Bowling actions?? why do people have trouble changing them

[mohammad16]

hey, i fell in love with cricket at a very young age in pakistan, ive always had decent natural talent as a crickter, im good at almost all sports and i liek all sports in general, specifically cricket basketball and soccer

now growing up i had faviorites obviosuly watching cricket, and im the type of person is is REALLY big on individual styles and stuff. For instance, growing up i liked saeed anwar alot, i thought he was by far the most stylish batsmen i have ever seen, i still believe that even tohugh as i have gotten more and more into cricket ive enjoyed watching brian lara emmensly. He is my fav player by far right now.

Anyways gworing up i was always a bowler, i used to bowl fast, first i used to bowl liek shoaib akhtar with a long run up and almost exactly the same bowling action and i was able to generate really good pace with ofcourse the tape ball.

i also started bowling leg spin, i used to turn the tape ball miles at a very young age, using a shane warne action but i can also use an afridi liek action to bowl much quicker versions of leg spin with decent turn.

Now as ive grown up, im not tall, only around 5'6 so i have given up fast bowling and i bowl leg spin, and owuld u believe it Muralitharan type Wrist offspin with a perfectly staight arm, ofcourse i dont get nowhere as much turn as murali but i get more then normal finger offspinners.

because of my height i am concentrating on batting now, and i am as good of a batsmen as i ever was a bowler.

Basically all I am saying is, right now, i can bowl with liek 10 bowling actions with complete easy, i can bowl a 6 bowl over with 6 completely differnt actions and still be accurate, i simply dont understand why internaational crickters dont try that, i no peopel say u should stick to one action, but raely ur action plays a very underrated role in the amount of swing u get. I usually bowl with a wasim akram like very quick action with a very short runup and generate good pace, i whenever i use a wasim akram action, i am able to generate more swing then say with a shoaib akhtar action.

I dont bowl fast at club level as my main job, but i do from time to time, now i do use the hard ball and thats pretty much how i play cricket.

I dont find it hard at all to swtich actions, u can give me any action of any bowler in international cricket, and itll take me 3 bowls max to copy it and use it. Im pretty sure its true for the rest of us, but i think bowlers which are not performing and have been kciekd out of teams for good should make drastic changes in thier actions.

[Goughy]

If ever there was an example of the benefit of youtube this is it.

Link please

[mohammad16]

link to what?

[silentstriker]

Originally Posted by mohammad16

link to what?

A video of you bowling.

[vic_orthdox]

Haha. Everyone feels different when they try to imitate someone, but really - you end up looking really similar.

Except for my Damien Fleming and Tom Moody impressions. They're bloody fantastic.

[mohammad16]

oh ok, i dont have a video camera and video capture card on my computer, but next time we play cricket ill try and get a video hopefully. but honestly im not lying bout this, i can really bowl with completely differnet actions, even if one is high up to side on. I dont see why this is hard to believe cuz i think alot of poepel should be able to do this

[andmark]

Well if you have a action which you are used to.Changing it would just be as hard as trying to bowl like warne.

[open365]

My theory is that some people (Like me) have less muscle memory and so it's easier to change.

I know exactly what you mean, only with me, i don't have very good accuracy at all so it's something i don't like.

It's a lot my own fault though, i can't stop trying to bowl like other cricketers i see, and then sometimes i just forget how to bowl completely.

I would try and stop early, it's not a good thing, slight variations are ok, but major action changes every ball aren't.

[Perm]

People get into a routine when they are bowling and their muscle responds according to this routine because they are doing the same action over and over again. When you try and change what you are doing then you find it hard because your muscles are used to doing something else and it will take a while to change, depending how long you have been using the action.

[adharcric]

Perm summed it up pretty well. If you establish a routine and go through it thousands of times in practice and in matches, it becomes very, very hard to dramatically change it.

In my case, I learnt cricket on my own in the US and didn't get any coaching; hence, I bowled off the wrong foot for several years and only had it pointed out to me after a year opening the bowling in league cricket. It's almost impossible for me to change now, so I'm content with being a decent seamer with a faulty action rather than a great one.

[Son Of Coco]

I'd say it's because you're much better off becoming very good with your normal action than average at 10 different actions. No offence intended, but if you get selected for an international team and bowl with 10 different actions I'll change my mind.

[honestbharani]

bowling actions are habits. Hence they are difficult to change.