Several Fast Bowling Questions

Re: Several Fast Bowling Questions

Had a cracking net session last night. All of my team-mates were saying how i'd put on an extra yard or two of pace, and certain players look genuinely scared to face me. I'm 6ft1ish and it's finally starting to show in my bowling, and i'm definetly a future opener i think. We were using the sports hall at my school, which has the usual concrete floors but with a soft, carpet cricket pitch thing on top of it, so good bounce is definetly possible off the concrete, but i was getting really steep bounce off the pitch.

I now have something in my bowling which can get top players out. One of the A team top batsmen came into bat and i watched him coming down the pitch to the other bowlers so made my mind up to bounce him, and i got him with a swift hit to the ribs :p. Then another of the 1st teamers came into bat, and after watching me getting some steep bounce, and bowling regular bouncers to other players was expecting another bouncer first up. This wasn't in my plans though, and i hit him with a fast leg-stump yorker, clean bowled. Love it :D.

I didn't bother trying cutters or anything, as i was bowling well enough using the bounce i was extracting with my pace and height. It did start to get annoying towards the end though as good length balls were bouncing up at rib height, and any stray in line was punished with a cut or pull. This only happened very rarely though, and i was the only bowler that didn't get a good carting, none of the batsmen managed to hit me straight out of the net, which can only be a good indication for the upcoming season.

The only thing i need to sort out is being able to bowl a more consistent line and length, if i could get a good line, my bouncers could become extremely dangerous. I do get swing aswell though, so if the pitch isn't bouncing much, i can just pitch the ball up abit and get the mean outswing that i was getting last season. Run-ups going to be something i'll need to get right next season though, what do you recommend in terms of run-up ? How many paces ?
 
Re: Several Fast Bowling Questions

Run up very much depends on the person. Try a few different lenghts and see how it goes. A good place to start is to start running backwards from the crease and when you feel like bowling, bowl. Get a friend to mark the spot and count the paces back to the crease.

As a rough idea, my run up was 9-10 paces last season.

Sounds great that you're getting bounce, it's one of the things that troubles even the top players consistently. It also sounds like you've got brains to go with it, which makes it even more dangerous.
 
Re: Several Fast Bowling Questions

Open question to all, would it be advisable to force the front leg high after the back leg has landed in the delivery stride?
 
Re: Several Fast Bowling Questions

No- it will add more stress to the front leg which you wont be able to handle.
 
Re: Several Fast Bowling Questions

Guys im 15 and no matter where i go in england i cant seem to gat any good fast bowling training but what iwant to ask you about now is overtraining.
I love cricket can't enough but i'm doing five hours worth of hardcore nets per week on top of three hours of sports at school.
The seasons is just around the corner and i'm starting to feel it all getting to me should i miss a few weeeks of net or would my fast bowling suffer from not practicing
 
Re: Several Fast Bowling Questions

Don't miss a few weeks, but cut it down massively. Practice for shorter periods of time and ensure you warm up and warm down.

I had a session today and I am not quite sure how it went. My accuracy was awful, the bowling was short and often down leg side, but people were telling me that I was working up good pace, even though it didn't feel like it.
 
Re: Several Fast Bowling Questions

mas cambios said:
manee said:
Was Wasim ever that quick? I have seen clips of him in 2001 and he was low to mid 80s.

I think he could get it up there to around 90mph but wasn't able to sustain it. Obviously during the early years of his career speeds guns weren't so prevalent so you had to rely a lot on word of mouth.

All I know from watching him is that he was quicker than most.
Well i mean we have to look at wasim akram as a great bowler who relied more on swing than pace and there are more bowlers like him. Look at magrath for an example. Theyve picked up so many wickets relying on swing so gettin up in the 90's doesn't really matter. Its just ur line, length and speed
 
Re: Several Fast Bowling Questions

I got timed on a speed gun yesterday, at the end of a net session and hit 62mph, it is a step up from my previous best of 58mph. Better still, I bowled 6 balls at 61mph whereas I used to only bowl the odd ball at 58mph. The target is 65mph by about May since that is quite a good pace for a 16 year old whereas 62mph is still just sharp medium pace.
 
