Spin Bowling | Cricket coaching, fitness and tips

Spin Bowling Balance and Alignment Drill

This drill comes to you from Harry Shapiro's Leg Spin Association. For your free trial membership, click here.

Elvis is a member of the leg spin association and he turned to Harry Shapiro, the coach, for assistance with his action. Harry spotted a problem and came up with a drill to help him become better balanced and aligned.

Here is what Harry said,

Is it Time to Stop Being Afraid of Bowling Around the Wicket?

Menno Gazendam is author of Spin Bowling Project. Get your free 8 week spin bowling course here

The last few decades spin bowlers - especially off-spinners - have been trained to bowl over the wicket. They are very rarely were told to go around the wicket.

Is Bad Planning Costing You Wickets?

This is a guest article from Harry Shapiro, spin bowling coach. To get your free trial membership of the Leg Spin Association, click here.

Planning your over is hard. It take plenty of practice and control. No wonder young spinners get despondent when it doesn't quite work. That's no excuse to abandon good planning.

Part of the reason spinners don't plan their overs well is because the state of the game brings in a lot of different ways to approach things.To make it easier, here is a basic guideline from which you can start thinking about your bowling. You may adapt it to the state of the game on the day, but start here if you want to plan well.

There are two ways to look at planning an over:

Orthodox Spin Bowling Isn't The Best Bowling

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Menno Gazendam is author of Spin Bowling Project. Get your free 8 week spin bowling course here

As soon as a bowler - like Mendis or Ajmal - comes on the scene that looks a bit different, we label them as unorthodox.

Quick Tip: Bowling Spin in Limited Overs Cricket

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Here is a thoughtful question from Dave,

"Several of the articles here talk about using the spinner as an attacking option in order to take wickets and win the game, but with win/lose cricket you don't have to take all ten wickets to win. Is there going to become more emphasis on defensive bowling, and will this make the life of the slow bowler even more difficult?"

Harry Shapiro's Leg Spin Primer

Leg Spin Coach, and Head of the Leg Spin Association, Harry Shapiro has written this guest article on the basics of leg spin. A great primer for new and experienced bowlers!

The ability to bowl leg spin is a gift which is in the wrist and fingers but in order to develop to his full potential, the bowler needs a sound basic technique just as much as batsman or fast bowler.

Readers Offer: Free 3 Month Membership to the Leg Spin Association *CLOSED*

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THIS OFFER IS NOW CLOSED

PitchVision Academy have teamed up with the Leg Spin Association to offer an exclusive free 3 month membership to all readers.

So what is the Leg Spin Association?

The organisation was started to promote the culture of leg spin bowling in cricket. It was begun by Harry Shapiro - one of South Africa's leading leg spin coaches - in memory of Terry Jenner.

When you become a trial member you gain access to all the benefits of a fully paid up member:

Harbhajan Singh Dispels "Overs Under the Belt" Bowling Myth

Mumbai Indians spinner Harbhajan Singh has knocked critics who say modern players don't bowl enough these days. He took 4-32 in the CLT20 Final and won man-of-the-match. All without doing a jot of practice.

The Indian spinner said after the final,

"I didn't practice at all. I was travelling to the US but I didn't practice much before this."

It makes you wonder if you need to do any practice at all.

I mean, if you could rock up after a 4 month holiday, and bowl your team to victory, why would you bother with nets or practice games?

How to Bowl Spin to Tail End Batsmen

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Menno Gazendam is author of Spin Bowling Project. Get your free 8 week spin bowling course here

Bowling to tailenders is hard. In fact, sometimes it feels you would rather bowl to a proper batsman who play normal looking shots than to a tail-ender that does not know which end of the bat to hold.

And you know as a spinner they all back themselves to have a go at you. They will swing at everything, and occasionally they will connect big. Nothing is more frustrating than seeing a poor batsman cart you all over the park.

Don't Be Afraid of the Big Bad Zooter

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Menno Gazendam is author of Spin Bowling Project. Get your free 8 week spin bowling course here

The backspinner, or zooter, is not that hard to bowl.

That's the ball where you push it out the side of the hand with backward revolutions. It is certainly not easy, but it is within the grasp of most good leggies. It’s simply a matter of understanding what a back spinner really is, and working hard enough at perfecting it.