New year, a new action - problems with straying down leg

[wellAlbidarned]

The head must drop away to necessitate a high bowling arm because your lead arm is heading off-target, taking your upper body with it.

If you plotted a 3D graph of where your right hand went it would be heading in an arc down towards fine leg - even long leg somewhere. Your shoulder then opens out, and if you want that high bowling arm your head has to drop.

Contrast that to the alignment of Brett Lee's non-bowling arm in this video: DETAILED Brett Lee Bowling Action Slow mo. - YouTube

Cheers, Neil. Yeah I spent training today trying to keep my head up but my action felt awful and jerky. I'll try work in the front arm focus with that.

[Goughy]

I have been thinking about this issue.

Your feet bother me a lot.

Your backfoot is landing parallel to the crease which screams side on action.

But your front foot is landing to the right of your back foot's heel which gives you an open action.

This sounds like one of those mixed actions we talk about.

Perhaps you can experiment with your back foot landing at a 45 degree angle.

Then at least both your feet would be consistent with an open action.

Anyway I feel a bit nervous of giving you advice because if I steer you wrong your back could end up misaligned and you will be injured.

You may be seriously better off talking to your club captain and getting them to bring in a bowling coach to look at you for 20 minutes.

Most clubs have good connections.

Hope that helps.

Having backfoot parallel to crease is a great way to get full hip and body rotation and get pace.

What you describe isnt what we would typically call a mixed action.

[Hurricane]

Having backfoot parallel to crease is a great way to get full hip and body rotation and get pace.

What you describe isnt what we would typically call a mixed action.

You probably know more about bowling than I would as I am a batsman. So this is a genuine question - wouldn't landing your backfoot parallel to the crease (which he isn't doing he says) and bowling open chested be a mixed action?

[wellAlbidarned]

Fair Dues then - the iPod was a fair distance away from your delivery stride. Try the head then.

On a completely different note as you are the only person I know who is interested in bowling techniques. I have been experimenting with holding the ball near the end of my fingers rather gripping the ball snugly. It makes me snap my wrist much more and get more seam movement.

I also have been experimenting with bowling open chested vs side on and surprisingly I get a bit of out swing when I go open chested I think because I need to be more round arm to get through my action.

I've always held it in the tips. It you hold it too deep you lose a lot of the pace from the wrist flick, though probably get a bit more backspin. Dropping the arm just a touch definitely aids the wrist position for outswing too so can be done from a front on action. Need to work on keeping myself a bit more compact as a left armer though as any inswing I get tends to push the ball further down leg. Wish I was a right armer sometimes.

[Goughy]

You probably know more about bowling than I would as I am a batsman. So this is a genuine question - wouldn't landing your backfoot parallel to the crease (which he isn't doing he says) and bowling open chested be a mixed action?

Not if you clear the front leg and have it pointing towards the batsman in an open chested position. If you have the front foot also closed then that is an issue - see Flintoff

Brilliant Ishant

Surprisingly Quick For A Part-Timer

A mixed action is frequently when the feet are open but the chest is closed - ie a right arm quick looking outside his left arm over his shoulder. The second link I posted shows someone doing this.