"He approaches the wicket and releases the ball. I'm about to find out what it's really like to face a top class bowler.

 

It hangs there in the air.

If someone bowled a ball like this to me in a Baldwin match, I'd probably stop it with my glove, sling it back to the bowler and tell him, 'Never mind, have another go...' In fact, I might say it anyway, once it's been retrieved from the far stands.

Perhaps age has caught up with the Indian master. Or perhaps he was never quite as good as we all thought. Perhaps none of them are.

But then something inexplicable occurs. The ball, having seemed suspended in the air from some invisible string with the words 'Hit Me' on it, suddenly dips and loops at the last second. It pitches just short of a length, spits like a cobra and climbs at a scientifically unfeasible angle. Striking the outside edge of my bat it balloons gently into the air and is caught with pathetic ease by the wicketkeeper."

Michael Simkins – Fatty Batter.

 You won't find many better descriptions of a master spinner totally deceiving a batsman than that. The great Bishan Bedi at work.

Mastery of flight or loop can take many years. However you can speed up the process with some simple practice methods that can be done alone.

To understand how to deceive the batsman in the flight we need to know what it is.

A ball with flight is about more than 'tossing it up', it needs to be spun with force above the eyeline of the batsman giving it that effect of hanging in the air.

The intention, like Michael Simkins found out, is to make the ball seem like doing one thing when in fact it does something different enough to deceive: The mythical combination of flight and guile.

Bob Woolmer and Tim Noakes identify several different ways of achieving this:

• Top spin. Where the ball hangs in the air before dropping sharply.
• Back spin. Where the ball skids through lower and fuller than expected, like Shane Warne's flipper.
• Side spin. Where the ball drifts in the air laterally more akin to swing bowling.

You may find one type of flight easier than another, depending on both your bowling style (finger or wrist) and your own technique.

Adjusting the way you spin the ball, how much you spin it, how fast you bowl it and how high above the eye line you make it go will all make a difference to how the batsman plays the ball. This decreases his or her chances of settling in and getting used to your style.

What must remain despite these tiny changes is your accuracy. Without putting the ball in the right place often enough the batsman can just wait for the bad ball.

Once you can confidently bowl your stock ball accurately you can work on your loop.

There are two simple methods to doing this. Neither requires a batsman so get yourself a bag of balls, find a net and get to work.

1. The String Method: The simplest way to flight the ball is to hang some string across the net and to try to bowl the ball over it. Combine the string with a target on the ground like a bit of cardboard or some cones to land the ball.
   
2. The Stumps Method: You can still use a target such as cones, but in this case you get an additional set of stumps and place them in front of the target as a barrier. The idea is to drop the ball over the stumps and still land it in the target.

With both methods you learn how to make the ball dip.

It makes sense to record your success rate. You will find the more you practice the higher percentage of balls you will land on the target.

The trick is to really spin the ball and let physics do the rest.

Give it a rip, get practicing and let me know the results.

Do you have to have the gift to be a good leg spinner? Or can little bits of spin both ways work?

Terry Jenner, Shane Warne’s bowling mentor, used to call the ability to bowl a big spinning leg break "The Gift". He was absolutely right. However, very few can do it well. That's why we can name all the really Gifted Test leg spinners in about 10 seconds:

Subhash Gupte, Richie Benaud, Bill O'Reilly, BS Chandrasekhar, Abdul Qadir, Stuart MacGill and Shane Warne.

I have deliberately missed out the great Indian spinner Anil Kumble and my mate "Mushy" Ahmed from this list because their "gift" was a different one to that Jenner explained to me in 1998. These two bowl with little bits of spin both ways, always with over spin that creates dip, drift and extra bounce even from the most benign of surfaces. To me they were different types of bowlers to the guys that I listed above.

As you will note, my beloved England, does not feature at all in the Gift List. And we invested significantly to try to identify, then develop one in the early 2000's. It was a fruitless pursuit.

Whilst we have all been looking for the next Shane Warne, I wonder how many Kumble's and Mushtaq's we have missed.

Have our minds and coaching eyes been side-tracked by the search for the elusive Gift?

