-
Welcome to the Cricket Web forums, one of the biggest forums in the world dedicated to cricket.
You are currently viewing our boards as a guest which gives you limited access to view most discussions and access our other features. By joining our free community you will have access to post topics, respond to polls, upload content and access many other special features. Registration is fast, simple and absolutely free so please, join the Cricket Web community today!
If you have any problems with the registration process or your account login, please contact us.
How do u bowl leg breaks???
- Thread starter Hit4Six
- Start date
Richard
Cricket Web Staff Member
It depends - if you're trying to bowl a wristspin there's no real secret - only a lucky minority can bowl it to the degree of accuracy required.Hit4Six said:Hey guys i was wondering if there was a particular secret or anything to bowling a leg break? ive been practicing for a few weeks now and it still doesnt seem to working
Bowling the actual ball isn't too difficult, it can't be, given that I can do it, but it's the accuracy that is the secret.
As GoT_SpIn suggests, it's easy if you're a left-arm fingerspinner to bowl a Leg-Break to a right-hander (even if it mostly won't turn much) but if, as I suspect, you're looking to bowl a Leg-Break to a right-hander as a right-armer, you need the wristspin action.
So just grip the ball lightly (don't hold it too tight) rotate the wrist, throw yourself a couple of catches while spinning the thing, then bowl it down the pitch.
If it doesn't work, you need to get someone to help you man-to-man - none of us can be much help there.
Tom Halsey
International Coach
Rubbish - trying to rip the ball there will give much better natural flight and it generally comes out better. Never advise to 'put' the ball on the spot, rather than 'spin' it there.benchmark00 said:
Tom Halsey
International Coach
Agree completely with the rest of the post, but I think it is a case of what suits you, because I've tried both the jog-up and the Warne, and I personally prefer the Warne by miles. I recently decided to try jogging up again,l and although I bowled a few goodies, the long-hops and full-tosses far dominate them and it just generally feel right.thierry henry said:
Tom Halsey
International Coach
Well I guess I'm a powerhouse too then.thierry henry said:
I build up momentum, just all in the delivery stride. I find it's alot easer to be relaxed in the run-up if I walk up. I suppose it's personal preference.
Tom Halsey
International Coach
Word. We need members!Pratyush said:
Langeveldt
Soutie
Legspin.. Its a tough one, but its what I do personally..
Watch, watch watch and watch Shane Warne again and again.. Its no secret that pretty much everyone else has been mimicking him...
Its hard to give you suggestions without seeing you personally.. I have done some work with Jenner and was up for Somerset U17 selection, but got pipped to the post by a probably superior offie for the spinners spot.. Anyway I play to quite a high standard and if you are ever in SW england, me and Neil Pickup are both good to rack the brains of... Neil is pretty impressive regarding the theory behind legspin..
I have a relaxed walk up to the crease from a slight angle, a la warne.. And then a strong arm action, high front elbow and a really strong pivot.. You need to be getting all the rotations you can..
Watch, watch watch and watch Shane Warne again and again.. Its no secret that pretty much everyone else has been mimicking him...
Its hard to give you suggestions without seeing you personally.. I have done some work with Jenner and was up for Somerset U17 selection, but got pipped to the post by a probably superior offie for the spinners spot.. Anyway I play to quite a high standard and if you are ever in SW england, me and Neil Pickup are both good to rack the brains of... Neil is pretty impressive regarding the theory behind legspin..
I have a relaxed walk up to the crease from a slight angle, a la warne.. And then a strong arm action, high front elbow and a really strong pivot.. You need to be getting all the rotations you can..
Tom Halsey
International Coach
I big pivot is needed to get maximum spin. I've often wondered if there comes a point where you spin it too much as a leggie. It means the only way you could hit the stumps is by pitching outside leg, which discounts LBW and bowled if the batsman is any good.
Anyway, any leggies here go over the wicket regularly? I find it a good way to make sure the action is working probably, and it's a decent way to get stumpings. However, once the batsman stops playing shots, it becomes a rather pointless exercise.
Carrying on from Rich's post, I'd also listen to Andre, as I've seen a few of his posts on wristspin, and knows his stuff.
Anyway, any leggies here go over the wicket regularly? I find it a good way to make sure the action is working probably, and it's a decent way to get stumpings. However, once the batsman stops playing shots, it becomes a rather pointless exercise.