Re: Several Fast Bowling Questions

Two clips from a net session:

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T2mA9hIyp98]Behind bowler view[/ame]
[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GGvAOoXHCNM]Side on view[/ame]
 
Re: Several Fast Bowling Questions

From what I can see all your pace is dependant on the speed of your arms, there seems to be no pace into the crease and no momentum building up into the crease. You should be striving to bowl fast by running in hard and following through the crease, taking the momentum through the crease. I think if you work on that you'll be pretty nippy.
 
Re: Several Fast Bowling Questions

There is great improvement here manee; you are looking stronger and more controlled.
 
Re: Several Fast Bowling Questions

Liz Ward said:
There is great improvement here manee; you are looking stronger and more controlled.

Thanks :)

I am going to try to compact the movement of my arms in my jump (as well as concentrating on momentum, when I have more room to run in) - I am seeing (dare I say it), a bit of Harmison in the haphazard nature of my bowling arm in the jump. A batsman's view (I'll post it if you wish) shows that I don't drive my bowling arm across to where I want to bowl it and so my fingers push it there, I'll work on that too.
 
Re: Several Fast Bowling Questions

I think you're trying to make your action too complicated and worrying about too many things at 1 time, trying to compact your arms and doing a 6 and 1/2 stride jump, just run in fast and trying bowl as quick as you can. I feel you're trying to think too much about the technicalities when all you want to do is gain the extra yard of pace. Just try and run in at a sprint pace, this will keep your momentum up and will allow you to power through the crease, then once your pace is improved sufficiently you can worry about all the technical points. Just try getting your pace up by putting more effort into the run up and power through the crease, it seems to me like you've tried to help yourself too much, taken on too much information and it's infact making you improve less, as you're worrying about the technical points as opposed to the main goal of bowling fast and taking wickets.

Also, you might aswell post up the batsman view, might allow us to give you more tips.
 
Re: Several Fast Bowling Questions

KP, I have tried to absolutely sprint in, jump and bowl as fast as possible, but it just doesn't produce the pace. Consequently, I slow down my run up in nets and concentrate on technique. Although fast bowling comes naturally to you, it does not to me. From what you have said, you are a tall, strong lad, whereas I am quite short and skinny.

The 6 1/2 step long jump is not as complex as it sounds, it is merely a way for me to avoid no balls whilst having a long jump. To be honest, it is just the same as marking out a run up.

The clip will be up in about five minutes, but I'm going for a game now - so can't link to it yet. You'll be able to find it by checking out my youtube area though.
 
Re: Several Fast Bowling Questions

Got two new videos up on youtube. Two different views attempting to use a more biomechanically efficient load up whilst keeping my back leg on the floor for a better hip drive. Bit of classic British comedy in there too if you look hard enough ;)

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zKXitE4dT3w]Clip 1[/ame]
[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xhm0khfR638]Clip 2[/ame]

Nothing with hang time in there because I've concluded that my action is too different with and without a ball and I don't have the room in my garden for hang time and to release the ball so that clip will come on Wednesday when I head down the nets.
 
Re: Several Fast Bowling Questions

manee said:
Bit of classic British comedy in there too if you look hard enough ;)

Didn't have to look too hard manee ;) It's much better viewing backwards though :laugh:

Not bad from what I can see [good improvement] although I would like a few more front on. Look forward to your next appearance.

Are these posted in a different format or recorded on a different camera? They were so much easier to view and analyse.
 
Re: Several Fast Bowling Questions

No, same camera. It is only a walk through pace, which is why I thought it would be.
 
Re: Several Fast Bowling Questions

No, its not that, I can actually manipulate the video; rewind, fastforward, slow to frame by frame etc... have not been able to before.
 
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