On Sunday, I worked with a young lad called Uzair. Uzair bowls at a rapid pace (around 55 mph) with huge levels of over spin and has the ability to spin the ball a little bit in either direction.

He has unnerving accuracy and has taken his wickets at 20 apiece in the Home Counties Premier League. That's great for a 17 year old spinner. Many observers have told me that he doesn't spin it enough, but is that is because their barometers are taken from Warne and not Kumble.

I'm sure England wouldn't mind 500 test wickets from a leg spinner, whatever his angle of deviation.

Uzair is a hard worker and he is doing his hand to hand drills daily. He is working on engaging his hips more to facilitate momentum flying up the kinetic chain and into his wrist. He is also experimenting with different grip pressure to try and find his key to more spin. In time, his leggy will spin more.

Yet even then he is unlikely to bowl a Warne-like delivery too often.

So, can he still be great?

Simulating plans

One area that we worked on during our session on Sunday was simulating overs to a combination of left and right handed batters. What we noticed from the video that Uzair bowled the ball from the same position on the crease (from over the wicket) irrespective of bowling to and right or left hander.

We tracked the ball through the air frame by frame to see where the ball pitched from this release position to the left hander. Uzair noticed that in order to consistently hit the stumps, the ball often pitched outside the line of leg stump in order to hit the stumps on the angle. This would significantly reduce Uzair’s chance of getting a left hander out LBW. So we had to make a change.

Uzair adjusted his stock bowling angle to a left hander so that he released from nearer to the stumps. Then he could pitch both his googly and his legspinner in line with the stumps to then turn and hit the stumps.

Naturally, this bought LBW into the frame and meant that the left hander had to play each ball knowing that if he missed, Uzair would hit either the pad or the stumps. What a difference this made.

Uzair also worked out quickly that his previous angle could then be used specifically to bowl the ball across the line of the left hander to bring his keeper and 1st slip into play from the outside edge. It’s an angle that he can now use with a specific intention in mind.

If you have are blessed with a “Gift” bowler then work hard to develop them as the next Shane Warne.

But if you have someone like Uzair then please develop him as a Kumble and Mushtaq rather than beat his head against the “Warne Wall”.

This is a guest article from Harry Shapiro

Because of the nature of the delivery there are several variations that the wrist spinner can use by changing the position of his wrist.

Your main weapon and wicket taking ball is your leg break. Anything else is merely a variation to keep the batsman guessing and possibly set him up. The following variations should only be used once you have established complete mastery of the leg break and have full control of your wrist.

The following variations require changes to the wrist position.

Top spinner:

The top spinner is released with the palm of the hand facing the leg side (for a right hander) so that the ball spins in the air with the seam upright and rotating toward the batsman. If bowled properly the ball should dip and bounce off the pitch higher than the leg break, causing the ball to hit the splice of the bat. The ball can be pitched in line with the stumps or just outside the off stump.

Googly

The Googly - also called the wrong 'un - is released with the back of the hand facing toward the batsman so the ball is spun with the seam rotating in a clockwise direction. On pitching the ball will turn from off to leg (to a right hand batsman). The ball should always be pitched outside the off stump enticing the batsman to either cut or leave the ball. The googly requires a lot of practice but should be used sparingly. If overused it can cause a bowler to lose his leg break.

Slider

The ball is delivered with the palm facing inward toward the bowler. The ball is spun so that the seam rotates back in the air causing the ball to keep low and skid onto the bat after pitching. This delivery is difficult to master but causes far less strain on the shoulder than any of the other deliveries.

Use of the crease

Bowling from different variations on the crease is a very simple but effective variation as it requires no alteration to the bowlers action. It is sadly often neglected by bowlers and coaches.

Change of flight and pace

This important variation is difficult to master and requires a lot of practice. The bowler needs to release the ball at different positions. What bowlers need to remember is that the stock ball should always be above the batsman's eyes.

For more coaching tips from Harry Shapiro, click here.

This is a guest article from Max Andrews

“Hip to shoulder separation” is one of the most important movements in generating spin and velocity.

The movement creates an angle between the hip and shoulder which, when done properly, generates greater torque, and as a result increased spin and speed.

Interested in getting some of that?

