Serious Question

[Unattainableguy]

How do you bowl really really fast?

Well, I'm gonna try and explain what I mean, I basically don't play cricket a lot(but watch it regularly) cuz I'm Canada and never really tried to join a league, club etc, so only just play maybe 3-4 times a month in summer with a few of my cousins/friends with tapeball. But just last two days after a long time I went to play and my cousins now play some other guys( some of those guys play with hard ball I think) so I got one over after pleading for a while and got hit for 3 sixes, two of when I tried to bowl it with the ball in like all four fingers i think, my way of bowling a cutter except it just always goes straight, bounces a bit more that way than my regular fast ball and goes a bit slower, pretty uselss maybe I can bowl it better on a real pitch but we were playing on a road. The other one of full toss when I tried to bowl legspin( 60% of time it's either full toss or just I can't bowl it properly and the ball drops within 5-6 steps from where I'm bowling, but when I get it right, it does turn a bit But anyway, so those guys bowl pretty fast, they're probably 7-8 years older, (Im 18 btw), so I think age is a factor obviously, btw we're from Pakistan, few were Benglali and one of them actually bowled as fast as Pollock, Asif, McGrath because I was wicket-keeping and it got to me within less than half a sec maybe around .3 of a sec somewhere around there, so anyway my question is how can I bowl as fast that guy? Please don't tell me about run-up, rhythm, stuff like that I know that makes a difference but getting those things right will make you a bit more quicker than you were before, I'm thinking about more like gym going there to build muscles, bigger chests etc would that help me to quickly increase my bowling speed, like being able to bowl maybe twice as fast very quickly? I hope someone can help here, maybe some bowler himself who knows how to bowl pace.

And does someone know a way to calculate your bowling speed, I've heard using a stopwatch and getting the time between when you deliver the ball and when it reaches the other end and calculating it that way, but would it be approximately the accurate result? I guess I can try few times and calculate the average. But anyway my first question is more important.

[Prince EWS]

Originally Posted by Unattainableguy

but would it be approximately the accurate result?

Nah, not even close.

[Unattainableguy]

Originally Posted by Prince EWS

Nah, not even close.

Oh lol that was quick, well I've heard the speed they show in INT matches is the speed of the ball when it leaves the hand, so using the stopwatch method I was talking about would show your speed a lot less than it is, so is there any other way then?

[Flem274*]

You certainly could bulk up, though you also want to be flexible. Do some yoga and that should help. How tall are you? height is essesntial to a fast bowler. Height gives you more bounce because of a higher delivery point and the height of which the ball is coming from plus the speed creates ALOT of bounce. Flexibility is extremely important because that way your body can handle the extreme positions that a fast bowler goes through. A good action is essential, if it's flawed it can lead to injury and lack of pace. All of this speed is useless however, if you are inaccurate.

[Unattainableguy]

Originally Posted by Flem274*

You certainly could bulk up, though you also want to be flexible. Do some yoga and that should help. How tall are you? height is essesntial to a fast bowler. Height gives you more bounce because of a higher delivery point and the height of which the ball is coming from plus the speed creates ALOT of bounce. Flexibility is extremely important because that way your body can handle the extreme positions that a fast bowler goes through. A good action is essential, if it's flawed it can lead to injury and lack of pace. All of this speed is useless however, if you are inaccurate.

hey, I'm 6 feet tall or maybe 6.1 which I think is alright, We usually just play on a concrete surface, and I don't really get a lot of bounce because I basically try to bowl full so either I go for runs or I'll get wickets and it isn't helpful because with tapeball you're not gonna get any movement so anything full is easy to hit. So I guess I'm gonna start bowling a bit shorter at times to get more bounce etc but for that I need to add more pace because the ball is pitching somewhere in the middle so the speed will start to decrease, like for example when I try to bowl a bouncer by the time it reaches the batsman it's slow and you can easily hook it for six, that's why I'm not worried too much about accuracy, if you can bowl fast, the guys I play with can't play you esp if you can just pitch it just short of good length area and if there's bounce which I'm sure won't be a problem provided I can increase my speed so I can bang the ball hard into the pitch, at the moment my guess would be its 55-60 mph(90-100 kmh), I want to get it around 80mph, I think i said i wanted it to be twice as fast

[iamdavid]

I consider myself quite knowledgeable on this subject as I used to be both a fast bowler and a gym junkie.
Firstly 'bulking up' wont do too much for you, look at all the best/fastest bowlers down the ages...how many of them have been big bulky guys ?.....I can barely think of any.
Shoaib Akhtar is an exception to the rule, his talent lies in that he has significant muscle mass yet is still very flexible, and flexibility as has already been said is extremely important, infact I'd say the most important natural attribute for bowling really fast.
Being tall helps aswell as longer arms give you more leverage.

