Home Pitch and or Home practice by yourself?
 

Hello,

Two rolled into one here a bit, but how have people gone about being able to practice at home? I'm more of a bowler and was thinking I might invest in a 'half pitch' mat and a net when I'm working full time (but that won't be for at least 12 months).

How have people gone about creating lawn pitches? have you bought portable nets (and where from, how much $$)? My yard isn't too big anyway, so I wouldn't be able to do my natural run up :(

I've looked into the bowling machines and the cheapest I could find was about $3400 without a auto ball feeder, has anyone tried building there own with bike tires and a chain saw motor or something like that?

Sorry lots of questions.

I bowl using a hockey ball on a tarmac path. The bounce is realistic, hockey balls will swing but not too much and the best bit is that the tarmac path churns up the hockey ball when it bounces, leaving loads of white specks on the path giving you a pitch map without the need for technology.

The closest I came to a home net was the concrete driveway.

Open the gates and bowl from the middle of the road. Sometimes Id have a good net with decent players. Mostly Id get the local kids to bowl with the offer of a pound if they got me out. Both with full pads and cricket ball.

Ive lost count of the number of hours I spent throwing either a cricket ball, tennis ball or golf ball against a wall for batting practice. I think that may be where my short backlift is from as there isnt time to throw the ball, get both hands on the bat and get a high backlift when you are only a few yards away from the wall.

I remember doing that as a kid.

I also had a cricket ball in a sock tied to a tree branch, and I would just hit it for hours. To make it interesting, I pretended I was batting as the Australian team against another team, usually england or whoever was playing Australia at the time.

ie for Harmison, I would throw the ball in the sock really high, to make it come down fast, for hoggard I threw it at an angle, so it would curl and swing away from me when it came back.

As for bowling I would recommend if you are doing serious training, do it on a full length pitch or measure it out or something.

yeah there is the drive way I guess. I may need to just keep driving around to nets.

A hockey ball swinging??

Yeah, the one i have isn't one of those dimpled ones but a smooth one.

Definitely have thought about it. My brother and I would like to get a bowling machine, but we don't have the money nor the expertise to build one. My father seems to have all the knowledge required, but he is one of those people who thinks everything anyone else is doing is insignificant and therefore won't help us out with it.

I might just have to nag him, or do some serious research myself.

Yeah i'm not a wizz with a welder and my brother is pretty busy these days. I 'could' make
the frame out of wood I guess.

A chainsaw motor would be really easy, but really an electric motor would be the go (for noise considerations) but I wouldn't quite know 'what' to look for, or 'where' to look.

Do you think an electric motor would be powerful enough though? (I'm not taking a swipe, I'm seriously curious, I only know how to make some pretty weak ones.)

I'll do some research as soon as I get a few things done around the house which will take a few hours and I'll post my findings.

Yeah, the Australian Made JUGS bowling machine is electric.

lol, me or the neighbours would go crazy I think hearing a chainsaw motor 5-6 hours a week. On the other hand, you could build a bowling machine with like 100-200 bucks using a chainsaw motor. An auto feeder is also a problem. My brothers dad is an engineer, I should ask him 'about' it.

Yeah, that could be a good idea. I found some information on wikipedia (I know, not reliable, but I've heard all of this before, so it sounds right).

Wikipedia Bowling Machine

They seem really quite simple. If you are willing to buy the parts necessary to build one, with a little bit of experience or smarts about you, I think you should be able to build a Mechanical Bowling Machine quite easily. You would just have to stick with it.

EDIT:
The principle at which it works on seems very simple - Load ball into two spinning wheels and watch it go.
Think about it, two wheels on a tripod. Probably best to be able to twist it horizontally for angle (to represent bowling over/around the wicket) and to twist vertically for the correct bounce.

http://img266.imageshack.us/img266/7...machineqm0.png


Also, being homemade, I'd recommend rather than feeding the ball straight through, having a place to put the ball so it can roll into the chute, just for a bit more safety.

This has developed into something pretty good.

Would love to know how people go on making their own.

If you do, please report the findings back here as it may get others like myself off their backsides and do the same.

My 'electronics engineering student' friend rekons to get a cheap washing machine and rip the motor out. That should be quiet and cheap.

Well...
 

Well i do something many of you may never have though of, or be able to so. I live on a farm in country south australia, our track leading to our house from the road is clay and rock bashed down, i have made a bit if a pitch our of smooth clay (from where the clay cam from for our track, on our farm also). I wet it down a bit, not too sloppy and i smooth it out on the track and walah! you have yourself a smooth pitch.

I wears out, like turf and also has similar bounce as turf and you can also get a bit of cracking. I have a net where you throw the ball at ans it rebounds back.

I wont be using it as much since im borrowing a (very) old bowling machine, none of your two discs, itso ne long pipe that sping around inside a cage haha, well its somethin isnt it.