As a bowler, we generate energy from the ground up. Therefore, producing power from our legs is essential. To be able to transfer this energy through the kinetic chain we need to use our hips. To create a powerful hip rotation, we need to create a shoulder to hip separation.

To help you visualise this action, think of a power baseball or cricket hitter when they swing. They generate their energy from the legs, their hips rotate first and then their shoulders will “catch up” and be aligned with the hips and the target.

Bowlers do they same. They open their hips at front foot landing whilst keeping their shoulders closed for just a split second. This fraction of a second - where the hip and shoulder separate - enables the body to transfer these rotational forces up through the kinetic chain and into the bowling arm.

This will equal increase speed and revolutions.

So, how do we do it?

The first drill is a medicine ball throw. There are two types of throws to work on here, shovel throws and shoulder throws.

The key to this exercise it to ensure that you keep in mind that you are trying to create hip and shoulder separation, so let your hips rotate first and then explode and really drive through with your back shoulder.

The next drill is performed with a dowel rod, a broomstick or something that will allow you to keep your shoulders aligned. First, place the rod behind your head on your shoulders and get into your back foot landing position. This drill is similar to the one-step bowling drill, here we focus on rotating our hips whilst keeping our shoulders closed, but still aligned.

The final drill is a variation to the previous drill. Some people will find this works better for them. On this occasion, rather than holding onto a rod we can either rest our hands on a wall or hold onto the netting. Again, we are focusing on creating separation in the lower body from the upper body. You should really be able to feel your hips separating and creating a big angle from your shoulders.

By now you should have developed a deeper understanding of the feeling of hip to shoulder separation.

The movement is tied in with the front leg brace and both are very important in developing a correct bowling technique. Work on this and you should see an increase in spin and velocity.

Click here for more from Max Andrews.

Let me ask you something; how much better a bowler would you be if you could hit a perfect line and length?

It's a challenge that takes a lifetime to master, and a road that is littered with distractions.

Yet the simplicity is appealing: Put the ball on the spot, hit the seam again and again and watch the wickets tumble.

You don't need to be quick. You don't need to rip it square. You don't need to swing it round corners or even have a clever mystery variation. Those things are nice, but accuracy... accuracy is within reaching distance.

It's so tantalisingly close that you can almost taste the success it will bring.

Yet, so few achieve what should be simple.

How do you break through the accuracy barrier and take your game up a level?

Here is some advice.

Become obsessed with process

Modern coaching uses terms like "processes" to break the shackles of outdated methods. We used to use technique as the beginning, middle and end of bowling. It was striving for perfect technique that created bowlers with perfect accuracy.

That is certainly true, but we also know now that techniques vary. Technique is an important part of the bowling process that also includes other factors. Take the example of Lasith Malinga. The Sri Lankan has a bowling technique that should be super inconsistent. Yet he can bowl that death yorker for 12 balls in a row if he likes. He has a process.

And that's what you need too.

That starts with your bowling technique. Does your technique give you the best chance of bowling with accuracy? Do you find that you action can vary between balls?

Video yourself bowling both in nets and in games, especially towards the end of a match or session where fatigue can influence your movement through the crease. Watch to see what stays the same, decide what changes as you get more tired or stressed.

When you can see an area of weakness, strive to improve it.

This is not about wrist or head position or any other particular technical point per se. It's more about seeing what works in your technique, and what goes wrong when you fire it down the leg side. For example:

• If you notice your head falling to the off side at the end of the game, you might need better fitness (both core strength and endurance)
• If there is variation in your arm position as you release the ball, work backwards through each step of your action and decide where it breaks down, then work on it with chaining drills.
• If you bowl poorly under pressure situations, start developing methods to become better and handling those pressure moments.

You get the idea: Spot the issue (technical, fitness, or psychological), design a drill or training plan to overcome that method and work on it with single-minded obsession.

Remember the basics

Of course, all this takes some effort and no small amount of skill and knowledge. Luckily, during this process you can do something a lot simpler and that is almost always effective: basic target bowling.

Target bowling is useful because it is the purest form of deliberate practice: You can set it up quickly, get instant feedback and track your improvements over time. PitchVision even does this for you, but you can use a pen and paper or track it in your notes app on the iPad.

