Gutted, somehow I've lost my adverts, so I'm not getting paid for my blogging at the minute and I've just realised that I can increase my income through blogging my writing entries like this one - ah well never mind, I'll have to try and figure out how to reinstate my ads.
So, on our joint Christmas present list was the 'Sidearm Pro'..
Which as you can see is like one of those things you see people chucking balls around for dogs. But these things which retail for around £30 here in the UK are longer and more rigid in the arm than your cheap dog jobs and enable old gits and spin bowlers to get their own back when using against seam bowlers (My Older son Ben). If you've seen people on fields with the Dog versions of these you wouldn't immediately see that they'd have any real application in cricket, but if you check this link here you'll see that they have very useful applications in cricket training, primarily bowling, but if you look at the other side arm links on Youtube you'll see that its usable in fielding and wicket keeping too. http://www.youtube.com/watchv=FXrpbpXuZ7w&feature=related
We've only had it a few days and I've been practicing with it for probably an hour now just using a single ball and I'm able to get the ball within inches of the off-stump fairly regularly. Ben my older son has also got the hang of it quickly and its going to be a boon to him as neither my younger son Joe or I can bowl any where near quick and as a result Bens batting skills are limited. Hopefully, if both Joe and I get the hang of using the side-arm our batting is going to improve?
One of things that seems to be implied with the Sidearms is that the pro version is only usable with cricket balls but we've been using it perfectly well with windballs and hockey balls and I'd say that if you were going to get one go for the pro version which seems to give you more options.
You can get them from here
This afternoon I had a go on my own with a bucket of 12 hockey balls and that went really well. With a little more practice I'm going to be pretty adept at using this Side Arm, I just need to get Ben and Joe using it as well so that I can face some fast stuff! It'll be interesting to see if these turn up at the club as they seem to be pretty useful bits of kit. The only thing is, they negate the need for a bowler, so if one of these was being used in a net, it would deny bowlers the opportunity to have a bowl. They're really batting training specific, so in the context of a club situation they would possibly deny bowlers the chance to have a bowl?
Check out my other blog here - this is all about Leg-spin bowling and nothing else. Double click on the image below.
Check out my other blog here - this is all about Leg-spin bowling and nothing else. Double click on the image below.
