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The difference between Sidespin & Overspin | The Spin Bowling Podcast Episode 4

·35 min·2 clips

Steve O’Keefe’s 12 for 70 in India becomes the case study for why side spin can dominate.

Tom Scolet opens the chat with Craig Howard Howie and keeps the focus on side spin and overspin. It sounds like a simple question, but there is plenty underneath it. The discussion sits inside the wider Spin Bowling Podcast run, so they also refer back to earlier episodes on character traits, finger spinners, leg and wrist spin, and the idea that different spin types demand different things. Howie keeps coming back to the practical side of bowling. He explains that overspin is usually the harder skill because it asks more of the bowler's action, energy, and control. That matters because a spinner who can handle the hardest ball is generally better placed to adapt later. The show treats that as a coaching principle rather than a slogan. The pair keep circling back to what the bowler is trying to make the ball do and what kind of preparation that takes. Howie then brings in Todd Murphy as a real example. He recalls meeting him as a 16-year-old who was bowling medium pace and mucking around in the nets. Howie noticed something in the way he was going about it, went over for a closer look, and ended up connecting with him. Murphy then came through at a country Victoria club. With Howie's role at Cricket Australia at the time, he saw strong all-round attributes in Murphy, and the spinner's bowling took over from there. A couple of years later, he was in the Australian under-19 team as a right-arm offspinner, batting down the order as well. Howie uses that path to make a larger point about preparing players for Australian conditions. The aim was to build him for first-class cricket in Australia first, with the chance to progress from there. He also talks about CA camps and the spin programs they were running each year. Those sessions included time on a red clay wicket in Brisbane. On that surface, heavy overspin would often make the ball sit up and stay slow. That made it a useful place to learn. The ball would not always behave the way a bowler expected. That is part of the lesson. Overspin is valuable because it is difficult, and difficulty is what helps a spinner grow. Side spin still has a place. The episode keeps stressing that overspin is not automatically the best ball. It is simply the hardest one to master. By the end, the conversation lands on a clear coaching message. Start with the toughest shape, learn what it demands, and then adapt from there.

As heard by us

A practical spin lesson that treats overspin as a craft, not a slogan.

This episode treats side spin and overspin as a coaching choice, not a simple either-or. It asks when each matters and why overspin is the harder skill to build.

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Why you'd press play

Learn when side spin helps, and why overspin is the harder road.

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