Carrying on from Rich's post, I'd also listen to Andre, as I've seen a few of his posts on wristspin, and knows his stuff.
Neil Pickup
Cricket Web Moderator
This is probably a good time to give you a sneak preview of the Coaching section that's in the CricketWeb pipeline for launch in the coming weeks.
On the other side of the spinning spectrum, the wrist-spinner generates more turn and has more spectacular variations, but on the flip-side his action is far harder to master, resulting in less control and an increased risk of being expensive. Nonetheless, when at its best, wrist-spin is probably the hardest type of bowling in the game to confidently bat against. As its name suggests, this style of bowling uses the wrist – as well as the fingers – to impart the rotations that cause spin onto the ball, and because of the extra spinning forces generated thanks to the addition of the wrist into the action, a wrist spinner can make the ball rotate much more rapidly, and so can achieve much more turn.
A wrist spinner's basic grip is to hold the ball, with its seam horizontal, cupped in the first three fingers of their bowling hand, with the index and ring fingers roughly on opposite sides, and the middle finger fractionally closer to the index finger – resulting in all three fingers lying across the seam. It's perfectly normal for the thumb or the little finger to rest on the ball, but rare for either to do any actual work when it comes to spinning the ball. The hand action that imparts the spin itself is similar to that of the finger-spinner – the “turning a doorknob” motion – but since it's in the opposite direction (anti-clockwise for the right-handed leg-spinner, and clockwise for the left-handed chinaman bowler) and as such involves the wrist to a much greater extent, it's much more forceful. With practice, when the ball is spun the seam will remain in approximately the same position – resulting in achieving more grip and hence more turn as it lands.
Returning to the ever-trusty tennis ball, if you take it in the wrist-spinner's grip and simply lob it gently, underarm, into the air – remembering to include the hand action as it's released, you'll see it spin a significant amount either to your left (if you're right handed) or to your right (if you're a left-hander). A wrist-spinner's full action is generally closer to “front-on” than “side-on” – the bowler looks in front of his front arm (or between his two arms as they're raised) and the “imaginary lines” angle across the pitch in the direction of the covers and midwicket. As with finger-spin, it's important to “pivot” strongly on your front foot as you prepare to release the ball, and equally after your release to “drive” or follow through strongly with your back leg (the same side as your bowling arm). The bowling arm is generally vertical, or near-vertical, which allows the bowler to gain as much bounce as possible and get the ball above the batsman's eye-line more easily. It's not uncommon, however, for wrist-spinners to bowl with much flatter arms as either a natural action or simply as a variation.
The next section deals with variations, and for clarity's sake only considers the direction and names given to deliveries as bowled by right-handed wrist-spin bowlers (leg-spinners) – for a chinaman bowler, simply reverse the directions. The standard delivery described above is known as the leg-break, and turns across a right-handed batsman (on landing, the ball spins in the direction that it was rotating, see the off-spin section for a more detailed explanation). When released, the palm of the bowler's hand faces the batsman, and the back of the hand points down the ground towards long-on or long-off. A wrist-spinner can vary the position of his wrist, causing the ball to rotate in a different direction, with the end result that, after pitching, it spins in a different direction.
The simplest of a wrist-spinner's variations to bowl is the “slider”, which is bowled exactly as a standard leg-break, with the only exception being that the ball is gripped around the seam (as a fast bowler would), rather than across it. Whilst the ball still rotates in the same manner, it's far less likely to hit the seam and grip the surface to the same extent, and so usually spins less than the batsman would expect. The next three – the top-spinner, flipper and googly (or wrong-un) – require a change of wrist position causing the rotation direction to change, and because of this are harder to learn, control and master.
The most well known of these, the googly, spins in completely the opposite direction to that which the batsman expects (i.e. into the right-hander) – and its alternative names include “wrong-un”, due to the fact that it spins the “wrong” way, and “Bosie” after BJT Bosanquet, the first cricketer to successfully use it in the world game. The bowler achieves this affect with a near-identical action by rotating his wrist 180 degrees (the back of the hand faces the batsman), so that the spinning motion imparted causes the revolutions to become clockwise, and the spin off the pitch to go to the right as the bowler sees it. To practice the correct wrist position to bowl the googly, the underarm lobs explained earlier are a good device to measure how effectively you're managing to rotate the wrist. Some bowlers, however, don't have the flexibility in their wrists to achieve complete rotation and have other variations up their sleeves.
