Leg spin bowling

[Flem274*]

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.

Interesting. I bowl on a concrete driveway with a very old worn hardball and i get quite a bit of bounce and the ball quickens on pitching. Its concrete though, not a pitch. Still, I like the sound of it and its fun to watch.

[Julian87]

Originally Posted by stephen

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.

From what I have seen, the vast majority of spinners are self taught. You may pick up the basics off an amateur or level 1 coach at an early age but after that there is no real in between spin coaching. Cousins of mine and blokes I played with used to go to all of the clinics and what not, but most kids simply wouldn't have been able to afford it.

I went to Sydney straight after yr 12 and luckily walked into a club where the first grade captain is also an excellent batting and specifically leg spin bowling coach. I hadn't played extremely high levels of cricket but I'd played pretty competitively in Northern Country and what not and even then the coaching was almost solely game plans, fielding drills and net sessions. I improved with every session with him and he improved my younger brother's leg spin as ell. Those top notch coaches just pick up things that the generic level 2 coaches miss out on.

Another exercise I have seen help a lot of wrist spinners is a couple of step run up with one of those little hurdle/training step things placed just before delivery stride. Helps your back leg get up and through during delivery. Once you've got someone there slowing down your whole action it helps immensely.

[Julian87]

Originally Posted by Flem274*

Interesting. I bowl on a concrete driveway with a very old worn hardball and i get quite a bit of bounce and the ball quickens on pitching. Its concrete though, not a pitch. Still, I like the sound of it and its fun to watch.

Well once you start playing on some lower grade turf wickets they can be absolutely dead and really slow. Many spin a mile but unless it is quick/ripping spin it oft doesn't matter.

[Jim2109]

Originally Posted by stephen

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.

i was beginning to wonder if there was anyone good out there for leg spin coaching advice. ive been self-teaching since taking it up last year, plus discussing my action on internet forums and youtube. which has always brought up ideas, some which worked, some which didnt. you dont necessarily need a coach so long as you can analyse yourself. video helps a great deal.

however, last week i was at the nets (in the snow lol) practicing, and one of the clubs juniors coaches was there with his son practicing. and he gave me some advice on my action which seems like it may be absolutely spot on. i think there are certain aspects of a leg spinner that cant really be coached (everyone is different, so its hard to coach it from scratch), but a good coach can still spot flaws in an action, and advise on them (in my case my natural line is leg side, and the advice was about my feet and hip alignment at the point of delivery, which is too focussed to the leg side, hence the ball going there). i dont agree with coaches trying to specifically change things though. but it depends on the person. when you listen to Shane Warne talking to youngsters (e.g. Steve Smith for AUS), he never tells them "this is what you should do", merely "try doing this, or try doing that, this is what worked for me, etc". ultimately youve got to adapt the advice to fit your own natural action. whereas with batting and seam bowling things are a little more clear cut.

watch someone like Clarrie Grimmett, and if he was being coached nowadays he would get told to change just about everything in his action. but he is still arguably in the top 2 leg spinners of all time, along with Warne.

ultimately though you dont need coaching provided you can identify problems in your own bowling, and try out solutions. there is an excellent wrist spin thread on another forum where i have basically learnt everything i know thus far. without that my progress would be nowhere near as quick.

[stephen]

Thanks for the thoughts. I am really missing being able to get down to the nets - it's been raining all week up here in Brisbane. I figure that until I get some more game experience, I'm going to stick with just bowling the leg break.

I have noticed that a few of my leg breaks are rearing up off a length and surprising even very good batsmen. This is on concrete/gabbagrass pitches as well, so I am going to assume that I'm hitting the seam on a regular basis. I can see that particular variation being extremely effective in game situations too. When I say rearing up, I mean pitching normally and ending up around shoulder height. Obviously on turf I would never get that bounce, but what extra bounce I do get from that could be very useful anyway.