Do you think bowling or batting is the harder skill to learn?

[TheJediBrah]

Oh and wicket-keeping (properly) is far harder both physically and technically than any fielding position*. Ridiculous comparison.


*for the vast majority of people, rare exceptions possibly being the best of the best professionals eg. Rhodes, Ponting

 

[sledger]

neither are especially difficult

 

[TheJediBrah]

Yea TJB's frustrations seem to stem from his own inherent lack of pace bowling talent, mired with a self loathing based on the fact that he has a natural aptitude for finger spin.

Actually a bit of truth to this. I was a gun fast bowler until about 13-14 then my growth spurt just ruined it and I wasn't flexible enough to do it well. Respect guys like Tremlett who could do what they did.

Then about the same time just said **** it try bowling some off-spin and some junior coaches who get excited every time a kid can get drift & turn with a decent swivel action put my in rep squads after I'd been bowling spin for less than a month. Got too lazy even for that though so took up keeping for a good 5 years.

Also seen many a hack finger-spinner in grade cricket and club cricket take bulk wickets with very little effort or skill. Genuinely think it's not until high levels of Grade cricket that you get proper good players of spin.

All this could also be heavily influenced by batsmen in Australia just being terrible at playing spin tbh

 

[Starfighter]

I'm on TJB's side. At the lowest levels of cricket, once you get beyond 'can get the ball down the other end consistently', finger spin is easier to be effective, probably because playing spin takes more though from the batsmen. I've seen plenty of teams self-destruct against 60 km/h straight-breaks, never seam up at the same pace. Many poor bowlers have a skewed action and wrist position that makes it surprisingly hard to bowl seam up with any control.

 

[Hurricane2]

Bowling is way harder to learn
I read bob woolmers text book on cricket last year and was shocked by how little of the basics I knew about bowling

For example he explained why a cricket ball swings and it has nothing to do with one side being shiny

Yet hardly anyone knows this
He explained about back foot landing positions at the crease at the danger of coaching a kid to have a mixed action
None of my fellow club cricketers know any of this

Bowling is an science that hardly anyone understands the nuances except at top levels

 

[TheJediBrah]

Bowling is way harder to learn
I read bob woolmers text book on cricket last year and was shocked by how little of the basics I knew about bowling

For example he explained why a cricket ball swings and it has nothing to do with one side being shiny

Yet hardly anyone knows this
He explained about back foot landing positions at the crease at the danger of coaching a kid to have a mixed action
None of my fellow club cricketers know any of this

Bowling is an science that hardly anyone understands the nuances except at top levels

you don't think you could say much the same about batting?

 

[Daemon]

I don't play at that low a level okay Recently took the wicket of a HK U16 / future HK U19 player!

Haha dw I'm a garbage cricketer, I was just good as a kid but fell off massively once the other kids got bigger. Important thing is to look good aesthetically so people think you can play. That way you can fraud your way into playing higher levels than you should be in the short term.

 

[TheJediBrah]

Haha dw I'm a garbage cricketer, I was just good as a kid but fell off massively once the other kids got bigger. Important thing is to look good aesthetically so people think you can play. That way you can fraud your way into playing higher levels than you should be in the short term.

You must really love the game. You know a lot about cricket for someone who claims not to be much good at it. More knowledgable than some professional cricketers I've come across.

 

[Hurricane2]

you don't think you could say much the same about batting?

No not in my view Jedibrah.

Batting is better taught and better coached.

I was taught on a week long coaching clinic about batting by Jon Parker former NZ test captain. It was all straight forward stuff not really any surprises from what my school coaches were teaching me and he said he did tuition to the national blackcaps side at the time and they discussed batting in the same constructs that he used with us as 15 year olds.
1) How to grip the bat
2) Importance of a goodback lift and what is a good back lift
3) How to hold your head in your stance (keeping your eyers parralel to the ground)
4) The importance of forward momentum in your weight transfer and leading with your head in your body flow rather than your feet. "Your feet will follow your head, don't move your feet like a robot hoping good things will happen, they should move as a consequence of your head and upper body moving into the correct position first".

Its all stuff you learn from any coach as a 13 or 14 year old player.

Bowling hardly anyone understands except the FC level coaches and players.

But my view is biased as I was a batsman and didn't spend much time researching bowling in my career while spent hours thinking about everything involved with batting.

So just my opinion I guess that bowling is a dark art that few know.

 

[karan_fromthestands]

This means it’s easier doesn’t it..

Takes up less energy = easier? Nope. We have to to look at it skill-wise.

