty much mastered your leg break and you're now fishing around for a variation the flipper might be an option for you. In his book the The Bowlers Art, Brian Wilkins makes a good case for having the Flipper as one of your variations. Once you've developed the muscles and learned the basic technique, there is scope to change the position of the hand to create variations within the variation as such.

So, if you're in the UK and you're thinking ahead to the next season and developing a variation, you can get started with the Flipper without having actually bowl...

One of the issues that stops people in their tracks when they start to work with the flipper, is the fact that they don't have the muscles developed in the hand, fingers and thumb to impart the spin. 

My suggestion therefore is, over the winter you get yourself a smaller lighter ball - you could start with a tennis ball and start flicking the ball out of your flingers in the manner required. The technique is to grip the ball as indicated above. You can grip with either one finger, two or three over the top of the ball - whatever feels good for you. Most people find that the power to impart the spin comes off of the middle finger. If you're confused to how you actually perform the action - it is the exact same physical action as clicking your fingers to a music beat - except that there's a ball between the finger and thumb!

Do this all the time - start with a small ball - maybe even a table tennis ball? Do it with apples, oranges - anything as long as you're able to give it a good click! You might find that initially you have no control over where it goes, but in time, it eventually starts to come out of the hand in the direction that you want it to. At this stage start to visualise and practice the release and arm position, thinking about how you'll bowl it.

Do this over the winter consistently and that part of the action will be in place, all you'll need to do in winter nets is tie the release action to your bowling action. It should be relatively pain free.

* I wouldn't take any notice of any of the stories you read about people taking 5 years to develop their flippers, I went from trying it for the first time to pretty much having the basics nailed in about a week (That was a week off from work - a few hours a day).

The image here is the version I describe as being the bog standard Flipper, this goes down with a vertical seam with back-spin. On hitting the wicket it might do one of several things. If you can hold your nerve and bowl it slowly, it can stall massively with the back-spin That method used as a variation amongst Top-Spinners or over-spun Leg-Breaks can be very effective.

Homework - Gibbs reflective practice

Cricket Homework

So, in the manner of professionals across all sorts professions and disciplines that require reflection in order to force and encourage improvement I've done a couple of things.

1. Peer review; I had a practice in the paddock last night and went about it in a particular way. I didn't warm up with a pre-bowl, I just went straight in as though the captain and had thrown me the ball in a game and said "It's your spell now". I bowled 75 balls one after another and video'd it - the good, bad and the ugly. I then edited only the walking back to my mark sequence and then uploaded the vid over night to Youtube and here it is...

In less than 24 hours I've had a number of responses to it, some of which is very insightful. I've also just loaded it up to my Google + page and asked for Stuart Macgill to have a look at and comment on it with the idea that he may be able to give me some additional advice or tips.

2. Reflective practice; This is where you look at what you do, how you do it and analyse if there are ways in which you can make improvements. I use this at work in a couple of situations. I have to reflect on what I do as a part of my professional development and practice and like many people do this in a formal way at least once a year. But I also do it in a less formal way and use it more frequently to review my practice at key points in the year in my job as a photography lecturer. But I also use it in conjunction with the students work. I and my colleagues get them to use this model to review their own work at key stages and it actually works.

The model we use is the Gibbs model...

How it's used...

Simply write up the headings starting at the top and work round the headings writing up a response. A few sentences is usually sufficient, but different people approach it in slightly different ways...

Description What happened?

Having prepared the paddock, I took the opportunity to have a bowl. I decided to not warm up with an over or two, but went straight into it bowling 75 balls one after another with no rest. This was to test how fit I am and whether I've got any stamina at 52 years old.

Feelings What were you thinking and feeling?

I was relatively positive, because I've been doing a little exercise here at home and I feel relatively fit and healthy and the bowling I did in the winter nets wasn't that bad. In addition towards the end of last season, I'd begun to tie down how it was I was going to run-up and approach the crease.

Evaluation What was good and bad about the experience?

Good aspects included the fact that I didn't get that tired. Others included the fact that my wrong-un comes out well and looks to be fairly accurate and consistent. Another is that my arm seems to be coming over at speed, with a lot more energy than the last couple of years and yet there are no indications that I'm straining the my shoulder. Bad, included the first 6 balls were very messy and a high proportion of the balls went leg-side throughout the 75 deliveries. Reading the feedback on Youtube, one of the things I am doing which is a negative aspect is that I'm not running in straight and therefore the energy is not being 100% directed at the target.

