2010 Season evaluation part 2: Bowling

It's rather amusing to look back at what I said about bowling at the start of the year, given that it's the one thing I've spent most time and effort on subsequently. Go back to what I wrote in January, and I had this to say:

I don't at this point think I've any hope as a bowler. I'm pretty sure I haven't got the build or the endurance in my body to be any kind of fast or even medium pace bowler, but I might have a go at spinning and see how I get on. I think I have the head on me to think my way to delivering a good ball, but as to whether I can actually master the biomechanics of bowling what I intend to and bowling it consistently I'll just have to wait and see.

Since then pretty much any opportunity I've had I've been thinking about it, reading up on it, asking other leggies at the Big Cricket forum about it, fixing problems with my action, imagining field settings, planning how to take wickets, and of course actually practising my bowling for up to (and sometimes beyond) six hours a week. Of all the things I've done to improve my game since January, the work I've put in on my bowling is by far what I'm most proud of.

2010 Season evaluation part 1: Batting

So with the season now over, I thought I'd do a series of posts looking at how I've developed over the season, and looking at what I can do over the winter to come back next year even better. My starting point should probably be the targets I set myself in January, and in batting terms I set my targets out thus:

Right now, in batting terms I just want to get out in the middle and face a few balls, see what I'm up against and not be a complete ferret. From there on it'd be nice to score my first boundary, then aim to reach double figures for the first time, then once I've done that a few times think about 25 as the next target, and after that I can see whether I can aspire to anything greater.

How successful have I been? Well I'm not a complete ferret, and can usually count on sticking around for a dozen balls or so, and I have at last scored a boundary.

Out of action

A matchless weekend for me, unfortunately, as I simply can't see how my knee will take it. If I am feeling up to it I might pitch up at the club just in case, as I'm told a fair few players might be at the V festival down the road. I seem to remember at the last match one guy saying "How many people are going to be at the V festival next week then?" getting the response of "Erm, a few hundred thousand probably". "No you imbecile, I meant how many people from the CLUB..."

Also nets last night was a no-show from me as firstly I was engrossed by whether Alistair Cook would survive the evening, then it was raining, and then my girlfriend was on the phone. My previous post seems to have garnered a few comments from the leg spin sages at the Big Cricket forum, so next time I get the chance I've got some pointers as to where to go from here. As my action stands my run-up does seem an unnecessary waste of effort, so I'll just concentrate on the delivery stride, particularly the pivot round my front foot, lifting my right leg up and round, and swivelling my my shoulders, and see about putting a run-up on once I've got that sussed.

I've also been playing around with my grip. I'm not even close to thinking about properly bowling a googly, but I have been trying to get my hands right around the loop and was having great difficulty achieving anything beyond a topspinner. It seems as if it's my grip that is stopping me, as my normal grip has the seem angled so that the centre of the seam is outside the tip of the third finger. This seems to naturally favour backspin over topspin, and perhaps this is why I find zooters relatively simple compared to what others seem to find. I've been playing around with it and have been trying a more orthodox grip with the seam straighter up and while the sensation of spinning it is slightly different it should do the trick in terms of making topspinners easier, and then when the time comes making a googly possible. I'll keep playing around with both grips and see what happens.

Where my bowling's at

After four and a half months of bowling what would properly be called right-arm wrist-spin (although most call it leg-spin) I thought I'd jot down a few scribblings on where I am.

I started off from a pretty unpromising platform, having not played cricket at all for ten years and having hardly bowled at all ever, and never in a match. My fitness was probably about average for a 28-year-old English male, which can be taken to mean that it was woefully inadequate for any kind of sporting activity, not helped by thirteen years of smoking. I still smoke but my fitness has improved.

When it came to choosing which type of bowling to pursue I very quickly reached the conclusion that my body would be unable to put up with anything more strenuous than spin, as I've always had pretty weak shoulders. For some reason I plumped for wrist-spin and I haven't looked back since. Its distinctiveness, variations and reliance on obscure scientific principles makes it perfect for me, not to mention it's the one form of bowling that tends not to penalise my round-arm tendencies.

...and now we have the flipper

After much playing around trying to get it I've finally got the action for the flipper working. I've spent ages trying to figure it out, discovered the "Baffler" on the way, but in the end all I had to do was move my thumb the other way and there it was... With only a slight variation (gripping the ball with two more fingers) I can also perform the Clarrie Grimmett flipper action, which is supposed to give more spin than the more orthodox Benaud/Jenner/Warne version with just the two fingers. It needs a lot of work before it's worth bowling though, the ammounts of spin I'm getting are pretty piss-poor.