 

[TheJediBrah]

No not in my view Jedibrah.

Batting is better taught and better coached.

I was taught on a week long coaching clinic about batting by Jon Parker former NZ test captain. It was all straight forward stuff not really any surprises from what my school coaches were teaching me and he said he did tuition to the national blackcaps side at the time and they discussed batting in the same constructs that he used with us as 15 year olds.
1) How to grip the bat
2) Importance of a goodback lift and what is a good back lift
3) How to hold your head in your stance (keeping your eyers parralel to the ground)
4) The importance of forward momentum in your weight transfer and leading with your head in your body flow rather than your feet. "Your feet will follow your head, don't move your feet like a robot hoping good things will happen, they should move as a consequence of your head and upper body moving into the correct position first".

Its all stuff you learn from any coach as a 13 or 14 year old player.

Bowling hardly anyone understands except the FC level coaches and players.

But my view is biased as I was a batsman and didn't spend much time researching bowling in my career while spent hours thinking about everything involved with batting.

So just my opinion I guess that bowling is a dark art that few know.

I wonder how much of this difference is due to injury risk. As in it's more important to get all the intricacies of bowling right because if you don't you can really hurt yourself whereas having a bit of a weird batting technique isn't really going to hurt you as long as you have a good eye

 

[trundler]

I wonder how much of this difference is due to injury risk. As in it's more important to get all the intricacies of bowling right because if you don't you can really hurt yourself whereas having a bit of a weird batting technique isn't really going to hurt you as long as you have a good eye

Says someone who has never thunked a forward defence into the plums

 

[mr_mister]

I too remember at junior cricket training batting getting so much more technical with regards to the coaches. I think the most ever attention we got with bowling was him dropping a round marker on off stump on a good length and making us try to pitch the ball there

With batting I remember practicing every shot every week, having the right grip and stance drilled into us, being told about hitting bad balls and blocking good ones.

Bowling it's just try not to bowl wides. I never even used a run up marker and still did completely fine. I feel like batting is inherently more fun and everyone including the coaches know it. I guess they expect you'll naturally pick it up bowling in the nets long enough

I feel like fielding and catching practice even got more attention than bowling

 

[Kirkut]

Both are difficult in their unique ways.

Fast bowling requires natural physical ability and lots of strength conditioning. Spin bowling needs very advanced skills.

Batting is a very mental game and most merciless of all the cricketing arts. Bowlers can come back in a test match after a bad spell, for batsmen an error in judging the line of the ball could end test careers.

 

[smash84]

As stated, depends on the level.

When starting out, bowling is definitely harder. It takes some practice to be able to bowl round arm without straightening the arm. With batting, you can just easily mimic how to hold the bat and then try to line it up against the approaching ball.

 

[SillyCowCorner1]

To me, bowling was much easier to learn...I can just run up to turn my arms over...while batting was hard because there wasn't anyone to bowl at me much...I used to put a ball inside a sock and tie it to the branch of a mango tree...and that's how I would 'bat'....didn't like it.

But then I got older to go out to the ballfield to play cricket with the other kids...batting got better and it was fun.

 

[Kirkut]

FWIW I find pace/seam/swing bowling easier too. Bowling genuine pace is hard and not everyone can do it, but not everyone can impart a lot of spin on the ball with accuracy either. But basically any human being can get the ball to seam or swing, really takes nothing special.

Whatever little cricket that I had played with the tennis ball long time ago as a pastime, I remember that I could get the ball to drift in the air like a sine wave and got batsmen clean bowled in the nets.

I have no idea how I did it, just bowled gun barrel straight and everything else happened automatically.

 

[smash84]

Whatever little cricket that I had played with the tennis ball long time ago as a pastime, I remember that I could get the ball to drift in the air like a sine wave and got batsmen clean bowled in the nets.

I have no idea how I did it, just bowled gun barrel straight and everything else happened automatically.

You likely weren't taping the ball properly. You need to have the ball covered with tape properly on all sides to prevent it from moving around in the air like that. I would know, because that was standard practice to "reverse" the tape ball in street cricket in pakistan and the umpires would be on the lookout for it .

 

[Kirkut]

You likely weren't taping the ball properly. You need to have the ball covered with tape properly on all sides to prevent it from moving around in the air like that. I would know, because that was standard practice to "reverse" the tape ball in street cricket in pakistan and the umpires would be on the lookout for it .

Tape ball cricket is in my to do list for sure!

 

[Pup Clarke]

Batting by a long long way