Analysis What sense can you make of the situation?

In comparison with last year at this time, there's a considerable difference and it appears that the recommendations that people have made through reviewing my videos has made a difference for the better. There have been people that have said at different times that I try and do too many things in these training sessions and that I should focus on one or two aspects that my have an affect that is positive.

Conclusion What else could you have done?

 Maybe get in the zone slightly more and bowl with more focus, without getting wound up and tense. I could have had a wicket keeper or someone look at the bowling and feeding back there an then, but only Joe would do that and he's a bit young to keep to me at this stage.

Action Plan If it arose again what would you do?

In the next session I'm going to put a target down which wont get knocked out of the way if the balls hit it and I'm going focus on the following aspects...

1. Out of the bound land with the foot side-ways to get the body side-on.
2. Have the leg coming through rather than swining around the pivot foot.
3. Regulate the length of the run-in by putting a marker down and work on trying to keep everything straight going towards the target.

Hopefully I'll get this done tomorrow night.

http://www.listofphotographers.blogspot.co.uk/


Check out my other blog here - this is all about Leg-spin bowling and nothing else. Double click on the image below.

 

 

Amol Rajan - The Twirlymen - Flippers

I've had Rajan's book The Twirlymen quite some time now and only read a little of it, but I've currently got a bit of time on my hands and I've been reading it and gradually getting through it. The book has got some really good stuff on The Flipper and its history which is all new to me, and makes complete sense, but the stuff where he explains what a Flipper is and how different people bowl the flipper and who bowled what variations when - hmmm I'm not so sure. I'm making notes on the bits that I think he's got wrong and I'll be cross referencing with Grimmetts info and stuff that Grimmett has discusssed with Ashley Mallett. One bit I had to smile at was his claim that the Off-Spinning Flipper had never been realised even by Grimmett. On page 185 he makes the point that Grimmett didn't invent the Flipper and that a number of other commentators falsely have accredited the delivery to Grimmett. He goes on to make a very reasonable point that the Flipper precedes Grimmet by many decades, but seemingly misses the point or at least fails to emphasise what it is that Grimmett did for the Flipper. The Flipper was introduced to Grimmett by Geroge Simpson Hayward, who I may have said previously elsewhere played for Essex, but I think the story is that Grimmett met him Essex, although I'm not 100% sure about that either. But GSH was one of the last under-arm bowlers and in 'Lob Bowling' spin had been imparted on the ball using the now familiar Flipper Click for decades. Through the discussion with GSH Grimmett saw that there was potential to take the Under-arm Flipper - over arm. Grimmett was an exponent of practicing all of the conventional wrist spin variations under-arm in order to explore the nuances of wrist position and its affect on the ball (Philpotts round the loop). So, seeing the George Simpson Hayward Flipper being bowled in different wrist positions to produce leg, off, stop and back-spin he saw that there was resonance with the conventional wrist spin variations and how they are produced with differing wrist angles.

So, yes Rajan is correct in that Grimmett never invented the click motion with the fingers, but Grimmett was the bloke that took it over-arm and turned it into the variations we see today. What is interesting in Rajans account on page 185 is the tract of text where he seems to be quoting Grimmett. In the text Grimmett seems to be explaining that he never unleashed any of his Flippers until he had them fully under -control and that the one that he went with, was the Off-Spinning Flipper, primarily it seems in order to negate having to bowl The Wrong Un, which according to Rajan Grimmett felt was physically demanding and likely to cause injury. Additionally Grimmett preferred this Flipper because it came out of the front of the hand like the Leg Break and reduced the potential for the Googly Syndrome.

My understanding from reading 'Getting Wickets' 1930 was that Grimmetts preferred option was in fact the Top-Spinning variation which was noted by Bradman later, but in 1930 at the time of publication all of the Flippers with the exception of the Flying Saucer variation (Benaud) were in development still and it would be a long time before Grimmett used one in first class cricket.

So the question for me is three-fold.........

1. Was the Off-spinning Flipper Grimmetts preferred variation?
2. Was The Top-Spinning variation ever used and is this the one that Bradman recognised and commented on as his Mystery Ball?
3. Who first described the Flying Saucer Flipper?

Note to self - Read Grimmetts 'Tricking the Batsman'.