Subtle Variation - Leg Break bowling

This is just an idea, which might work for some people.

Even though I've now been bowling this stuff for 7 years I'm still learning all the time and I'm still trying to figure out ways to improve. My action seems to change from one season to another, although this season I felt a lot more relaxed and I tried not to tweak what I was doing at the end of the season last year and it does seem to have worked.

There's a few things I know I can do to make small adjustments to my bowling that make a significant difference. One of these is to consciously get right up on my toes when I'm pivoting. Because I don't do it to the extent that perhaps I should, when I do so, it does increase the risk of my bowling being slightly more wayward, but it is recognisably effective in that it spins far more, turns off the wicket far better and often with more bounce.

The conclusion therefore is...

(1). A small adjustment in what you do with your foot e.g. get up onto your toes may make a significant difference to what the ball does at the business end. What you are doing, when you do this (potentially) is bracing your leg in your pivot, this also gives you marginally more height.

(2). Conversely, if you're someone who bowls leg breaks in a way that is very consistent and you feel that you want to vary it in some way, you could possibly try the opposite - reduce the rise up on to the toes to produce a ball that spins less? I know this goes against the grain in terms of what you're told about the pivot, but it may work for you and might be worth looking at as a subtle variation?

Field settings

Field settings.

I'm just on the internet at the moment discussing field settings for Wrist Spinners and needed to upload a diagram of this one here. It's discussing the approach whereby you leave a dirty great gap in the field (The hatched section) to encourage the batsman to hit the ball through there. In this instance - I'd be bowling on an off-stump line trying to encouarage the batsman to drive the ball through that area with a straight bat. With the ball going away from the edge of the bat with turn off the wicket (leg breaks) at some point I'm going to find an edge? I suspect that such a radical field would only be used on tail-enders, but I'll see what the others on the forum say...

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.

 

 

More thoughts on Drift

Here's some thoughts on Drift over at a forum I started

I don't know what it is Gundalf: perhaps something to do with the 2-piece balls Sean uses for practice. The seam is quite prominant. Maybe the ball surface has other characteristics that make it behave that way.

Dave, you'll probably get your head around it more if you consider that the Magnus effect is at its maximum when the ball is moving through the air perpendicularly to the axis of rotation. I've recently been writing about drift and it'll be here with images and diagrams hopefully illustrating what's going on with http://www.mpafirsteleven.blogspot.co.uk/2014/12/wrist-spin-bowling-leg-break.html
30th Dec 2015


Taken at one extreme (top spin) the axis of rotation is horizontal and across the pitch, so the ball is being forced down throughout its flight.

At the other extreme of pure side spin, the axis of rotation is along the pitch and the Magnus effect is not active while the ball is moving essentially parallel to that axis of rotation (ie the first "flat" portion of flight). It is only when the downward component of the flight starts to increase that the magnus effect comes into play in this case. As the vertical speed of the ball increases in the later part of the flight, the ball will start to move towards the leg side (for a RH leggie) because the ball is now moving perpendicularly to the axis of rotation more quickly.

For a 45 degree angle on the seam, there is a component of the Magnus effect working throughout the flight of the ball, but it's higher on the downward path of the delivery than the initial upward and flat path.

Because the downward path of the flight is so vital for drift on a side spinning and 45 degree spinning ball, it's imperitive that a good loopy flight is offered. Without that initial upward and subsequent flatter component to the delivery, there will be no late drift in the flight (there may be constant drift, but it won't be significant nor particularly tricky to handle).

It all comes down to the flow of air ACROSS the axis of rotation.

To get drift from a ball that will also turn off the pitch, there must be a loopy flight so that downward speed has a chance to increase during the delivery. It's the change in vertical speed that alters the drift in the air for a side-spinning delivery.

Cheers,
Graeme

Read more: http://spin-bowling.boards.net/index.cgi?board=discussions&action=display&thread=22&page=1#ixzz28byO84YA

I'm still struggling to get my head round drift, but this explanation is quite interesting. The interesting thing I picked up on was the dynamics of the drop from the trajectory and the fact that the 'Drop' aspect adds a different dimention. I've not got time at the minute to try and digest the info and make sense of it, but I may come back to it at some point later.

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