Better technique can improve fast bowling
By A.C De Silva
FLASH BACK: There seems to be some interest between the game of
cricket and athletics. This interest has centred mainly on fast bowling,
possibly because this is the nearest thing to the explosiveness of many
athletic events.
|
Imran Khan pronounced leap gets him side-on going into the delivery
stride. |
The power required to propel a five and a half ounce cricket ball
cannot be compared with the force needed to putt a 16-pound shot to 17
metres or to throw a two kilogram discuss over 55 metres, distances
achieved by several throwers who are upto international standard. So,
there should not need to look for physical giant to produce the
necessary power. The nearest athletic event to fast bowling would appear
to be throwing the 800 gram javelin (approx 1 lb 10 ozs) at which
several world class throwers achieved the distance. So why not fast
bowlers?
The reason could be that, unlike those involved in athletics and
other sports like swimming and golf which use fast explosive movements,
cricketers have not spent much time analysing movement and perhaps have
not realised that even light faults in technique can lead to a big fall
off in performance.
Looking at fast bowlers, it is obvious that many are not particularly
big or powerful, but the fastest of them, such as the West Indian Test
players a few years ago, possessed good technique.
However, looking at the quick bowlers who have represented England in
the past several years, they would be the same criteria be classified in
most cases as having poor technique, with a few exceptions.
Complicated
Fast bowling is a complicated exercise in co-ordination involving the
use of the whole body, but it has been closely observed that the main
components of the techniques it is necessary to possess in order for a
player to reach his or her optimum speed and accuracy.
Before beginning to analyse what is needed in fast bowling action, it
has become necessary to split all the players who have been closely
followed into three different categories of technique. These, for a
right-arm bowler, would be
|
Ian Botham – a classic example of why Englishmen don’t
develop into speed merchants.
|
Jeff Thomson – immensely strong, used to hurl ‘grenades’
with a slingshot action that made it difficult for batsmen
to pick up the line. |
(a) An action with an upright body and head together with level
shoulders and the right-arm passing close to the head;
(b) An action with the head tilted 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 posing close to
the head.
Tips for fast bowlers
Most English fast bowlers fall into the category (a) and (c),
although there are a small number of (b) types. Most West Indian bowlers
are in the category (a) and exhibit the characteristics which appear to
be necessary to bowl fast and accurately with the methods mentioned.
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
degrees 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 Marshal did 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 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 used to land long before the ball bounces.
(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.
|
Michael Holding – his 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 body don’t allow him to bowl sustained spells
at high speed. |
To use this action in the most-efficient way the bowler should:
(1) Arch the back to get full use of the back and muscles. This helps
to give a full and powerful pivot of the appear body thus bringing the
shoulder forward quickly as the arm crosses over.
(2) 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. It is said that Harold Larwood did this very emphatically.
(3) The right foot in the delivery stride can be placed at 90 degree
to the pitch and does not need to be brought forward quickly.
(4) 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 is one in which the bowler does not use 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
shoulders.
Difficult
The shoulder is lifted high so that it could 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.
However, Curtly Ambrose, who brings his right foot through as quickly
as is possible with this action, has no problems of balance.
To bowler very quickly with this action the bowler will:
(a) probably have to be very strong in the shoulders
(b) Make sure his right foot comes through quickly.
However, there is a doubt whether the bowler will be able to bowl as
quickly with the said action as with the other two. Watching English
bowlers it has been noticed that 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 © action, but
probably do not have the physical power needed for this action and do
not bring the right foot through quickly.
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, have both
possessed exceptional shoulder mobility.
Unless this type of program 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 Marshal,
Holding, Patterson, Thomson, Lillee and others. |
