Gibbs Reflection
What happened _________________________________________________________
The first two nets of the year, one at Woodlands school and the other at Writtle. Bowled and batted. No expectation or plan for the bowling, with the batting an intention to be more positive. Was bowled by my son Joe and Alistair Hayton. (fast and off-spin respectively).
Feelings________________________________________________________________
Given that this was the first net of the season I was happy with what happened apart from the fact that Joe who was bowling in the 1st and 2nd XI nets came across to my net when I started batting and knowing full well that in the best of circumstances I struggle with the ball coming into my legs - bowled into my legs. He came around the wicket and hit me in the side of the knee where there's no pads and no straps even. 2 days later it looks like this...
This is the back of my knee - the ball hit the side of the knee on the boney bit of the left of the image. Yes it did hurt and yes it did swell up and it is still tender know and this is having iced it when I got back of the nets.
What was good/bad_________________________________________________________
Bowling at the first net session (Club nets) was bad, primarily because there were a load of blokes in the nets and you're rotating your turn with 8 others and there's no way that you're going to get any rhythm. Good in that session was that my line was pretty much spot on, I was able to bowl the line I wanted, length was okay too. 2nd net at Writtle that was good with regards the batting, but that's in part down to the fact that the group I'm there with (Disability players) included Graham Davies AKA G-Man who's the coach for them at Essex as far as I'm aware. So that meant the batting was done with purpose and scenarios.
Analysis __________________________________________________________________
Bowling, at both sessions, the majority of my bowling was was on or outside the off-stump, so with the ball turning away from the batsmen. They have a look at a few balls and then see the consistency of my line and turn see and that its not actually threatening the stumps. They then play cut shots of different varieties, drives and back-foot drives. All of these can be countered as I keep arguing in my other blog here by having a strong and organised off-side field.
One of the blokes that I bowled at... Alistair Hayton I asked about this approach (He also bowls) and he said "if I saw that the field on the leg-side was offering more scoring opportunities, I'd be stepping across the crease and trying to score through the leg-side". It's then that you need a straight ball or some other variation which is something I need to work on. I do bowl a Flipper and I did try one or two, but both went leg-side. Flippers are a variation that I need to work on a lot before using in a game. But preferably, I'd have a good Top-Spinner, again, this is a ball I have to work with a lot in order for it to be usable and last year my attempts at a Top-Spinner were indifferent. A perfectly straight one would be ideal, but just a leg-break with only a little turn would be more than useful. Googlies for me are out of the question.
So for the moment the basic plan when bowling this summer will involve the field here...
This field is reliant on being accurate with your bowling line in order to not concede runs on the leg-side. Added to this your length and speed needs to be such that you're able to land the ball on a length that encourages the batsman to drive off the front foot and not slow enough to play back foot shots.
The key thing here is to be able to bowl variations in line and length, if you've got something that doesn't turn - bring it out early show the batsman. I have a number of sub variations of my leg-break - As well as the bog- standard leg-break I can vary it's flight, dip and the amount of turn by either getting up on my toes at FFC (Front foot contact). Generally I bowl without going up on the toes for my standard leg-break, but simply going up on the toes creates more dip and turn. The same speed ball will have a trajectory initially that looks similar, but will then suddenly dip and then bounce more.
There's a caveat to this though, this kind of accuracy and control of variation isn't the norm and only comes about when I'm totally relaxed and 3 overs into the game when I'm bowling well in practice. Generally I need to be fully fit and practicing a lot. (See 'Action Plan' below.
Batting Analysis Batting is something I need to work on as you can see from the picture above - cricket friends on Facebook have helpfully suggested that I should hit the ball rather than let it hit me. Other than my son Joe nearly breaking my leg and getting me LBW, I continued to struggle against the blokes that bowled off-spin mixed with a straight ball (There's that combination again). Against anyone that bowls with some pace I've been working on moving my feet and in the last year or so in practice in the paddock with Joe I've been walking down the crease to the bowler in the same way that England Women's Tammy Beuamont does in this video here at 4'.45' (double click on the image below).
and is seems to work for me if the wicket it relatively sound and the bowler is bowling in a consistent manner. The good thing is, If I'm able to get to the Writtle nest every week heading into the season I reckon this may make some difference especially with Graham Davies's coaching. This is first time in 12 years that someone has helped me with my batting!