So, set up some targets, mark your pitch and bowl like a crazy person until it starts to click and your percentages shoot up. The more you do it, regardless of any other factor, the more accurate you will get. You learn where to look, you learn how bowling a good ball feels, you learn how to stay focused in a long spell. If you do it enough you develop bowling stamina.

Like all practice methods there are limits - you don't learn how to bowl under pressure, and you can't correct technical issues - but overall it works so well I would be amazed by any bowler who didn't use it.

Combine your target bowling with your new obsession with process and you have a bowler, over time, who can reach insane levels of accuracy.

Cricket is simple when you put it like that isn't it?

Nets are used poorly by bowlers.

The net is the "Swiss Army knife" of cricket training: Players who stick to just using the knife are ignoring the screwdriver, corkscrew and bottle opener at their cost. With the right drills, nets develop technical, tactical and mental skills as a bowler.

But it doesn't happen by magic. If you turn up to nets, wait for your chance to bowl and fire a few balls down for the batsman to slog you won't get better at bowling. In fact, the best you can hope for is just to stop from getting worse.

So don't waste net sessions. Use the right tool for the job.

To truly make the most of net sessions and learn how to become a better cricketer, throw in these different ways to train. You'll be surprised how fast you improve.

Target practice drill

As you already know, there is nothing simpler, easier or more effective than good old target practice. Bowling well means bowling accurately and the way to improve your accuracy is by trying to hit the area on the pitch that you consider accurate.

This is not rocket surgery, but how often do you do it?

Without a batsman, place or draw a target on the point in the net you want to hit. Run up and bowl at the target.

Repeat.

An important point here is to track your progress over time. This means using more than your memory, as it's terribly unreliable at such tasks. Keep a separate record like with PitchVision.

You can do this practice for any type of delivery:

• Hitting the top of off stump
• 4/5/6 stump line
• Back of a length to ‘hit the deck’
• Fuller to allow for swing
• Yorkers
• Bouncers
• Slower balls/variations

Practice your stock ball 80% of the time with variations making up the rest. In these days of IPL drama you can consider the yorker as your stock death ball. It will certainly help if you plan to become a cricketer.

The more you bowl the better (although remember the fast bowling guidelines if you are a young pace bowler).

The size of the target can be varied but aim to make it as small as possible to improve your accuracy. Start with a big area to hit and gradually reduce the size as your accuracy improves.

What's a good score for accuracy? If you are around 60% at the start you are doing OK. If you get up to 80% you are in the world-class level.

Double target practice

A variation on traditional target practice is to place two targets on the pitch instead of one. This is designed to improve your ability to adjust your line and length. Good bowlers are able to do this to set a batsman up, for example a bouncer followed by a yorker.

Your job in this practice is to bowl to hit one target then change length and hit the other consistently. This is much harder than hitting the same target over and over.

This practice is less useful for spinners who rely more on flight and turn while hitting the same area, but can still have a place if you change to hitting the same spot but with more pace and less turn.

Bowler's play and leave drill

This game brings the batsman back into play. It's designed more to improve tactical awareness and mental strength in a specific way.

In this game your job is to make the batsman play (stats have shown that the more a batsman plays, the more likely he is to get out). The batsman is trying to leave as many balls as possible.

You bowl to a pair of batsmen in 6 ball overs per bowler. The batsmen get 4 runs for every leave and lose 4 runs if they get out. Pairs of batsmen compete against each other while the bowlers compete individually for the most economical overs.

You can do this in nets or as a middle practice with fielders.

It's an effective practice because it forces you to focus on making the batsman play the ball; a very simple way of getting wickets.

Perfect over drill

This is a more exciting version of target practice, designed less for technical and more for tactical development.

Perform the drill by planning out an over beforehand, then trying to bowl it. The idea is to think about how you are going to set a batsman up in a set of six balls, then see how well you can do it (you don’t need a batsman).

Gate bowling

This is an outcome-based drill for working on technique. The drill lets you practice spinning or swinging the ball.

Set it up by putting "gates" on the pitch and trying to get the ball to swing or spin through them. The exact location will vary depending on how much movement you get and which way the ball moves.

