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I want to speed up my bowling

Tom M

School Boy/Girl Cricketer
Oh now I see, you want the secret magic speed formula! Why didn't you say?
Ironically Dave, there is a secret, something that I really don't think that anyone's picked up on. All those things like rhythm and fluidity are very important, but I've seen some very slow rhythmic bowlers!

hopefully it won't be too secret soon though!!! :laugh:

All I'm going to say is that the secret is in the... I honestly really want to say it, but I'm afraid i'm going to be greedy and not tell anyone, at least until I do a bit of writing.
 

Manee

Cricketer Of The Year
Is this something that one or two bowlers over the years have implemented or something that all the quick bowlers have, in the action? Also, how is your research helping with your bowling personally? I always found self-analysis regarding the action to be damaging, have you found a similar trend?

EDIT: You might be interested in my couple articles I did a while back on fast bowling...

http://www.indiancricketfans.com/showthread.php?t=112824
http://www.indiancricketfans.com/showthread.php?t=112825

(Not advertising, just that the pictures don't work as well in a word document).
 
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Tom M

School Boy/Girl Cricketer
Is this something that one or two bowlers over the years have implemented or something that all the quick bowlers have, in the action? Also, how is your research helping with your bowling personally? I always found self-analysis regarding the action to be damaging, have you found a similar trend?

EDIT: You might be interested in my couple articles I did a while back on fast bowling...

The column of uncertainty - Sreesanth - Indian Cricket Fans
The column of uncertainty - James Anderson - Indian Cricket Fans

(Not advertising, just that the pictures don't work as well in a word document).
No mate, if a bowler has ever bowled a ball over 93mph, I would say they have to do what I will suggest you do. For me 95mph is the speed where your biomechanics are pretty much 95% of the way there.

No one will believe me on this but I predict that eventually someone will bowl 105mph if they got it 99.9% right and did enough work in the gym and did enough flexibility work. For me, about 105mph is the human bowling 'speed limit'.

I haven't found self-analysis damaging at all, and besides I have no other choice to self-analyse since as far as I know I'm the only bloke teaching this stuff. I can feel when i get it right, and I know when I get it right because I don't have to put any effort into my action. I have to admit, I don't get it right all the time, but I certianly know why I'm not getting it right.

Manee, congratulations on the articles, but I'm afraid I have to contest a few things with you.

I don't really agree with much of your analysis if I'm honest, but I MOSTLY don't agree with this:

'Sreesanth has potential for a powerful hip drive, as he keeps his back foot on the floor throughout the action.'

If you can give me one reason why keeping his back foot on the floor creates a powerful hip drive then I'll be stunned. I can tell you how to keep your back foot on the floor and create no 'hip drive' at all.

This whole hip drive thing annoys me. If you actively try to drive your hips when you're bowling you'll slow down or stop completely. The reason is becuase when you tense a muscle you have to 'feel' it to know you've done it. This process of sending a message to the muscle to tense, then tensing the muscle, and then telling the brain that you've tensed the muscle takes time. The action is so quick that you simply don't have time to go through this process and bowl quickly.

Hip drive DEFINITELY occurs, it's just that muscular tension doesn't cause it.

There are other things that I could go into but I don't want to destroy your confidence.

Manee, I think it's great that you're looking deeper into bowling, just really make sure you think through all of what you say. Please remember that Newton's laws rule EVERYTHING at the macroscopic level. If your arguments aren't backed up by good classical physics (mechanics) then I'm afraid they're probably wrong.

Sorry if this seems a bit damning.
 

Tom M

School Boy/Girl Cricketer
Sorry if this seems a little obsessive but I just did a quick analysis of Sreethanth's action and have decided that he's got it all where it really matters.

Apart from his bound.

In my opinion, the bound is the worst idea I've ever heard. And in the scheme of things, Sreethanth's is one of the worst in international cricket.

The reason for this requires a little bit of analysis using a mechanical principle called the conservation of energy but I'll sum it up in the most simple terms I can think of: why bound high when you want to bound long? Why does the 100m hurdle race take longer than the 100m sprint? If you really want to kill as much of your run-up energy as possible, I suggest you jump as high in the air as you can, which is exactly what sreethanth does.

