SportsShoes Blog

Well well well time flies! Its got round to pre season training again. It has been a shock to the system getting up on a Sunday morning for training, having spent every Sunday since September in hibernation I wasn’t exactly looking forward to it. And to make it even more fun it was colder inside than it was outside!

Bowling was strange for for a bit,  I was using muscles I haven’t used in 6 months and they didn’t like the first 30min, they were feeling very stiff. I was surprised how quickly I settled into a rhythm and after an hour I was feeling good. I just bowled this week as I find it takes me longer to settle back into bowling than it does batting so I tend to work on that for the first 2 weeks then get on with the batting. Monday morning wasn’t fun, ached alot, my shoulders were very bad so it’s time to stock up on Radox!!

I was back in the 1st team again this week and was back in the wickets. We played at Keighley who are up for promotion. I bowled 1st change and took 3 wickets for 2 runs in my first 3 overs, which I was very happy with then i came back on at the death and kept it tight. I finished with 3 wickets for 26 runs in 10 overs.

Everything feels as though it has clicked into place with my bowling over the past few weeks. Just bad timing, it’s come right at the end of season.

Looks like a might be having a net today, weathers not too bad.

I need to get working on my run up becaue i think thats where my problems have been with my bowling. I havent felt like I’ve had any rythm for  while now. If you dont have any rythm its hard to be consistant because each ball feels different when you release it. The key to fast bowling is rythm and every ball should feel the same which is down to kinesthesis (which is the ability to sense the psoition and orientation of your body and its parts, A-level P.E. has its uses!), if it doesnt feel right then whatever your doing it isnt going to happen right!

So fingers crossed I can get some work done on this tonight!

Well I ended up in the first team this weekend because of 3 people dropping out on Friday night which was not really the way i wanted to make my return to be honest! I’ve just started to find form with the bat again and was hoping for another week in the seconds to get a few more runs but it wasn’t to be.

We played Farsley who are top of the league and got beat convincingly. I didnt get chance to get on to bowl before they had knocked the runs off which i was a bit annoyed with. Hopefully I can get a good practice session in on Thursday if the weather holds off and then get bowling back in the seconds so I can get some confidence back and end the season with some more wickets!

Another interesting week in coaching for me this week, I worked with some older players this week and we had a good session. I helped a few of them with their bowling actions. They were all spraying the ball about a bit, and struggling for consistancy. It is fairly easily solved is a problem like that, the main point is to stay as upright as possible through your full bowling action, keeping your head upright and your body as straight as possible. One of the most important things to remember is that wherever your non bowling arm goes the arm with the ball follows. If your front arm is dragging down then your bowling arm follows it and is dragged down. Staying as tall as possible is one of the key things in quick bowling.

If any of you have any questions about cricket, whether its coaching, playing or just a general question feel free to ask me and I’ll do my best to answer!!!!!

Well I was meant to play 2 games this weekend but Saturday was a washout, I went all the way to Halifax to come all the way back an hour later! Spent the rest of the day cleaning!

Sunday we played against Saltaire, we batted first and got 224, i picked up a quick 7 but was run out which i was not too happy about. I opened the bowling for the first time in a while because of my shoulder, it went well, i took 3 wickets in my first spell of 9 overs. I was very happy with how I bowled, and I had no pain in my shoulder which is great news.Unfortunately we lost in the end by about 5 runs, but still picked up about 8 bonus points.

I’ve been struggling with 2 parts of my bowling recently, my run up and also keeping upright throughout my bowling action. After working on my run up in the nets this week I think I have sorted my problem with bwling no balls which has really been frustrating me asI’m only millimetres over the line. And also spending some time bowling on my own to iron out my problems with my action collapsing while I bowl which means I start spraying the ball down the legside and bowling wides. I think I’m back in the first team this week after a few good weeks of bowling, hopefully I can keep bowling well and keep my place!!