Fast Bowling

[manee]

Hi,

I am a left arm medium bowler and I bowl 45 - just <60 mph. I aspire to be as fast as Brett Lee, Shane Bond, or Shoiab Akhtar.

Could people that have experience of any kind of pace give me some tips and answers to my questions.

Kenny Benjamin once said: "A fast bowler should have strong lower body and a flexable upper body." Is this true?

My bro gave me the tip of having a loose arm when I bowl, do any of you fast bowlers do that?

My wrist falls away when I bowl...do you reckon it could be to do wid having a stiff arm?

Tips I have been given so far

Strong lower body

Improved fitness - build stamina

Build momentum in your run up.

Dont make the run up too long

Upper body strength - shoulder and stomach muscles and core strength

Michael Holding once said, excersise for 10-15 minutes before bowling, it reduces chance of injury and helps biuld rhythm.

Thanks in advance

Reps for ALL helpful advice

Manee

[genghis_khan]

yep u need a really strong lower body in particular...otherwise bowling at express pace will result in injuries (some serious like stress fractures)

if u are nice and tall then that will help...but overall just build up your fitness level.

[skater]

I'm not an expert on fitness, but as a fast bowler myself I can give you some tips. First of all, don't make your run up too long. To test if it is or not, run in towards the wickets until you feel ready to bowl. An indeal run up should be on the crease. When running up, build momentum. Start off with a jog, and go faster and faster until you release it. Finally, when you have bowled the delivery, stay alert. You never know when you might have to dive for a catch or do some quick fielding.

[manee]

Thanks.

Sadly I'm only 5ft 5 which is bout average for my age...and to build up my lower body strength and fitness I'm going for a run round my garden.

See you in 5 mins

Manee

Originally Posted by SkateBoarder

I'm not an expert on fitness, but as a fast bowler myself I can give you some tips. First of all, don't make your run up too long. To test if it is or not, run in towards the wickets until you feel ready to bowl. An indeal run up should be on the crease. When running up, build momentum. Start off with a jog, and go faster and faster until you release it. Finally, when you have bowled the delivery, stay alert. You never know when you might have to dive for a catch or do some quick fielding.

Thanks for that...Ill take that in mind

[Sureshot]

I hope you're not fully grown.

A 5 foot 5 fast bowler at the speed of Brett Lee, would probably not be possible.

[manee]

Im 14!

[.::Stevo::.]

Originally Posted by manee

Im 14!

Then you got a long road ahead if you want to bowl 150+km/h....
Work on your upper body strength and i'd suggest running alot further than the garden lol

Also get your coach (if you play cricket) to work on your technique.

[manee]

Ok, but don't I need to have flexable upper body and Strong legs...or is it the other way round

[Adarsh]

To be honest, I doubt if you'll reach even 135.

[manee]

wat makes u say that

[donkey]

You bowl slower than a spinner and you wanna be brett lee. Hushh I say

[rickyp]

shoulder muscles and stomach muscles are the most important for speed (shoulder for the pace, stomach for the strength to withstand the pressure on your back, something i lack.)

Does anyone know an easy to measure speed, like some crazy way of doing it using a physics calculation or something? coz i wouldnt mind knowing exactly how fast i bowl.

[James219]

Stomach muscles and core strength are key factors, I do exercises for those two things pretty much everyday, try find out about some if possible, and also doing quite a few runs (I do around four 20 minute runs a week now, but have to build up as fitness is the key, Lee's extremely fit as he's built himself up in that area and has developed into doing sprint sessions, endurance, fartlek sessions, etc) a week helps increase endurance which ultimately helps maintenance of pace/accuracy throughout a long spell.

And rickyp, I think there's some special ball where it measures the speed, unreliable though and it breaks quickly I think from what I've heard.

[puddleduck]

Originally Posted by rickyp

Does anyone know an easy to measure speed, like some crazy way of doing it using a physics calculation or something? coz i wouldnt mind knowing exactly how fast i bowl.

Get a stop watch, time how long it takes for the ball to go from your hand to the stumps... do this a few times to get an average time that rules out anomolous readings. You will most likely need a mate to do it.

Then I think divide the distance by the time it takes to get an average speed.

Not perfect, but better than buying a speed gun

[cricket_lover]

The first thing to do is build some stamina. Bike, exercise regularly, that'll give you the physical and mental strength. Do lot of running, try your run up, and when you bowl, free your arms. Dont restrict yourself to one action, try various one's..you are comfortable with and gradually, increase the pace.