Leg spin bowling

[vic_orthdox]

One other thing to ensure that you are doing is pull your front arm down straight, and in line with where you want to bowl. Don't pull it across your body. This is something very important, and will ensure that you get the best shape possible. It should be a strong focus of your stationary work, if you think that it is an issue.

[Number 11]

Since this has become the Leg Spinnning thread, i'll ask my questions here. I've been wrist spinning for about a week and have a few questions.
How to you acheive lots of bounce? ie. over waist height.
How do you stop people batting out of thier crease and charging down the pitch too you?
Any tips for getting extra spin?

Thanks.

[NZ Guy]

Originally Posted by Number 11

Since this has become the Leg Spinnning thread, i'll ask my questions here. I've been wrist spinning for about a week and have a few questions.
How to you acheive lots of bounce? ie. over waist height.
How do you stop people batting out of thier crease and charging down the pitch too you?
Any tips for getting extra spin?

Thanks.

Bounce increases as overspin increases, however this will cause side spin to decrease.
Probably more pace in the air, if they're going to charge you just fire it wide.
vice versa too bounce.

with the bounce thing im not sure there must be a way of increasing bounce without sacrificing side spin.

My question is what is a good length? I know your supposed to make them drive but on a normal pitch in terms of metres what should I be aiming for?

[Dan]

Originally Posted by NZ Guy

Bounce increases as overspin increases, however this will cause side spin to decrease.
Probably more pace in the air, if they're going to charge you just fire it wide.
vice versa too bounce.

with the bounce thing im not sure there must be a way of increasing bounce without sacrificing side spin.

My question is what is a good length? I know your supposed to make them drive but on a normal pitch in terms of metres what should I be aiming for?

It depends on how much bounce you get. I aim around 2-3 metres from the crease. You just need to keep it full enough that it a) has time to turn and b) doesn't allow the batsman to rock back and pull or cut you for 4.

On a completely unrelated and strange note, my 2 wickets on the weekend were both from absolute rubbish long hops.

[Westgate LegEnd]

New to the forum guys, so dont be brutal with me!

I am however a qualified coach (level 2).

Didnt learn much bout leg spin, cos its hard, so they only really showed us off spin.

i have bowled some leg spin in games though (all maidens, no wickets). i found the ball spun best with me, when i had my third finger on the seam, the odea beeing to rip the seam off that finger. didnt take me many attempts to get that down and the ball going square.

I believe that its a mix of the arm action and wrist action that helps the ball spin. i have tried googlys, but found i cant get my wrist round enough and just hurt myself.

just thought id put my pennys worth in there

[someblokedave]

Originally Posted by Westgate LegEnd

New to the forum guys, so dont be brutal with me!

I am however a qualified coach (level 2).

Didnt learn much bout leg spin, cos its hard, so they only really showed us off spin.

i have bowled some leg spin in games though (all maidens, no wickets). i found the ball spun best with me, when i had my third finger on the seam, the odea beeing to rip the seam off that finger. didnt take me many attempts to get that down and the ball going square.

I believe that its a mix of the arm action and wrist action that helps the ball spin. i have tried googlys, but found i cant get my wrist round enough and just hurt myself.

just thought id put my pennys worth in there

The third finger on the seam is pretty much essential, when you get it right you'll feel it primarily coming off that finger to the point where many people get blisters. I wouldn't worry about the wrong-un just yet if you're just starting out concentrate in getting the ball on a line and length of your choice. It normally will take you hours and hours of practice over months and possibly years to get it right, but in the short term you'll still take wickets if you're getting the ball to spin.

The action is a mixture of a multitude of things, hips, shoulders, arm, wrists, fingers. Keep at it, once you start getting it right consistently you'll probably find you'll be one of the biggest wicket takers in your team.

[stephen]

Originally Posted by someblokedave

many people get blisters.

Actually I found that there was so much pressure on the tip of my middle finger that my nail cut into my flesh, even when trimmed. There's a nice hard kallis on it now.

I think there are a few important things that every legspinner needs to have in order to be successful.

1) Practice. Lots of practice. A medium pace bowler can have one nets session per week and still be effective at club level. A leg spinner should be practicing every other day.

2) A consistant, replicatable action. This is key so that you can develop the accuracy you need so that you don't go for 8 runs an over. Your length is the most important thing to get right. If you're too full you'll be swept all day and if you're too short you'll be cut all day. A consistant action helps you keep your length right.

3) A loving captain. You are a legspinner. You will go for runs at times. It takes a captain that wants you to succeed for you to succeed.

4) The right pace. Long loopy slow spinners work well for getting out tail enders, but the better batsmen have the footwork and eye to play you consistantly unless you are bowling fast enough. For me, this ties back into point 2. You need a runup that assists you in getting the pace you need. The right pace is one at which you can bowl the ball just above eye level and it still land on the right length. The more turn you get the faster you have to be (the ball's revolutions will tend to drag it down, particularly if you are bowling a topspinner).

I found for me the key breakthrough in my bowling was to use my front leg as a pivot to really get the extra rip and speed on the ball. However I've been training for less than a month so my accuracy is still somewhere around the 50% mark, which is too low at this stage.

[stephen]

Does anyone have any advice on how to bowl to batsmen in gabbagrass nets? I always find that without the threat of losing their wicket to a stumping or a mistimed shot, batsmen are much more willing to use their feet.

Also, I have recently learned that I am fractionally overpitching while bowling. How do you adjust your length by small amounts as a leggy?

