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Not able to chuck the ball!

rajushank84

Cricket Spectator
Hi,

I'm 26 y/o but I'm new to cricket. Never played cricket till now, and now want to learn. Tried for about a week now, and here's my problem.

The first day I tried to bowl, the ball ended up way away from the nets :laugh: . Once even landed on top of the net! Now after a week, it comes close to the batsman and I even managed to bowl a whole over without a wide.

Now my problem is this: Though I think I am slowly getting the line correct, I am not getting ANY pace on the ball. It becomes very slow and almost stops by the time it reaches the batsman, or pitches twice sometimes ("deadball"). Initially my friends told me to just keep trying & practicing but after a week's time, today they asked me to just stand in one place and chuck the ball first - forget the bowling action, just chuck the ball. What we found is, I am not able to even chuck the ball reasonably fast like the others!

Where (I think) I have improved is: Now I do a decent run-up, use my non-bowling arm, throw it up and get a rhythmic jump, complete the circular motion and bowl as my non-bowling arm comes down, deliver after the front foot has landed, land the front foot parallel to the crease, and come off with a side-on action. The ball even spins a little (I am trying to do off-spin). But the problem is, as I mentioned, it just doesn't seem to have any force in it :(

Any ideas?

(Please don't tell me to go to a cricket school. Problem is, in my city all the cricket academies have only basic courses for kids and advanced courses for adults. There are no basic courses for adults).
 

Coach_Pearson

First Class Debutant
Hi Raju,

First of all well done on been able to bowl within a week, it is a difficult art, and takes ages to learn, and a lifetime to master.

Next, don't even think about throwing, unless we want to talk about fielding, the last thing you want to do is start throwing when you are trying to bowl, it is a habit that will take a long time to unlearn.

Speed when bowling comes from many parts of your body working together:-

1. Both arms need to work together, the quicker the fron arm drops the faster the bowling arm comes through.

2. You need strength in your shoulders to rotate your arms fast enough.

3. You need use your back and your whole action to push the ball forward.

4. You need a solid run-up to transfers more speed onto the ball.

I would start with the action, and try to get yourself rotating your body through the delivery. your back should start by facing the sight screen and finish by facing the batsmen.

Good luck, it's a great game cricket, and I love your courage of taking it up at 26.

Let me know how you go...
 

Nate

You'll Never Walk Alone
Not an easy thing to do mate. Keep practicing. And ftr, your delivery can bounce twice.
 

rajushank84

Cricket Spectator
Hi Raju,

First of all well done on been able to bowl within a week, it is a difficult art, and takes ages to learn, and a lifetime to master.

Next, don't even think about throwing, unless we want to talk about fielding, the last thing you want to do is start throwing when you are trying to bowl, it is a habit that will take a long time to unlearn.

Speed when bowling comes from many parts of your body working together:-

1. Both arms need to work together, the quicker the fron arm drops the faster the bowling arm comes through.

2. You need strength in your shoulders to rotate your arms fast enough.

3. You need use your back and your whole action to push the ball forward.

4. You need a solid run-up to transfers more speed onto the ball.

I would start with the action, and try to get yourself rotating your body through the delivery. your back should start by facing the sight screen and finish by facing the batsmen.

Good luck, it's a great game cricket, and I love your courage of taking it up at 26.

Let me know how you go...
Thanks a lot, coach! I don't know if it is the confidence that I felt after reading your post, but today I got a bit more pace into the ball. I did try rotating the shoulder more today. I got to bowl only one over (apart from practice) and did bowl three wides (on the off side), but they were not way-off wides they were just about wides and none of the deliveries were toooo slow. A funny thing happened, one of my deliveries went on to hit the stump and the batsman was out :laugh: . That's only because the batsman at the crease was another newbie like me, but still the feeling of my delivery hitting the stumps is awesome. To make things better, I hit my first four today too. I just kept repeating in my head, "Put front foot forward, swing the bat and keep it straight" - and it worked. The feeling of hitting FOUR is awesome too. The next one went for a catch :)
Overall a great day.

Not an easy thing to do mate. Keep practicing. And ftr, your delivery can bounce twice.
Thanks, I didn't know that, very surprised to know! So, is there anything called a "dead ball" at all?

Sarwan fan?
Sorry I didn't get you...
 

Howe_zat

Audio File
The feeling of hitting FOUR is awesome too. The next one went for a catch :)
Take heart, this makes you roughly good enough to open the batting for Yorkshire this year.

Thanks, I didn't know that, very surprised to know! So, is there anything called a "dead ball" at all?
There is, but it's for things like when a batsman pulls out of the way or the ball hits an umpire. It simply means the ball doesn't count. An illegal delivery - such as where you overstep the mark or bowl one that rolls along the ground - is called a no-ball. That means the ball doesn't count and the batting side get a penalty run.
 

Coach_Pearson

First Class Debutant
Thanks a lot, coach! I don't know if it is the confidence that I felt after reading your post, but today I got a bit more pace into the ball. I did try rotating the shoulder more today. I got to bowl only one over (apart from practice) and did bowl three wides (on the off side), but they were not way-off wides they were just about wides and none of the deliveries were toooo slow. A funny thing happened, one of my deliveries went on to hit the stump and the batsman was out :laugh: . That's only because the batsman at the crease was another newbie like me, but still the feeling of my delivery hitting the stumps is awesome. To make things better, I hit my first four today too. I just kept repeating in my head, "Put front foot forward, swing the bat and keep it straight" - and it worked. The feeling of hitting FOUR is awesome too. The next one went for a catch :)
Overall a great day.
Glad it went well, keep playing and training and the better you will get.
 

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