Action Plan________________________________________________________________
In the next session try and work on the top-spinner or at least have a look at it and see if there's any chance at all of bowling with the seam relatively straight. At home keep flicking the ball from hand to hand and look at the wrist position adjustment to produce a ball with more over-spin, but with the same amount of revs on the ball seen with the leg-break.
What happened _________________________________________________________
The first two nets of the year, one at Woodlands school and the other at Writtle. Bowled and batted. No expectation or plan for the bowling, with the batting an intention to be more positive. Was bowled by my son Joe and Alistair Hayton. (fast and off-spin respectively).
Feelings________________________________________________________________
Given that this was the first net of the season I was happy with what happened apart from the fact that Joe who was bowling in the 1st and 2nd XI nets came across to my net when I started batting and knowing full well that in the best of circumstances I struggle with the ball coming into my legs - bowled into my legs. He came around the wicket and hit me in the side of the knee where there's no pads and no straps even. 2 days later it looks like this...
What was good/bad_________________________________________________________
Bowling at the first net session (Club nets) was bad, primarily because there were a load of blokes in the nets and you're rotating your turn with 8 others and there's no way that you're going to get any rhythm. Good in that session was that my line was pretty much spot on, I was able to bowl the line I wanted, length was okay too. 2nd net at Writtle that was good with regards the batting, but that's in part down to the fact that the group I'm there with (Disability players) included Graham Davies AKA G-Man who's the coach for them at Essex as far as I'm aware. So that meant the batting was done with purpose and scenarios.
Analysis __________________________________________________________________
Bowling, at both sessions, the majority of my bowling was was on or outside the off-stump, so with the ball turning away from the batsmen. They have a look at a few balls and then see the consistency of my line and turn see and that its not actually threatening the stumps. They then play cut shots of different varieties, drives and back-foot drives. All of these can be countered as I keep arguing in my other blog here by having a strong and organised off-side field.
One of the blokes that I bowled at... Alistair Hayton I asked about this approach (He also bowls) and he said "if I saw that the field on the leg-side was offering more scoring opportunities, I'd be stepping across the crease and trying to score through the leg-side". It's then that you need a straight ball or some other variation which is something I need to work on. I do bowl a Flipper and I did try one or two, but both went leg-side. Flippers are a variation that I need to work on a lot before using in a game. But preferably, I'd have a good Top-Spinner, again, this is a ball I have to work with a lot in order for it to be usable and last year my attempts at a Top-Spinner were indifferent. A perfectly straight one would be ideal, but just a leg-break with only a little turn would be more than useful. Googlies for me are out of the question.
So for the moment the basic plan when bowling this summer will involve the field here...
This field is reliant on being accurate with your bowling line in order to not concede runs on the leg-side. Added to this your length and speed needs to be such that you're able to land the ball on a length that encourages the batsman to drive off the front foot and not slow enough to play back foot shots.
The key thing here is to be able to bowl variations in line and length, if you've got something that doesn't turn - bring it out early show the batsman. I have a number of sub variations of my leg-break - As well as the bog- standard leg-break I can vary it's flight, dip and the amount of turn by either getting up on my toes at FFC (Front foot contact). Generally I bowl without going up on the toes for my standard leg-break, but simply going up on the toes creates more dip and turn. The same speed ball will have a trajectory initially that looks similar, but will then suddenly dip and then bounce more.
There's a caveat to this though, this kind of accuracy and control of variation isn't the norm and only comes about when I'm totally relaxed and 3 overs into the game when I'm bowling well in practice. Generally I need to be fully fit and practicing a lot. (See 'Action Plan' below.
Batting Analysis Batting is something I need to work on as you can see from the picture above - cricket friends on Facebook have helpfully suggested that I should hit the ball rather than let it hit me. Other than my son Joe nearly breaking my leg and getting me LBW, I continued to struggle against the blokes that bowled off-spin mixed with a straight ball (There's that combination again). Against anyone that bowls with some pace I've been working on moving my feet and in the last year or so in practice in the paddock with Joe I've been walking down the crease to the bowler in the same way that England Women's Tammy Beuamont does in this video here at 4'.45' (double click on the image below).
Action Plan________________________________________________________________
In the next session try and work on the top-spinner or at least have a look at it and see if there's any chance at all of bowling with the seam relatively straight. At home keep flicking the ball from hand to hand and look at the wrist position adjustment to produce a ball with more over-spin, but with the same amount of revs on the ball seen with the leg-break.
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