Sunday, January 10, 2016

Sunday Cricket Lessons - Keep the Upper Body Aligned and Close For Best Results

One of the difficult things about getting side on into the bowling action, looking over the left shoulder and getting the upper body into the act is how we load the action. I was handed a semi new ball today and I started off stiffly trying to get it to move away from the batsman.

Looking over the shoulder was prime on my thoughts, release and giving the ball some reverse spin at release, releasing the ball high, focusing on the spot to bowl on and finishing the action fully were closely behind. Things were happening a bit, couple of edges etc until I suddenly hit upon a key which shifted the outcome into a different zone.

Instead of keeping my arms loose and at abdomen level as I moved into the action, I noticed that the times when I held the arm, forearm - close to the chest - basically keeping the body close as a unit and not splayed all over - I could get the body into a side on position and put the upper body behind the delivery more effectively. It seemed to the one key to many problems - just as keeping our eyes on the ball until the ball hits the bat - is to batting issues. I remember talking about this quality of keeping the body close, to my friend Suresh - how Messi keeps his body close together as a unit and thereby seems to have so much more control on the outcome.

The more I started doing this - hands close to the chest as I loaded - the ball started doing a lot more. The pace and movement picked up and after many years I felt like I had the measure of the batsman fully. The edges happened thick and fast - at least a dozen genuine edges flew into the slip zone which is huge. Its been a long long time since this happened.

I like the philosophy behind the bio mechanics aspect - keep the body close and aligned and going in one direction. Everything has to go in the same direction - some parts cannot be going here and there - it would be counter productive and less efficient.

2 comments:

Vidyuth Jaisimha said...

Spot on.....

Harimohan said...

We're learning Vid...we're learning. Finally!