Lesson #2: How Pivoting Will Help You Win Friends and Influence People
As you know, pivoting is when a spin bowler lands on their front foot and pushes up and turns on the ball of that foot before releasing the ball.
Why do we pivot?
Three main reasons:
- To gain height and release the ball from as high as possible
- To act as the point around which the whole body turns (pivots) in the delivery stride
- To gain energy in the delivery stride
I won’t leave you hanging with just those statements. So, we will talk a bit about this in more detail:
1. To gain height and release the ball from as high as possible
A spin bowler’s real friend is bounce. Sure, he must spin the ball and spin it hard, (Lesson #1, remember?) but bounce is his real friend.
If a spinning track is his best friend then a bouncing track is his BFF.
But, as a spin bowler you can help yourself get more bounce by delivering the ball from as high as possible (this will always get you more bounce).
The simple point is that you are taller when you are standing on your toe. So, if you release the ball as you push up on the ball of your front foot, you are releasing the ball from your tallest point. And that will result in more bounce.
Trust me, you want bounce. Bounce means plenty of wickets as batsman just hate sharp, vicious spin.
2. To act as the point around which the whole body turns (pivots) in the delivery stride
Right, so now you are nice and high on your front foot and causing real trouble with the bounce you are generating.
Let’s kick this up a notch and start turning on that front foot in the delivery stride as well. You want to be turning against that foot, grinding against it as your body turns while you deliver.
If you do not turn on that front foot then you will find it very difficult to turn the ball.
3. To gain energy in the delivery stride
When you explode in the delivery stride by pushing up on your front foot then you are putting energy into your delivery (and not bowling flat footed). More energy will mean more revolutions on the ball and more vicious spin.
All this theory is nice, but how do we put it into action?
Here is this week’s homework...
Have a bowl in the nets without a run-up.
Just stand side-on at the delivery crease and deliver the ball without even a single step run up. Try and explode onto that front foot. Push up on the ball of your foot and deliver the ball from as high as possible.
Do that until you are comfortable with delivering the ball from a high position. Then try it with your run-up.
We are doing well so far.
By now you are spinning the ball hard, getting high on that front foot and grinding against your foot as you pivot.
Next lesson we look at flight, drift and dip (just saying those three gets me excited as a spin bowler).
Until then,
Cheers
