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Front arm - how high?

bond21

Banned
So I do get my front arm pretty high naturally but i have not been concentrating on it, and I feel I might not be bowling as fast as possible.

At the match today a guy bowling on the other team had a really high front arm, it looked like he was jumping and reaching for the sky then hammering it down - he was their quickest bowler and was pretty quick.

So what exactly should your front arm be doing when you're bowling fast, and how high do you jump - does a higher jump mean more pace?

I dont have the video facilities to get a video of my action to show you, but my load up would look close to Dale Steyn's, my bowling hand loads up on my shoulder, and my front arm starts near my right shoulder aswell, then quickly drives out and down.

Hard to explain but its similar to Dale Steyn's
 
Last edited:

Neil Pickup

Cricket Web Moderator
If it looks like Steyn's then you've really not got much to worry about.

The purpose of the front arm is to kick off the rotation of the bowling arm (after all, the two arms are joined across your shoulders). Shoaib phrases it as "trying to grab the batsman by the collar and pull him towards you".

As for the jump - it should be comfortable and enough to set you into a powerful position to release. Of course a higher jump doesn't mean more pace - a higher jump means your energy is being diverted up rather than forwards.
 

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