In between the extremes of the googly and standard leg-break lies the top-spinner, a delivery whose wrist action lies in between the two and whose result is a ball that continues straight on, with extra pace and bounce thanks to the revolutions of the ball. The back of the hand ends up facing out towards extra cover, and as a result the ball's rotates through the air in the direction of the batsman, which on pitching gives the ball an “kick”, speeding it up and increasing its bounce. An interesting extra dimension to this can often be found where the pitches sometimes slope to a scarcely credible extent from one side to the other. I've bowled on a ground with such a large downhill slope from right to left that one leg-break pitched on leg stump, and was taken by slip, and my googly consistently went straight on, neutralised by the slope but still effective due to the extreme turn achieved in the other direction.
The flipper is, in effect, the inverse of the top-spinner – the wrist rotates away from the batsman, and after pitching the ball loses some of its pace and also keeps low. It's possible to attain the wrist position through extending the rotation used in the googly further (not something most bowlers have flexible enough wrists to achieve), or by flicking or the wrist in the opposite direction to the other two variations. Of course, this isn't the limit of the variations available to a wrist spinner – given practice and imagination there's little restriction on what can be achieved, with the occasional extra bonus that if you don't know where the ball's going to turn, the batsman definitely won't!
On the other side of the spinning spectrum, the wrist-spinner generates more turn and has more spectacular variations, but on the flip-side his action is far harder to master, resulting in less control and an increased risk of being expensive. Nonetheless, when at its best, wrist-spin is probably the hardest type of bowling in the game to confidently bat against. As its name suggests, this style of bowling uses the wrist – as well as the fingers – to impart the rotations that cause spin onto the ball, and because of the extra spinning forces generated thanks to the addition of the wrist into the action, a wrist spinner can make the ball rotate much more rapidly, and so can achieve much more turn.
A wrist spinner's basic grip is to hold the ball, with its seam horizontal, cupped in the first three fingers of their bowling hand, with the index and ring fingers roughly on opposite sides, and the middle finger fractionally closer to the index finger – resulting in all three fingers lying across the seam. It's perfectly normal for the thumb or the little finger to rest on the ball, but rare for either to do any actual work when it comes to spinning the ball. The hand action that imparts the spin itself is similar to that of the finger-spinner – the “turning a doorknob” motion – but since it's in the opposite direction (anti-clockwise for the right-handed leg-spinner, and clockwise for the left-handed chinaman bowler) and as such involves the wrist to a much greater extent, it's much more forceful. With practice, when the ball is spun the seam will remain in approximately the same position – resulting in achieving more grip and hence more turn as it lands.
Returning to the ever-trusty tennis ball, if you take it in the wrist-spinner's grip and simply lob it gently, underarm, into the air – remembering to include the hand action as it's released, you'll see it spin a significant amount either to your left (if you're right handed) or to your right (if you're a left-hander). A wrist-spinner's full action is generally closer to “front-on” than “side-on” – the bowler looks in front of his front arm (or between his two arms as they're raised) and the “imaginary lines” angle across the pitch in the direction of the covers and midwicket. As with finger-spin, it's important to “pivot” strongly on your front foot as you prepare to release the ball, and equally after your release to “drive” or follow through strongly with your back leg (the same side as your bowling arm). The bowling arm is generally vertical, or near-vertical, which allows the bowler to gain as much bounce as possible and get the ball above the batsman's eye-line more easily. It's not uncommon, however, for wrist-spinners to bowl with much flatter arms as either a natural action or simply as a variation.
The next section deals with variations, and for clarity's sake only considers the direction and names given to deliveries as bowled by right-handed wrist-spin bowlers (leg-spinners) – for a chinaman bowler, simply reverse the directions. The standard delivery described above is known as the leg-break, and turns across a right-handed batsman (on landing, the ball spins in the direction that it was rotating, see the off-spin section for a more detailed explanation). When released, the palm of the bowler's hand faces the batsman, and the back of the hand points down the ground towards long-on or long-off. A wrist-spinner can vary the position of his wrist, causing the ball to rotate in a different direction, with the end result that, after pitching, it spins in a different direction.
