becoming a faster bowler

I think you'd need lots of Iron and milk. You could also trying finding the suitable action to help you bowl a bit quicker.

If you get height by keeping your back leg straight and almost standing up completely when you bowl you will find that you will get a lot more pace. I know I did. by the way this info came from a coach at the Oval.

whilst strength is important, i think rhythm and flexibility are more improtant, if you look at most the fast bowlers today, only simon jones and brett lee and shoiab have alot of strength behind them, but harmi, ntini, steyn, mgrath, flintoff etc all use rhythm, basically without the rhythm, the strength isnot goin to help much!

Have a look at this mate,

http://www.cricketnz.co.nz/page61.htm

You need to have upper body strength but it's no good being fast if you can't bowl accuratly

try bowling meduim pace before you go on to fast

cheers barfbag

village cricket, top man! I grew up with village cricket, before my di£k Whittington-style move to The Big Smoke (im not mayor yet, but give it time...). Whereabouts in the country are you playing?

As regards your question, i have no idea about relating speed to an MPH measurement - ive never been measured and never seen anyone measured. Anything considered genuinely quick at decent club level will take wickets at village green standard, my mate took shedloads this year because he played below his own standard for his village team.

From my experience of village cricket the technical skill of most batsmen is fairly limited and 90% of batsmen will have at least one glaring deficiency. My advice is to bowl straight, think about a batsmans weakness and bowl at it consistently - at that level, especially in short (40-over) games, many more batsmen get themselves out than are beaten by a jaffer. If you think about it, a frustratingly large portion of wickets at that standard on those types of pitches are taken by nothing-bowlers, slow-medium seamers who do a tiny bit off the pitch and bowl on a spot all day, because batsmen try to hit them and cant - maybe you want to be that bowler, if you can deal with the soul-destroying boredom of being that type of bowler...i know i couldn't! Also, if you commit to that then your chances of stepping up a level and being successful are very limited

Regarding speed, ive written what i think earlier in this post so i cant be fagged to write it again! What ive described is how i bowl, and im pretty fast.

The key to swing is in two areas, the action and the wrist position. Basically, most people who swing the ball have a natural action that helps swing one way, not many people can swing equally both ways. In general a more side-on action swings away and a more front-on one swings in, however this is not always the case as it depends on the peculiarities of a given bowler.

I think more important to swing is the wrist position. First of all, for either type of swing, the wrist should be cocked and FIRM, and its absolutely crucial that the seam is straight (try bowling in nets with one of those balls thats half red and half white to check your seam position...)

When it comes to bowling in- or out-swingers, the slightest change in your wrist position makes all the difference. It is really hard to describe how without showing you but ill do my best! The basic principle, if this makes any sense, is for your fingers to FOLLOW THE DIRECTION YOURE HOPING THE BALL TO SWING as you release it, whilst keeping the seam straight (this doesnt mean the seam has to be vertical just that it doesnt wobble)

So, hold up your wrist, cocked, it would be when you bowl. Assuming youre a right-handed bowler, tilting your hand to the LEFT so the seam is at a slight angle (whilst keeping the wrist firmly locked) gives you the position for an INSWINGER while tilting to the right is the position for an outswinger. You may well find that, as long as you cock your wrist, you bowl one type of delivery naturally without thinknig about this, if so work on that first and make it your stock ball. Once youre comfortable with that, you might want to work on changing the wrist position every now and then as a surprise delivary - ive always bowled outswing, but just at the end of last season i started to develop an inswinger after ten years of not being able to, simple because i changed my wrist position by probably not more than an inch

I hope this made some sense to you, i know i rambled a bit! If you like ill try and get some photos up to show what i mean, but really the best thing you can do is to have a couple of sessions with a good coach if youre lucky enough to know one and he will be able to show you

What do spinners need? Just strong wrists and shoulders? 

Edited by fishcake14 - 20 November 2006 at 8:01pm

I see kids with a 20 m run up where they sprint all the way. I have a measured 17 step run up and have had since I was 14. For 14 years i have nown it and sometimes to worry the batsman, run in with my eyes shut I know it so well. Summation of forces is the key to bowling fast. Building to a point so when you release the ball your body explodes. pitter patter, jog, momentum, stride, last two steps flat out to delivery stride and always bend your back. I was taught to try and bury the ball into the pitch. For a while my swing left me because I was trying to hit the pitch so hard. Half a season and I was back bowling my best but quicker.

Don't go for yorkers and bouncers when you start, focus on line and length, only use variations like yorkers when you have got your line and length sorted.

If you can keep the line tight then sooner or later the batsmen will make a mistake. slight variations in pace, length and ect is a good way to start to add a bit of variety and after that if your confident you can get the ball to cut about a bit which assuming you hit the spot will cause hell for thats batsmen, its hugely underated.

Get someone to stop watch you bowling and you get 45 and divide the time it took so

45 / 0.8 = 56mph

To break the 100mph mark you have to get the ball from crease to crease in 0.45 seconds.


Edited by Kerm - 27 January 2007 at 6:14pm

Thats true but you can time it on TV as well to compare it, wont be as accurate on TV but as they are bowling faster so its harder to time but you can work it out close enough.