Middle practice

Finally, you can get out of the nets altogether and work on your tactical and mental game against a batsman in the middle.

The limitation of bowling in nets is lost when you practice in the middle, but it's not a place to work on technique, so forget target practice and start thinking about how you respond to and deal with pressure.

Some bowlers use friendly or low importance games for middle practice, but you can also set it up in your practice sessions if you have something specific to work on (like bowling at the death).

For most of these practices, PitchVision is a tool that all bowlers can use. It allows you to track your progress in pace, accuracy and deviation over time, and then adjust your practice to match the best results. That’s a lot more sensible than trying to guess at things. I strongly recommend it if you are looking for technical developments as a bowler.

Let's talk about a dirty little secret of spin: Pace matters.

As a spinner you don't have any need to get the ball up the other end as fast as you can. You leave that to the real quick bowlers. But you also know there is a speed that is right for spin.

 Too slow and the batsman gains more time to pick the ball and play it.

Too fast and you lose drift, dip, accuracy and spin. You may as well joint the dark side; and become a medium pacer. Yuk.

You want to find that perfect balance. You feel like you want to tap the pace up without losing the rip that leads to the late dipping, big turning ball you love to bowl. So how do you do that?

What is a good pace for spin?

First, let's talk about numbers and find out the optimal pace. It's hard to judge what is "right".

You look on TV and see some professional guys bowling stock balls at almost 90kph (55mph). Other pros are much slower, perhaps 75kph (mid 40's mph). The average club or school spinner ranges between 50-65kph. Then there are quicker and slower balls depending on pitch conditions and batsmen style.

It's here that many spinners fall into a trap laid by the seam up crowd. They look at the number on the speed gun as the only indicator of pace. But with spin you are not simply working with a straight line from hand to stumps. You are working in multiple directions at once.

So, a ball that is traveling more slowly because it's been spun up and has dip on it, is totally different from a flatter ball fired in at greater pace. They both may turn the same amount but the dipping ball is harder to read and will bounce more. It's a similar story for the ball that drifts sideways in the air.

On some pitches against some batsmen you will bowl a little quicker and at other times you will bowl a little slower.

So, your first job is to work out what pace causes batsmen trouble. You can do this in your nets against your own team's batsmen. Ask them to give you feedback about what is easier and what is harder to play when you bowl and you start to learn the art of matching your pace to the conditions.

Start the loop

However, despite this nod to the art of spin, let's use some science to push the numbers up.

Your first step is to start a feedback loop. This is because it's much easier to improve when you measure progress. So, track your current pace with PitchVision or a speed gun. Over time you can see which changes improve your pace and which changes make no difference.

With a feedback loop in place, you are in a powerful position to drag your speed up kicking and screaming.

Again, don't obsess if the system tells you your average speed is 45mph and you heard that Swann used to bowl at 55mph. 45 might be plenty at the level you play, work on getting out the batsmen you bowl at, not batsmen on the TV (that will come later, when you are on TV).

Run up faster

Once you are tracking the raw numbers, and have an idea of the pace you want, you can work on technique.

The first easy trick here is to run up faster.

It's all about momentum: The faster you enter your delivery stride, the more energy you can transfer into the ball. And the more energy, the more speed. That's physics!

It's important to remember to maintain your action. It's easy to try and barrel the ball down with an almighty heave and clench of the teeth. In reality, you don't need to do anything except bowl the same and let the extra momentum do all the work for you.

Try a few different speeds of run up to see what difference it makes to your pace, and if you feel you are losing accuracy as a result, take a look at if your action is changing as a result. You might want to slow down a bit if the latter is the case.

Use your front arm

The second technical port of call is your front arm. Slower spinners, according to Mark Garaway, tend to forget about using the front arm and so it waves about not contributing much.

But, if you time the movement of your front arm better, you will improve both pace and revs on the ball because you are using it to lead your whole body in a full rotation. So what does this look like?

• Your front elbow is up when your back foot lands.
• As your front foot lands, bend your front arm at the elbow towards the batsman as if you are grabbing her collar (if the arm drops before your front foot lands, you lose pace).
• Use this full extension to pull your front arm down, rotate your shoulders and release the ball at the top.
• Follow through. This will happen automatically if you have done everything else right.