The simplest of a wrist-spinner's variations to bowl is the “slider”, which is bowled exactly as a standard leg-break, with the only exception being that the ball is gripped around the seam (as a fast bowler would), rather than across it. Whilst the ball still rotates in the same manner, it's far less likely to hit the seam and grip the surface to the same extent, and so usually spins less than the batsman would expect. The next three – the top-spinner, flipper and googly (or wrong-un) – require a change of wrist position causing the rotation direction to change, and because of this are harder to learn, control and master.
The most well known of these, the googly, spins in completely the opposite direction to that which the batsman expects (i.e. into the right-hander) – and its alternative names include “wrong-un”, due to the fact that it spins the “wrong” way, and “Bosie” after BJT Bosanquet, the first cricketer to successfully use it in the world game. The bowler achieves this affect with a near-identical action by rotating his wrist 180 degrees (the back of the hand faces the batsman), so that the spinning motion imparted causes the revolutions to become clockwise, and the spin off the pitch to go to the right as the bowler sees it. To practice the correct wrist position to bowl the googly, the underarm lobs explained earlier are a good device to measure how effectively you're managing to rotate the wrist. Some bowlers, however, don't have the flexibility in their wrists to achieve complete rotation and have other variations up their sleeves.
In between the extremes of the googly and standard leg-break lies the top-spinner, a delivery whose wrist action lies in between the two and whose result is a ball that continues straight on, with extra pace and bounce thanks to the revolutions of the ball. The back of the hand ends up facing out towards extra cover, and as a result the ball's rotates through the air in the direction of the batsman, which on pitching gives the ball an “kick”, speeding it up and increasing its bounce. An interesting extra dimension to this can often be found where the pitches sometimes slope to a scarcely credible extent from one side to the other. I've bowled on a ground with such a large downhill slope from right to left that one leg-break pitched on leg stump, and was taken by slip, and my googly consistently went straight on, neutralised by the slope but still effective due to the extreme turn achieved in the other direction.
The flipper is, in effect, the inverse of the top-spinner – the wrist rotates away from the batsman, and after pitching the ball loses some of its pace and also keeps low. It's possible to attain the wrist position through extending the rotation used in the googly further (not something most bowlers have flexible enough wrists to achieve), or by flicking or the wrist in the opposite direction to the other two variations. Of course, this isn't the limit of the variations available to a wrist spinner – given practice and imagination there's little restriction on what can be achieved, with the occasional extra bonus that if you don't know where the ball's going to turn, the batsman definitely won't!
Langeveldt
Soutie
Yeah I pretty much always go over the wicket.. Unless we are being very negative, packing the leg side and bowling into the rough outside legTom Halsey said:
Tom Halsey
International Coach
Very good Neil. Looking forward to the Coaching section, looks great.
Looking forward to the Coaching section, looks great. 
Son Of Coco
Cricket Web: All-Time Legend
or, Flight and Drift is in the air Spin is off the Pitch - 6 of one half a dozen of the other i suppose hahachris.hinton said:
cricket player
International Debutant
bowling leg spinner is easy quit easy acutaly.
If you want to be really a leg spinner bowling with the hard bowl then i suggest that you should use a tennis bowl rather then a hard ball
Let me tell you why.Tennis ball is alot lighter then hard ball.Once you practice with Tennis bowling leggie's.The after a few months try the hard ball you will feel some thing heavy in your hand.
put the ball between your two finger's your run up shoud be short
run and jump so you can put the heavy weight of yours on to the ball
The flip it between your finger's rolle your wrist you can turn the ball
bowl between the legs of the batsman so you can get him to play straight with a little bet of flight you will able to get him caught or bowled.
I hope this help and any of you guys can ask me anything about cricket i have alot of secerts to tell.
If you want to be really a leg spinner bowling with the hard bowl then i suggest that you should use a tennis bowl rather then a hard ball
Let me tell you why.Tennis ball is alot lighter then hard ball.Once you practice with Tennis bowling leggie's.The after a few months try the hard ball you will feel some thing heavy in your hand.
put the ball between your two finger's your run up shoud be short
run and jump so you can put the heavy weight of yours on to the ball
The flip it between your finger's rolle your wrist you can turn the ball
bowl between the legs of the batsman so you can get him to play straight with a little bet of flight you will able to get him caught or bowled.
I hope this help and any of you guys can ask me anything about cricket i have alot of secerts to tell.