It's a damn shame because sreethanth could have been sharp if he knew some basic physics.
 

knights12

Cricket Spectator
Why does the 100m hurdle race take longer than the 100m sprint?QUOTE]

I would think that if you applied this to cricket it would hold little relevance as no bowler ever runs in as fast as they can...even Brett Lee is below top speed when bowling. If they did they would lose balance and therfore lose speed. I would think that the "bound" as you call it would increase the ground reaction forces created so that more momentum can be transferred through the body. In the case of the hip drive I reckon the more forward rotated your right hip is (for right arm bowler) the further behind your bowling arm is and the more it can whip through quickly. This is the biomechanical principle of 'sequencing body segments' so the bigger segments pass on their momentum to the smaller segments which in turn travel faster...much like a whip or fishing rod. I have not done any research into this so these are only my initial thoughts...and I am by no means an expert on Biomechanics so I would be interested in hearing what your thoughts are in more detail.
 

knights12

Cricket Spectator
The other thing I just thought of

is that there is a distinct difference between javelin throwing and bowling. In javelin the projectile is released on about a 45-50 degree upward angle and the follow through is non existant for obvious reasons. Because of this the position of the feet in relation to the upper body is different to cricket. In javelin the upper body is further behind so that there is not so much rotation forward otherwise they would 'no throw'. In cricket bowlers are much more over their front leg which increases rotation forward and so I would think this would conserve the momentum more. I am open to other opinions on this though...as long as they make sense!
 

Manee

Cricketer Of The Year
No mate, if a bowler has ever bowled a ball over 93mph, I would say they have to do what I will suggest you do. For me 95mph is the speed where your biomechanics are pretty much 95% of the way there.

No one will believe me on this but I predict that eventually someone will bowl 105mph if they got it 99.9% right and did enough work in the gym and did enough flexibility work. For me, about 105mph is the human bowling 'speed limit'.

Manee, congratulations on the articles, but I'm afraid I have to contest a few things with you.

I don't really agree with much of your analysis if I'm honest, but I MOSTLY don't agree with this:

'Sreesanth has potential for a powerful hip drive, as he keeps his back foot on the floor throughout the action.'

If you can give me one reason why keeping his back foot on the floor creates a powerful hip drive then I'll be stunned. I can tell you how to keep your back foot on the floor and create no 'hip drive' at all.

This whole hip drive thing annoys me. If you actively try to drive your hips when you're bowling you'll slow down or stop completely. The reason is becuase when you tense a muscle you have to 'feel' it to know you've done it. This process of sending a message to the muscle to tense, then tensing the muscle, and then telling the brain that you've tensed the muscle takes time. The action is so quick that you simply don't have time to go through this process and bowl quickly.

Hip drive DEFINITELY occurs, it's just that muscular tension doesn't cause it.

There are other things that I could go into but I don't want to destroy your confidence.

Manee, I think it's great that you're looking deeper into bowling, just really make sure you think through all of what you say. Please remember that Newton's laws rule EVERYTHING at the macroscopic level. If your arguments aren't backed up by good classical physics (mechanics) then I'm afraid they're probably wrong.

Sorry if this seems a bit damning.
Lol, I don't mind about 'destorying my confidence', if all my stuff is wrong, I'd rather hear it than go forward in ignorance. The hip drive thing is from Ian Pont who states that you have more power with two feet on the floor than one foot on the floor and this is something which I have trailled in the nets and seen the genuinely quick side on bowlers and most front on bowlers do and a lot of medium pacers not do. From both feet on the floor, you can push off more powerfully and reach the classical position of the back knee powered up and forward, as is seen from many quick bowlers throughout the world; off the top of my heard, Akhtar and Younis would be two.

I think I have understood your muscular tension comment (I didn't, at first), but I'm not sure I totally agree, although it is an interesting insight into why my efforts to incorperate it have failed off more than a standing position. However, surely it is possible to, through original muscular tension, incorperate the hip drive to muscle memory through which it becomes a normal part of the action?

I haven't found self-analysis damaging at all, and besides I have no other choice to self-analyse since as far as I know I'm the only bloke teaching this stuff. I can feel when i get it right, and I know when I get it right because I don't have to put any effort into my action. I have to admit, I don't get it right all the time, but I certianly know why I'm not getting it right.
I am quite interested in my own action, but if I were to do it all again, I would choose ignorance on the bowling action front as it could probably allow me to relax more and bowl in the right area rather than worrying endlessly about my front arm or follow through.

