Post by sla on Apr 4, 2013 4:30:31 GMT -5
It depends what level he/she is at and what specifically is the problem. If they're just a beginner then you may want to go back to basics and go over the combined arm action and the leg movement separately. At this point you can diagnose and attempt to correct any problems based purely on technical observations, eg bowling off the wrong foot, bending the arm.
If the kid is a bit more advanced (ie able to run up and bowl 6 balls without any wides or no-balls), then you need to be a bit more circumspect and identify the outcome problem before addressing anything technical. Sometimes the answer is obvious and simple to fix: erratic bowling is caused by an erratic action, which is caused by different numbers of strides in the run-up.
Sometimes its less obvious, in which case video footage becomes useful. Never try and fix a problem until you are 99% sure what is causing it - kids can only change one thing at a time, so if you tell them something irrelevent you're actively preventing them from changing the thing they need to fix.
Supposedly if you want to change something unconsciously you need to do something 10,000 times. People often take this to mean it takes years to change someone's bowling action even just slightly. I don't buy it - I can bowl an over with 6 different bowling actions, I don't see why given the right mental cues, a kid can't improve his action instantly. The hard part is the right mental cue to give him.
The reason so many coaches find it takes a long time to improve a kid's bowling action is because they have given them so much crap and irrelevent advice they have decided to ignore them. Kids aren't stupid, they can tell instantly if you actually know what the problem is or if you're just bluffing; they can see that following the advice is making them worse, not better.
If the kid is a bit more advanced (ie able to run up and bowl 6 balls without any wides or no-balls), then you need to be a bit more circumspect and identify the outcome problem before addressing anything technical. Sometimes the answer is obvious and simple to fix: erratic bowling is caused by an erratic action, which is caused by different numbers of strides in the run-up.
Sometimes its less obvious, in which case video footage becomes useful. Never try and fix a problem until you are 99% sure what is causing it - kids can only change one thing at a time, so if you tell them something irrelevent you're actively preventing them from changing the thing they need to fix.
Supposedly if you want to change something unconsciously you need to do something 10,000 times. People often take this to mean it takes years to change someone's bowling action even just slightly. I don't buy it - I can bowl an over with 6 different bowling actions, I don't see why given the right mental cues, a kid can't improve his action instantly. The hard part is the right mental cue to give him.
The reason so many coaches find it takes a long time to improve a kid's bowling action is because they have given them so much crap and irrelevent advice they have decided to ignore them. Kids aren't stupid, they can tell instantly if you actually know what the problem is or if you're just bluffing; they can see that following the advice is making them worse, not better.