I've been ill since December it seem. I've constantly had either a cough or a cold or both combined. I don't recall feeling 100% at all over that period and still feel crap as I write. Despite this I've been playing through the winter indoor cricket and we've been netting indoors for the last 10 weeks.
The indoor cricket was brought to a sudden halt when I pulled my calf muscle. I immedeatley stopped and had a 3 week recovery phase that went really well after a week of initial pain and not being able to walk properly, but thereafter the recovery was smooth and uneventful and I seem to be fully recovered. But that meant I wasn't involved with the final weeks of the indoor cricket.
But what seems to have happened as a result of the indoor cricket I've potentially improved, primarily around the use of the Top-Spinner which I used a lot. As a consequence I've been using it in the nets and again it seems very effective when used as a variation.
Last night was the last of the indoor winter net sessions before moving to outside training. It was a good session with a useful development. On the Top-Spinner 'Journey' I'd looked at bowling with the ball high in the fingers rather than nestled in the hands as with the leg breaks and that worked for the most part. Playing indoors with a lighter rubber ball, I felt like I wasn't getting enough 'action' on the ball. I also felt that with a proper ball that would be exacerbated, so at nets I started to bowl with the conventional grip and initially struggled with it - still producing small leg-breaks and still not happy with the amount of action I was getting on the ball. But it's come together over the last 3-4 weeks really well.
Last night bowling the top-spinners, I noted something that I had at the end of the season last year in the nets when I started to explore them... Some of them end up being Wrong-uns. So, last night I noted that if I rotate my wrist a little more it was breaking to off, I tried it 3 times and all three times it worked... Some of you might be thinking well yeah, that's obvious but, you haven't had 'Googly Syndrome'...
The less experienced me would now get really excited at the prospect of being able to bowl the wrong-un and focus on bowling it till I could get it to turn square. But, I know where that leads to, you end up being an superb off-break bowler (Wrong-uns) and nothing else because you potentially lose the ability to bowl your leg-break. When this happened to me I spent a few seasons being an off-break bowler and in the end people started saying 'I thought you were a Leggie'? Added to that I wasn't taking wickets people were playing me with the spin out to leg and easily dealing with it. It took 3 seasons if I recall correctly to rid myself of the wrong-un and it wasn't till I committed to never trying it ever and focusing on bowling only the leg-break 100% did I rid myself of it.
As a consequence, seeing it now, I'm cautious. I also know that I only need to get it to break to off a little and it's going to work. It's only ever going to be affective if I can bowl the Leg-Break and use it as a variation as do with the Flipper and the Top-Spinner. So for the moment I'm happy to produce it rarely in a practice session, if I can do so on demand and as is happening so far with good accuracy I'll be more than happy. We'll have to see how it plays out over the remaining weeks running up to the start of the season in May.
Another good thing that came out of last night, one of the better batters - Koushak (1st/2nd team bat) commended me on my bowling saying my length was spot on. I got him at least 3 times with mis-hits that would have been caught potentially. All in all since the calf-muscle recovery everything has gone really well.
Being 64 one of things I don't do well is throwing the ball in from the boundary, so tonight I've been out with a bucket of balls and been throwing down a stump over a distance of about 75' initially. So far it's been fine -pleasingly accurate and 4 hours later not suffering from any muscle over-use in the shoulders or arms. I'll try and build this up and work over longer distances. I'd like to be able to do this with someone else, but no-one else is up for it as far as I'm aware. Could that be...
Being overly focused on something, or "hyperfocus," is a trait commonly associated with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), and Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD), as well as being a potential coping mechanism for anxiety and depression.
My kids and wife reckon so.
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