5 Easy Tips To Improve Your Speed While Bowling

In our Cricketing Skills one of the important features is Bowling.  Imagine a team of Batsmen agianst a team of Bowlers.  That match would be the worst match in the world.  Because we would be seeing poor display of Bowling from the batsmen and poor display of Batting from the Bowlers.  So any match cannot be won without bolwers.  Having fast and good quality bowlers is a real advantage for a team.  Some young and budding cricketers might be facing the problem of lack of speed while bowling.  Even I had it due to my average height.  But then I researched and consulted some bowling coaches about how to improve my speed.   So I have come here with techniques to improve your speed while bowling.

1.  SELECT THE RUN UP BASED ON YOUR HEIGHT: 

                                              The run up is the basic thing in bowling.  The accurate your run up is the faster you can bowl.  You should select the ample amount of steps based on your height and do not change it in the full course of the match.  If your run up changes by a yard or more, then you might be bowling No balls or bowling very slow.  So What kind of a run do I need, you may ask.  It is a basic thing that every bowler knows.  Select the run up based on your height.  I you are a tall bowler then your run up should be longer.  Your run up should be between 25 to 35yards. Tall bowler in the sense, you should be more than 6 feet.

If you Are A Giant Like Him, You Have To Take A Run Up Over 25 Yards

  If you are more than six foot then your run up should be more than 30 yards.  For a medium paced bowler less than 22 yards is sufficient to generate a pace.  If you are a shoulder bowler like Bumrah, Malinga, Lockie Ferguson, then your run up should be lesser than 25 yards.  Because you have to give all of your energy into your shoulders to generate the speed.

                                            That tactic is the one which is used by the likes of Bumrah, Malinga, and lot more.  That is the reason that the could generate more pace with a relatively shorter run up.  Dale Steyn also has a shorter run up when we look at his height but he generates his blistering pace by his arms.  He gives so much work load to his shoulders, which is the reason that he is frequently injured in his shoulder.  But his running speed is also really very quick, which still keeps him bowling over 145 Kph frequently.  So when you have a shorter run up, run as quickly as you can and the deliver the ball with real pace.

2.  FASTER YOU DRAG YOUR NON BOWLING ARM, FASTER THE BALL IS DELIVERED:

                                              The non Bowling Arm has a really important role to do here.  Because the non bowling arm is one of the key elements to improve the speed and the non bowling arm has important effects in your bowling.  If the Non Bowling arm is lot stiffer, the faster the ball.  If you drag the Non Bowling arm very stiffer and faster, then faster the ball.  But how does it work?  I will explain it.

                                              If you drag your Non Bowling arm quicker, then automatically your bowing arm rotates faster, delivering a faster ball.  If you have your Non Bowling arm stiffer then it adds more pace to your bowling arm.  You should never let your non Bowling arm wobble here and there.  A great example is Aussie Legend and one of the fastest bowlers of all time, Brett Lee.

In My Opinion His Bowling Action Has The Perfect Mechanism For Quick Bowling

  Brett Lee gets his Non Bowling arm into a good position and then drags it as quick as he can, which adds really more pace to his Bowling arm and makes him deliver really faster balls.  He also drags the Non Bowling arm into his body.  So the key here is to drag the Non Bowling Arm very quick and fast.  And mainly your Non Bowling arm should act like a lever.  If you see Lee's action, in the picture you can find that his Non Bowling arm acts as a lever which rotates the Bowling arm very quicker.

3.  HAVE A REALLY  QUICK RUN UP:

                                                We have now stepped up into the Run Up once again.  If you have to bowl very fast, run as fast as you can.  Run as fast during your run up and follow our previous instructions and bowl a really quick ball.  The Run up is a basic feature in your bowling.  Some bowlers do not run very fast, but they take long steps during their run up.  They look like running slow but they run fast.  Because they take long steps and most of the long step takers are Tall Bowlers.  One of the example is Mitchell Starc.  Mitchell starc takes huge steps and drags his right hand really very quicker so he bowls it very quick.

This Type Of Stride Can Only Be Taken By The Man In The Above Picture

  But For Medium heighted Bowlers I would advice them to run very quick.  Because they do not have the advantage of height or long steps, so all their speed is generated from their legs.  So Do not get fed up, practice by running very quick and delivering the ball relatively 

                                                I'm not meaning that all faster bowlers can achieve success.  Only the bowlers who are equally good in their other bowling skills sustain in the international arena.  A great example is Shaun Tait of Australia.  Shaun tait had a superb start to his career.  He took the second most wickets in the 2007 World Cup tournament.  He finished behind Glenn McGrath.  Tait, Lee, and McGrath formed one of the deadliest bowling trio.  But all the success was only for a year.  After that tait could not perform well like he did in the previous years, because tait knew only one way of bowling, that is quick.

                                                But apart from his speed there was nothing with him.  He didn't pick even a 100 wickets for Australia in the International arena.

Really There Was Nothing In Him Apart From Speed

Bowlers who are strong in their techincal side of the game can sustain without a big amount of speed.  A great example for this is Tait's Team Mate Glenn McGrath.  Glenn McGrath is by far the best Aussie Fast Bowler of all time.  But McGrath did not have a lot of pace in his balls.  He his top speed would vary from 135 Kmph to 142 Kmph.  Which is really slow for an Aussie Bowler.  But McGrath had stamina, McGrath had skill, McGrath knew where to pitch the ball to get maximum amount of swing, McGrath had everything apart from Speed.  So McGrath did not find speed as a problem.  So all Seam Bowlers, remember one thing, Speed is not the only weapon to take wickets.

4.  HAVE A STRAIGHT SEAM POSITION:

                                                    You might be thinking what role does the seam position has to do.  Straighter your seam position quicker the ball releases of the ground.  You don't seem to have understood what I am saying.  The concept is if you keep a scrambled seam or cross seam, the ball has chances to hold up on the pitch.

Straight Seam+Dale Steyn= 145 Kph

When you have a straight seam, ball has less chances of holding up on the pitch and ball travels quicker in the air.  Also if you hold the ball very tight then you might bowl a hip line No Ball, or a very slower ball.  So if you have to bowl quick during the course of the match, please keep a straight seam position.

5.  STAMINA IS THE KEY:

                                                      We have reached the business end of this blog, and the final tip is stamina.  Stamina is the key to bowl quick for long succession of time.  Because some players get tired so easily due to lack of stamina and their next few overs will be very slow.  Those kind of stamina less players could only bowl 3 or 4 quicker balls per over.  So Practicing more and increasing the stamina will really help you to bowl very quick even in the death overs of a match.  So once again, Stamina is the key to success.

This Guy Bowls For Hours Without Tiring.

  If you take the bowlers like James Anderson, Ishant Sharma, Mohammed Shami, Stuart Broad, they really Bowl long spells.  So that they could easily take out batsmen if they are tired.  A Bowler can be more decisive if he can bowl at a reasonable speed even after bowling 25 overs.