Better technique can improve fast bowling

By A.C. De Silva

IMPROVING PACE BOWLING: Fast bowling is a complicated exercise in co-ordination involving the use of the whole body. But for a player to reach his optimum speed and accuracy is important.

Imran Khan’s pronounced leap gets him side-on going into his delivery stride. From a rookie who used to spray the ball all over the place, he had shaped himself into top-flight fast bowler...

Before beginning to analyse what is needed in a fast bowling action, the best thing to do is to split all the players available into three different categories of techniques. There, for a right-arm bowler, would be (a) an action with an upright body and bead together with level shoulders and the right arm passing close to the head. (b) an action with the head titled over to the left and the shoulders and chest also leaning over to the left (c) an action with an upright body and head but a raised right shoulder and a dropped left one and with the right arm passing close to the head.

With the passing of time, most English fast bowlers fall into the category (a) and (c) although there are a small number of (b) types. A few years back most of the West Indian bowlers were in the category (a) and exhibited the characteristics which appear to be necessary to bowl fact accurately with the above method. These are:

1.At the beginning of the delivery stride, the right foot is placed with the toes pointing forwards or at least within 45` of forward in a similar manner to a top class javelin thrower. The hips will therefore be facing forward as well.

2.With the hips facing forward, considerable mobility in the waist region will be necessary to turn the shoulders side on. Probably because of the speed of his approach, Malcolm Marshall does not get into very much of a side-on position at all.

3.To get full use of the right shoulder in the action the shoulder should be extended as far back as possible as the right arm begins its upward movement.

4.To help get the right shoulder forward as quickly as possible the right hip and foot should be brought forward and through as quickly as possible. This will give speed to the right shoulder so that as the arm accelerates through it is working from a fast moving base.

This is similar to the forward drive of the shot putter's shoulder before the arm strikes. To help this action the bowler will withdraw his left foot quickly so that his right foot, helped by the hip action, will land on the ground just after he releases the ball. Malcolm Marshall's right foot lands long before the ball bounces.

Running fast

Michael Holding what worked for them will not work for most fast bowlers. Holding’s speed was born of a fluent approach, a marvellous rhythm and a high action.	Richard Hadlee – has the ability to slip in a few real quick ones, but his mody mechanics didn’t allow him to bowl sustained spells at high speed.

5.Running fast will help the speed with which the right foot, hip and shoulder come forward and will add a fast moving base for the shoulder and arm.

If the bowler uses type (b) action with the head and shoulders tilted over to the left he will be using a more powerful action, as the arm is at approximately right-angles to the body but is brought to the vertical position by the lean over of the shoulders. To use this action in the most efficient way the bowler should:

a). Arch the back to get full use of the back and pectoral muscles. This will help to give a full and powerful pivot of the upper body this bringing the shoulder forward quickly as the arm comes over.

b). To aid the pull forward and rotation of the upper body the left leg should be lifted high so that the left foot is brought down fast and powerfully. I believe Harold Larwood did this very emphatically.

c). The right foot in the delivery stride can be placed at 90` to the pitch and does not need to be brought forward quickly.

d). The bowler does not need to run in quickly to the wicket. This is essentially the strong man's action and is typified by Jeff Thomson.

The third type of action (c) is one in which the bowler does not us e a fast right hip and foot or lean the shoulders over to use the chest and back muscles but instead, places all the emphasis in the action onto the shoulder.

Difficult action

Iam Botham – a classic example of why Englishmen don’t develop into speed merchants. The West Indians seemed to have all the requisites for bowling fiendishly fast.	Jeff Thomson – immensely strong, used to hurl ‘grenades’ with a slingshot action that made it difficult for batsmen to pick up the line.

The shoulder is lifted high so that it can be used very powerfully at the end of the arm action and can give considerable acceleration to the arm. However, bowlers using this action have difficulty in getting the right side and shoulder forward quickly and it would also appear to make it difficult to make the early part of the arm action as quick as it could be.

Also the physical effort involved in this action is likely to be detrimental to the bowler's accuracy. In fact, bowlers of this type who are slow in bringing through their right foot often look off balance as they release the ball.

Bowlers should be strong

However, Curtley Ambrose, who brings his right foot through as quickly as is possible with this action, has no problems of balance.

To bowl very quickly with this action the bowler will ....

(I)Probably have to be very strong in the shoulders

(II)Make sure his right foot comes through quickly.

However, if it is possible to bowl as quickly with this action as with the other two

Watching English bowlers bowl it was felt-that many who bowl with an (a) type action but do not put their right foot down facing forward, do not fully extend the right shoulder and do not bring the right foot and hip forward quickly. They are not among the fastest of bowlers. Many use type (c) action but probably do not have the physical power needed for this action and do not bring the right foot through quickly.

Athletic type of training important

As regards the physical preparation to be undertaken for players to bowl fast, they should follow an athletic type of physical training involving weight training, medicine ball and weighted ball throwing exercises to develop shoulder power, together with mobility exercises similar to those used by javelin throwers.

It is probably quite significant that two of the fast bowlers with the slightest physiques, Brian Statham and Malcolm Marshall, had both possessed exceptional shoulder mobility.

Unless this type of programme is combined with attention to the technical aspects of fast bowling it is very unlikely that we will see many home grown fast bowlers capable of reaching the speeds of Marshall, Holding. Patterson, Thomson, Lillee and others.