Getting stronger wont neccesarilly make you any quicker, but you will hit the deck harder thus appearing quicker and be less vunerable to injury.
If you do want to do some serious gym work for fast bowling then the muscle groups I'd recomend you focus on are you're shoulders, chest and lats...can be hit easily in two or three excercises, do bench press/pushups, and chinups/pullups and like military presses...and I'd recommend doing a bit of work on you're legs/lower back for stability purposes, do squats or deadlifts they're great for you're upper legs/lower back.
Keep the weights relatively light or you risk bulking up a bit much which is good but not for fast bowling, like about 70-85% of the max u can do...and make sure you stretch thouroughly before and after to maintain flexibility.

And do lots of running, Michael Holding said that running is the best thing fast bowlers can do and in terms of technique he was pretty much the best.

One other thing, alot of fast bowling is natural talent as I'm sure you already know, your body matures at 20-25 and the speed you bowl then is pretty much as fast as you're ever going to, tweeking action, run-up and body will make about a 5-10kph difference max

[Unattainableguy]

Thanks for replying, I'll try those exercises you mentioned as well as running and see if all this helps. I also think most of this stuff won't usually make too much difference in speed like you mentioned, but I was thinking perhaps if you had stronger arms, shoulders you would be able to throw the ball with more force. Like when I'm batting, I usually can't hit too many sixes despite timing the ball really well and I know it's because of power in arms, shoulders, I'm unlike Afridi or Dhoni etc maybe more like Rahul Dravid strength wise. Other than that I think I bowl pretty fast for someone of my age, but I don't want to wait 2 more years when I'm 20 or older before I can bowl around 75 mph. I think I should also practice a bit more because I didn't even bat or bowl much yesterday, just throwing the ball around in the field, and I've already got cramps in my arms and shoulders, and maybe also change my action at the moment I bowl more like with Irfan Pathan's action( but right handed) but another one I bowl with at times is more straight on action, not exactly like Brett Lee but similar and the speed is usually a bit faster but the previous one feels more easier and natural but I'll try them both tomorrow and see if there's some difference in pace and then stick with one of them. Anyway, I found this forum http://www.cricketworld.com/forum/fo...pics.asp?FID=7 so I'll try some of the things mentioned there as well.

[Manee]

I am no pacer myself bowling about 60mph max at 15 years old but here is my two cents.

Run Up:

-Rhythmical with arms pumping efficently and not too high.
-Slight forward lean
-Short steps getting larger
-Light jog turning into sprinting which begins about five paces before delivery.

Gather:

-This is the last three steps and jump
-Make this an ACCELERATION not a decelleration as many do.
-Jump forward, utilising the momentum you have from your run up and adding more.

Action:

-Do what feels natural but be conscious of your chest and feet position making sure they face the same direction, no matter what that direction is, make sure they are the same.
-If you choose to go 90degrees side on, make the rotation during the jump and make sure you are front on at release (as all bowlers must be to release it properly)
-If you are 0 degrees front on, run through the action making the action simply an aim.
-Swing your arm over quickly till your hand slaps your back and drag your bowling arm in unison in order to create efficient bowling motion.
-Put your hips into the action as well as arms and legs, all must swing through.

Follow Through:

-50% of the run up length is ideal
-It is a good sign of how much momentum you carry at the crease, no follow through means you are either deliberately stopping or you stop too much in your action and lose all your momentum.

[PhoenixFire]

Goughy is the man when it comes to fast bowling coaching.

[Manee]

Originally Posted by PhoenixFire

Goughy is the man when it comes to fast bowling coaching.

If he is then I hope he posts because I am also very keen to learn how to bowl fast. At about 55mph (in matches judging that I get 58mph on speed gun in nets), I am not rapid by any means, but I feel that at 15 and 5ft 7 and a willingness to learn I could hopefully touch 80mph one day.

[PhoenixFire]

Yeah he is always willing to help people about bowling, he is a pretty good bowler himself, pretty rapid by all means.

[Manee]

How fast do you reckon if you gave a figure? Sorry to be pestering but pace bowling fascinates me to no end.

[Unattainableguy]

Thanks Manee, I'll try the things you mentioned.

55-60 mph for a 15 years old is pretty good. I guess if that's your speed right now, you will eventually get it around 80 mph at least quite easily if not more..

[shortpitched713]

Originally Posted by Unattainableguy

55-60 mph for a 15 years old is pretty good. I guess if that's your speed right now, you will eventually get it around 80 mph at least quite easily if not more..

Well I hate to be a negative Nancy, but probably not. It gets harder and harder to improve ones pace the faster one bowls. So unless you're doing something really wrong in your bowling right now, or are going to go through a huge growth spurt I feel its going to be extremely difficult to improve one's pace by 20-25 mph.

[Manee]

I am already doing something very wrong in my relase, I lean to much to the leg side (left arm over to a right hander) in my action and I feel this loses a lot of pace, its so hard to rectify though.