Because of the lack of recent content, I'm going to post up some of the content from the re-vamp of the Leg Spin Bowling Blog which is currently on-going.
Motor Skills; This is the complex process of your brain communicating with your body (Limbs) effectively to produce coordinated movement.
So this now brings me back to the notion of ripping the ball from the hand putting maximum revs on the ball. Now here comes the contentious part. In Philpotts ‘Art of Wrist Spin Bowling’ he describes as best he can using text and stills images how to practice flicking the wrist to produce the Leg Break. He shows images of someone flicking the ball across the body from the right hand to the left using the 2 up 2 down grip, all the time focusing on giving it a good flick. The image and the explanation are straight forward and you can see quite easily once you start doing it what he means and over a period of weeks and months you go from rolling the ball over to really giving it a good flick. But in the same section he talks about using the same Big Flick to spin the ball from an outstretched arm inwards towards your chest. This inward flick he doesn’t dwell on at all, but just says to practice it alongside the flick across the body from right hand to left (See my video clip Legspin Bowling Drill No.2[H1] ).
Philpott later in the book returns to the ‘Inward flick’ action as the final part of his Round the loop system to explain the variations. Grimmett used the exact same explanation back in 1930 in his book Getting Wickets and the basic premise is that the position of the wrist at the point of release is instrumental in producing the Wrist Spin variations. Philpott though more than most using the inward flick drill demonstrates what seems to be the little known method (I would argue the genuine version) of producing The Slider. If you’ve followed Philpotts round the loop advice, you’ll have understood that the variations in Wrist Spinning are a result of wrist presentation at the point of release, again on the internet, both Shane Warne and Terry Jenner focus on this to some extent in their videos on Legspin bowling, but they do not dwell on it at all and just rush through the explanations leaving gaping great holes in the information. It is only when you research further – Grimmett, Benaud, Philpott, Jenner, Woolmer and Warne using a broad range of information sources that you’re able to collate all the information and synthesise it and potentially come to the conclusion that I have.
The notion of spinning the ball inwards is not common-place, but then neither is Wrist Spinning where the bowler has the knowledge of all of the variations. Furthermore knowledge of the variations is one thing, but being able to execute the variations in a match situation with accuracy and length is virtually unknown. There’s a sequence to learning Wrist Spinning and because of the complexities of the discipline the perception that I have is that most practitioners rarely move beyond bowling the Leg Break and the Top-Spinner, which to be honest will serve you well in most situations. It may be the case that most people pick up Philpotts The Art of Wrist Spin Bowling get through to the sections that deal with the Leg-Break, Top-Spinner and Wrong Un and then call it a day at the Wrong Un? Therefore having possibly struggled with the Wrong Un and maybe got no-where near mastering it don’t fancy the prospect of trying to get the wrist round to spin the ball inwards for the Slider? Who knows?
But, if you’re looking to master the Leg Break and bowl it with differing degrees of turn and therefore dip and drift and hoping to be able to bowl the coveted ‘Biggun’ (Ball of the Century) I think you need to explore the potential of the real Slider and this is the ball that requires the Inward Flick.
The key conclusion that I’ve come to and this is alluded to by Philpott more than the others is that the Inward Flick Drill is possibly the key to becoming an advanced practitioner of Wrist Spinning. I’ve found that the inward flick because it is so unusual and requires that you turn the wrist so far has led to far more control over the release of the ball from the hand – Fine Motor Skills. It’s been the case for the last 3-4 years as I’ve developed as a Wrist Spinner that I’ve been unaware of what it is that happens with my hand/wrist on release. On one hand, body and hand are seemingly coordinating in order to produce the Leg Break, yet the result is a Wrong Un, Top-Spinner or a very weak Leg Break. All of which are indicative of having The Googly Syndrome (See other sections).
[H1]The intention is that I’ll re-do the videos – possibly shooting them at college in the atrium during a holiday or at the weekend and re-name them all.
