Hi David,

I would say the best advice would be to read the Fast Bowlers Bible, it sets out the principles of bowling fast clearly and concisely.

Most importantly, its best to run and carry any momentum forwards in a straight line, using your chest, shoulders and hips to power the ball down.

From the experience I've in training this also helps make it easier to bowl yorkers and bouncers effectively, by driving your shoulders and chest at the target area.

As far as training goes, I've found that gym work 3 times a week in the winter, then regular visits to the cricket field when the weather allows keeps you fit generally, and specifically for cricket.

In training, the most effective method of increasing speed, is weight resisted bowling either by means of the pulley weights at the gym, or a 1kg ball down at the cricket field.

Another thing that can slow me down, is my wrist, if my wrist isn't firm or breaks to one side. It's best to keep your wrist firm, flicking it forward if possible on release of the ball, pushing the ball down the pitch, this shold gain you a bit of pace.

A good way of training for this is to practice with a tennis ball, keeping your arm and shoulder still, flicking your wrist and throwing the ball at a wall (my dad told me this and it's another thing that seems to work).

Everybody is different and different things work for different people.

Daley

Some nice advice in there Daley!

I think bowling faster comes down to technique, fitness and desire.

Fitness is key though, train the wrong way and you'll little to any benefit.

High levels Desire, Fitness( work capacity), Total body strength
- posterior chain and upper body, neuro muscular co-ordination.

Great tips Daley. I would add that if you are doing resisted bowling you should also do light ball bowling to counteract the neuromuscular adaptations that a heavy ball makes. Also I would suggest doing opposite muscle work to prevent imbalances (sing arm rows, inverted rows, deadlifts and rotator cuff exercises).

Sounds great Russell, what does that mean to you?

By the way, the Fast Bowler's Bible is here:

http://tinyurl.com/522gnw

strenght all the way.

tell us more Faris

Do yoga. When the tension in the muscles are less the motions become free and faster. in the long term it will increase flexibility and this will help muscles move faster. If you type yoga on a search engine it has many website that have step my step moving anamation pictures of yoga possitions. Yoga also helps improve mental side of the game. It helps improve concentration and to relax the mind. It helps you understand Your mind.
I wish you all the very best.

Yoga is good advice Sachin. As is using the Alexander Technique.

- The using of your wrist, to flick or push the ball forward can give some extra pace.
- Locking of the non-bowling arm into your hip
- High non-arm action (not too high, just enough to keep balanced)
- Following through
- Maintaining balance
- Side-on-action i think helps in bowling a faster ball (it's debatable though) I base this on by getting extra shoulder rotation will give you extra leverage meaning more pace
- Slamming of the front foot
- Bending of the back (extra leverage)
- A good run-up. You don't want to be running in flat out you just need rhythm and just enough pace.
- Quick transition from the back foot to the front foot.
- A tail-wind (hehehe).
- Showing some emotion. When your pumped you bowl faster.
- Aerodynamics (nah just kidding)
- Quick arm speed.
and last but not least just let the ball go. The feeling of nothing stopping you.

And all this in just one ball. :D

I hope i helped.

Sounds like you are a bowler yourself Patrick

Yeh i'm a bowler :D

- The most important element to bowl faster is desire.
- I have worked hard on making my legs stronger and that helps you generate power through the crease.
- The faster you move the bowling arm followed by the non bowling arm, the faster you will release the ball. basically fast arm as pointed out before.
- a good rhythm and arriving at the crease balanced.
- stable wrist and snapping the wrist at the point of delivery.
- overall fitness - so you can maintain that intensity throughout the spell.

hey thanx for the advise i am 14 years old and want toplay forthe first teamam my high school i hope this helps but some things i find that helps is
- dont try to hard bowl your natural ball
- lean a bit forward when you run up
- flick your rist when you realese the ball
-and try to get as fit as possible

hope that helped ;-)

mike

Altho the biomechanics of the hip drive and chest drive are important for all those to work properly i think the bowler needs to get in a coil position the front knee up horizontal to the waist and the front arm fully loaded up when the back foot hits the floor.

Also when people try to bowl faster the distance in their leap into their delievery stride generally increases meaning that the chest drive is more difficult to perform.