Introducing the "Baffler"

I've just been bowling in the garden and I'm really encouraged by the results. My accuracy wasn't too much improved but the amount of spin and drift seems to be on a whole new level, as I was really concentrating on rolling that ring finger over well. There were a few that turned a very long way and the flight was just enough and more consistent. With nets tomorrow night I'm hopeful I can replicate them then and have a few more "round the legs" moments.

Also I've developed a new variation, which I've given the working title of "Baffler", as it's sort of like a baby flipper. I bowl it by changing my grip slightly to something more akin to an off-spinner, then at the moment of delivery I rotate my wrist in the opposite direction to a leg break, let the ball stretch my index finger back before pinging forward and underneath the ball. The ball comes out of the hand about 10mph faster than my stock delivery (which is quite slow), with backspin making it float and bounce low. The thumb is hardly involved at all, so it's not a bona fide "click-your-fingers" flipper, although the effect seems very similar. It's not a particularly well disguised ball at the moment as I'm quite clearly putting more effort in and bowling with a lower arm, but it looks good for getting someone out bowled or LBW, at my level at least. It's ridiculously easy to bowl I've found, so I'll be trying that out tomorrow night as well.

Is my garden hindering me?

Had another bowl in the garden just now, did just under an hour. Some of it was encouraging, but a lot of it was poor. Strangely I found it much harder to bowl a decent line today compared to yesterday, so I've a suspicion the unevenness and inaccurate length of my garden may be hampering my progress. If I've got the time I'll pop down to the club later and bowl in the net there, and then we'll see what's what. In the meantime I filmed a few overs with the new action so that'll be interesting to see and I'll post it up here when I've had time to edit it.

Back to square one...

Oh damn and bother. It would seem the bowling action I've been finely honing for the past three months is in need of some pretty fundamental rethinking.

It all stems from the point at which I wind up to roll my arm over. Taking a look at the video I posted the other day you'll see from the side-on angles towards the end that rather than actually roll the arm down, round and over like a windmill, it's more of a "stretch back and ping forward" motion, a bit like a rubber catapult. It seems as if this, and having slightly feeble muscles, is the culprit of my aching shoulders.

More bowling practice in the garden

Finally got round to putting together the video of me bowling last week:

The season draws closer

Gosh, has it really been a month and a half since I last posted?

I do have my excuses, the most cast-iron being that I had a car crash a month ago. I was going over a crossroads, a car failed to stop and went straight into my door, pushing the whole car into the front of another stationary car on the other side of the junction. Pretty nasty, and the insurance is still sorting itself out, but at least the Girlfriend I suffered nothing worse than shock, whiplash and a few bruises.

I have been practising my cricket a bit though, having attended three nets since I last posted. I would have liked more but things always seemed to get in the way.

Frustration

It's very frustrating having this bad shoulder holding me up. Last week I was just getting the hang of a beautifully rhythmic 5-step run-up, and releasing the ball so it looped up on a nice length, and getting a little bit of turn.

Naturally I was looking forward to using all these bits and pieces that I'd got sorted out and practising the timing of my release so that I could land on a good line (with my round-arm style, timing is everything, especially the line) but instead I've got several days to let the shoulder heal, followed by god-knows how long working on strengthening my shoulders up so this is less likely to happen again.

Bowling practice

As you can see, today I was back in the garden bowling, this time with a camera running. It's the first time I've ever seen myself bowl, and it's quite revealing. I always new I had a low arm, but I never knew it was THAT low...

Putting the low arm to one side though the action seems pretty good for a beginner like myself, at least it is when I get it all together in a single delivery. Two parts of my action seem to be crucial: steering with my left shoulder and a good follow-through. I know that's pretty elementary but infuriatingly I keep having to remind myself to do both fairly often.

I honestly have no idea how much I was managing to spin the ball; as I've said before the grass in the garden is too thick to get any actual turn. I'm not sure if this is good or bad - good in the sense that I can concentrate on timing my release properly without being distracted by spin, bad in the obvious sense that I'm trying to be a spinner and I have no idea how much I'm spinning the ball!

My overall feeling is similar to when I first learned to drive - far too many things to think about in such a short space of time. At least I'm enjoying my bowling, even if some of the faces I pull on the video suggest otherwise...

A little gentle practise at home

This morning I felt like giving my bowling a go to see how suitable or otherwise it would be for nets tomorrow. I set up a wicket diagonally across the back garden, which didn't quite allow for the full 22 yards plus run-up, but needs must.

So here came my first attempt at leg spin. I was pretty nervous really, as I'd got a fair amount of emotional investment in eventually developing into a decent leg spinner, but at the same time I talked myself out of expecting too much. The way I bowled at school, just getting it in the right garden would be a bonus! After a deep breath I paced up, cocked my wrist, rolled my shoulder over and gave the ball a flick...