A bonus tip here is to also use a more braced front leg. It's a technique used by quicker bowlers to improve speed. It's not a universal fix, but you might warm to it, so look at the details here. It's fine to experiment with things to see how they feel. You can always go back to the old way if it doesn't work out.

Get stronger

We have discussed many times the importance of a base of strength and power. Serious spinners have to work out these days beyond just bowling, especially those who want more pace. You can read more here.

But beyond the gym work, you can transfer your strength into your bowling in two ways:

• Throwing medicine balls (1-2kg in weight)
• Bowling heavy balls

Both these techniques allow you to cross the bridge between being strong in the gym and actually bowling faster (and with more stamina). That's because they are both more like bowling than working out, but they still provide a training effect.

Heavy ball bowling is especially new and experimental in cricket. The method has been used for years in power throwing sports like the shot put. Now, lead by Steffan Jones, coaches are helping cricketers bowl faster with the method.

The trick is to use both a slightly heavier and slightly lighter ball alongside a normal weight ball. The heavier ball can be up to 260g, the lighter one will be 110g. To compare, a normal adult ball is 155-163g. The amount you bowl will depend on the time of year. In season is a low volume, pre-season is higher volume.

I have been hearing great results for this method from progressive coaches like Steffan, but you will need to experiment to find out what works for you. This is a far from set in stone proven method. However, all logic (and evidence so far) points to a good outcome if you try.

Some science, some art

To summarise, bowling quicker as a spinner sounds simple; an expression of science to produce a measurable result. And this article has given you some principles to try to get that speed measurement up.

• Track your outcomes.
• Increase run up speed.
• Use your front arm to start a powerful rotation.
• Brace your front leg.
• Get stronger.

But spin is also an art. The number on the screen does not tell the whole story of drift and dip. It doesn't take conditions into account. Science cannot know the state of mind of the bowler or the batsman. So see these methods as just one tool in your toolkit. If pace helps, use it. If you can take 100 wickets a year bowling at 30mph then why would you change?

Make the most of this awesome leg spin variation.

Watching a good leg spinner operate against an average batsman is like watching a lion play with its prey before going in for the kill. The helpless beast has no idea what’s going on and no way to combat it.

The googly is the lethal blow for the poor creature.

Spin is all about outsmarting the batsman and the googly puzzles batsman by turning the wrong way with the same action, leaving him walking back to the pavilion with a confused look and spread-eagled stumps.

Here is how to bowl that destructive googly.

Grip and wrist position

Hold the ball in the identical way as you would hold for a usual leg spin delivery:

 

Most leg spinners place index and middle finger on the seam while thumb place adjacently to them along the seam. The ring finger is often placed slightly wide of the seam and used for holding the ball.

From here you’ll see the difference between a googly and a standard leg break. As you bowl, the palm of your hand carrying the ball points up. The back of your hand faces towards batsman so they cannot point out the difference. If the googly is picked, it is less effective.

Twisting the wrist at around 180 degrees towards the ground will cause the ball to spin into the batsman. The ring finger plays an important part as it rotates the ball in an anti-clockwise position. This will cause the ball to turn like an off spinner after pitching.

All this takes a lot of trying, so don't expect to master it in a weekend.

Avoiding the ‘googly syndrome’

The control, precision and accuracy in bowling a googly come with time and practice. However, there is a risk associated with too much googly practice.

You can lose your leg break and end up only being able to bowl googlies.

This has been coined the googly syndrome and has been recognised by leg spinners and their coaches for many years.

The best way to avoid it is to be careful how much you practice. A typical club leggie might bowl 10 overs a week in the nets. Of that, you can avoid getting stuck only bowling a googly by keeping the practice down to 6-12 balls. On top of that, look to finish with 2-3 overs of pure leg breaks with no variations).

This limited practice time is why it is so hard to master the googly, especially for young spinners.

If you stick with your practice, keep firing the ball at a target without a batsman.

Also make sure you throw it in when a batsman is facing so you can see the response.

Before long you will be confident to use it in a crunch moment of a game. Your team-mates will consider you some kind of leg spin genius when you bowl the hapless batsman with a perfect bosie.