[someblokedave]

Originally Posted by stephen

Does anyone have any advice on how to bowl to batsmen in gabbagrass nets? I always find that without the threat of losing their wicket to a stumping or a mistimed shot, batsmen are much more willing to use their feet.

Also, I have recently learned that I am fractionally overpitching while bowling. How do you adjust your length by small amounts as a leggy?

With the over-pitching that's just a case of putting targets down and bowling to a target. Clarrie Grimmett used to set himself a task at the end of his practice sessions, where he'd put a hankerchief on the wicket and wouldn't allow himself to finish the session unless he'd hit it 5 times in succession! If you're a leggy you've just got to accept that what you do requires 3 x or more practice than anyone else.

With regards net sessions - yeah you're right it's far from realistic and you don't want to take a lot of notice what happens in the nets. I'd use it to work on things like your overpitching - bowl against some of the weaker batsmen that you know are not going to come down the net at you. What's you usual line when bowling your Leg Breaks?

[stephen]

Originally Posted by someblokedave

With the over-pitching that's just a case of putting targets down and bowling to a target. Clarrie Grimmett used to set himself a task at the end of his practice sessions, where he'd put a hankerchief on the wicket and wouldn't allow himself to finish the session unless he'd hit it 5 times in succession! If you're a leggy you've just got to accept that what you do requires 3 x or more practice than anyone else.

With regards net sessions - yeah you're right it's far from realistic and you don't want to take a lot of notice what happens in the nets. I'd use it to work on things like your overpitching - bowl against some of the weaker batsmen that you know are not going to come down the net at you. What's you usual line when bowling your Leg Breaks?

I'd love to have more daylight hours to practice in, but alas, I can generally only get in 45 minutes of training per day.

I have effectively not played cricket for a number of years, and am training at the moment for the winter season (I'm not in a summer team this season) and the next grade cricket season. Most of the training I'm doing is without a batsman as I tend to be rushing down to the nets after I get home from work to use the last hour of the day to train.

One exception was last Friday night where I had the opportunity to bowl to some second/third grade players from UQ (probably the strongest grade team in QLD), which is where I identified that I was overpitching slightly (the guys also suggested I needed to vary my pace a little bit more as I was a bit one dimensional in that respect).

I tend to find that batsmen come in two forms. 1) clueless or 2) good enough to hit/mistime the ball. Playing against the grade players was a valuable experience because it built a fair amount of confidence in me and taught me a number of lessons. I can't wait for the grade season now!

My natural line when bowling leg breaks is probably 10cm outside leg stump. I have been working on getting more of a leg stump line, but I'm happy enough at the moment seeing the ball turn well past the stumps (even in gabbagrass nets).

[Flem274*]

Hmm, just wondering, should i have a plan B?

Atm all I do is flight it up full and try to make it turn as much as I can. I throw in the odd straighter ball or one that goes the other way.

Should I have a few different ideas? I haven't played any club cricket yet, gonna hunt one down when I go back to uni. I'm not sure what to expect from batsmen in a game situation.

[stephen]

Originally Posted by Flem274*

Hmm, just wondering, should i have a plan B?

Atm all I do is flight it up full and try to make it turn as much as I can. I throw in the odd straighter ball or one that goes the other way.

Should I have a few different ideas? I haven't played any club cricket yet, gonna hunt one down when I go back to uni. I'm not sure what to expect from batsmen in a game situation.

From what the guys were telling me the other day, consistency will take more wickets than anything else, particularly when you're starting out. To dismiss higher class batsmen though you need to develop some form of variation. If, like me, you're just starting out then practice landing the ball in the right areas all the time.

Someone told me recently something which I found very insightful:
Amateurs practice until they get something right, professionals practice until they don't make mistakes.

[vic_orthdox]

Originally Posted by Flem274*

Hmm, just wondering, should i have a plan B?

Atm all I do is flight it up full and try to make it turn as much as I can. I throw in the odd straighter ball or one that goes the other way.

Should I have a few different ideas? I haven't played any club cricket yet, gonna hunt one down when I go back to uni. I'm not sure what to expect from batsmen in a game situation.

The best variations are the subtle ones. Try to be able to bowl heaps of different varieties of your stock ball. Things that you can change are the pace of it, where you deliver it from, more sidespin or overspin. Mastering those things are more important than your flipper/wrong'un/etc.

[Julian87]

Best leg spin coach I ever had fixed my bowling so much it wasn't funny. Was worried about bowling too slow as I went up the grades but what he said was right imo (unless yr bowling absolute lollipops). The pace through the air is fine, it can be slow, but you need the ball to zip off the wicket. Overspin helps this zip and I found that your action and rip through the crease helps this immensely. Front arm and back hip should never be ignored and still if I am ever a bit flat at the crease in the game I make a deliberate effort to get those things right and I generally start bowling better again.

[stephen]

Originally Posted by Julian87

Best leg spin coach I ever had fixed my bowling so much it wasn't funny. Was worried about bowling too slow as I went up the grades but what he said was right imo (unless yr bowling absolute lollipops). The pace through the air is fine, it can be slow, but you need the ball to zip off the wicket. Overspin helps this zip and I found that your action and rip through the crease helps this immensely. Front arm and back hip should never be ignored and still if I am ever a bit flat at the crease in the game I make a deliberate effort to get those things right and I generally start bowling better again.

I'd love a good legspin coach.

Every coach I had in juniors was terrible as far as spin was concerned.

The closest I had to a good spin coach was when I went to a Trevor Barsby clinic, and the only advice he had was to stop collapsing on my front leg.

So I'm mainly self taught, which is a shame. I think a couple of hours with Warney and I would improve a hundred fold.