Have you found an improvement in your bowling speed from your research, if so, how much?

Thanks.
 

Manee

Cricketer Of The Year
Sorry if this seems a little obsessive but I just did a quick analysis of Sreethanth's action and have decided that he's got it all where it really matters.

Apart from his bound.

In my opinion, the bound is the worst idea I've ever heard. And in the scheme of things, Sreethanth's is one of the worst in international cricket.

The reason for this requires a little bit of analysis using a mechanical principle called the conservation of energy but I'll sum it up in the most simple terms I can think of: why bound high when you want to bound long? Why does the 100m hurdle race take longer than the 100m sprint? If you really want to kill as much of your run-up energy as possible, I suggest you jump as high in the air as you can, which is exactly what sreethanth does.

It's a damn shame because sreethanth could have been sharp if he knew some basic physics.
I have come across thie theory recently through the Atul Sharma thing and now, from you but I can't say I can categorically agree. The mechanics and physics is sound, by my A* GCSE level, but you must notice that the quick side on bowlers and many quick front on bowlers have a bound of some sort. Akhtar gets a fair bit off the ground and Brett Lee has one of the longer and highest jumps in cricket and of course, I could reel off several other names.

Personally, I don't have a jump, more of a 'hop' into delivery stride (got videos if you're interested) but if I were to 'run through the crease' which would conserve momentum, I would know for sure that I could not stretch my muscles sufficiently to generate speed and so perhaps this is a useful aspect of the bound.
 

Manee

Cricketer Of The Year
No one will believe me on this but I predict that eventually someone will bowl 105mph if they got it 99.9% right and did enough work in the gym and did enough flexibility work. For me, about 105mph is the human bowling 'speed limit'.
I know this sounds sarcastic (its not), but is there a chance you could make this prediction true for you?
 

Tom M

School Boy/Girl Cricketer
Why does the 100m hurdle race take longer than the 100m sprint?QUOTE]

I would think that if you applied this to cricket it would hold little relevance as no bowler ever runs in as fast as they can...even Brett Lee is below top speed when bowling. If they did they would lose balance and therfore lose speed. I would think that the "bound" as you call it would increase the ground reaction forces created so that more momentum can be transferred through the body. In the case of the hip drive I reckon the more forward rotated your right hip is (for right arm bowler) the further behind your bowling arm is and the more it can whip through quickly. This is the biomechanical principle of 'sequencing body segments' so the bigger segments pass on their momentum to the smaller segments which in turn travel faster...much like a whip or fishing rod. I have not done any research into this so these are only my initial thoughts...and I am by no means an expert on Biomechanics so I would be interested in hearing what your thoughts are in more detail.
My point was that you loose speed by having to go over the hurdle. It doesn't matter what speed you run in at, if you have to go up you'll loose some straight line speed.

Back foot ground reaction force is something you want to minimise front foot ground reaction force is something you want to maximise. How does slamming your back foot down help to transfer momentum to the rest of your body? Sorry mate, but I'm afraid it just not good physics.

You're right about sequential firing of body segments, it's just important about how you implement it.

Manee, you say a lot of quick fast bowlers, have bounds. You're right. The difference between sreeshanth and lee is their horizontal speed through the jump. I really want to say more about this, hopefully I'll have an article on pitch vision about all this soon.

And trust me mate, you don't want to be running through the crease.

Knight, our bodies are ruled by the same principles whether we're throwing a stick or a ball. You're right to think that they are differences, but I have some compounding evidence (both from photos and theory) to show that bowling and throwing are pretty much identical.

I'd like to say more but I've got a game to play!
 

Manee

Cricketer Of The Year
Manee, you say a lot of quick fast bowlers, have bounds. You're right. The difference between sreeshanth and lee is their horizontal speed through the jump. I really want to say more about this, hopefully I'll have an article on pitch vision about all this soon.
Oh, that makes sense. Yes, the usefulness of the jump is definitely an important aspect.

And trust me mate, you don't want to be running through the crease.
One might say I sorta do, but my legs have always been a weak point in my action and I must say that I generate a great deal of my pace through a powerful transferral of weight from backfoot to front foot impact, when I get it right.

I'd like to say more but I've got a game to play!
Just come back from one, myself, 2/20 off 10, oppo were shocking and had two put down at gully.
 

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