Bowling Basics

Bowling isn’t a natural activity for most people, and it’s important to get the basics right to avoid injury. There is lots of fine detail to think about, but keeping it simple is the best way to perform well and stay injury free.

There is an ECB directive on the number of overs that juniors should deliver depending on age group. This is to make sure that fatigue injuries don’t develop.

This web site isn’t intended to be a coaching manual. But some coaching points arise so often at junior practice that it’s worth repeating a few of them here. You could treat these as background if you’re using coaching books, videos or online coaching resources.

Many juniors want to be tearaway pace men like Brett Lee or Shoaib Akhtar. The first steps toward this are not to have long, energy consuming run ups, but to perfect a correct “one step” action before trying to go faster.

The run up should be smooth, balanced, rhythmic and consistent. Many juniors do run too far, and many don’t mark the length of their run up properly. For speed or spin, the aim is to have an identical run up for every ball. It’s all about rhythm!

Actions can be side-on, front-on or midway, and are controlled by the landing position of the back foot. Side-on actions mean that the back foot lands parallel to the crease, so the shoulders and hips point at the batsman before the delivery stride. Front-on actions mean that the back foot and chest point toward the batsman.

Brett Lee has a classic side-on action, while Andrew Flintoff is front-on.

Both styles are correct, but mixing them so that the body is twisted will lead to injuries. This is difficult to spot at full speed, but freeze-frame footage from a video camera is very helpful. You can help the coach by showing him suitable video stills.

The leading arm is the “rudder” for bowling straight. It should be pulled down to form an arc in line with the wickets during the delivery stride. You can stand behind the bowler to check if he is doing this correctly.

The eyes should stay level and focussed on the target from the start of the run up, through delivery and to the end of the follow through. This isn’t an easy habit to develop, but will help him to deliver a straight ball. Try watching from behind the batsman to check this.

Good bowlers work in “straight lines” – straight run up, straight follow through, high front arm, high delivery point and eyes level. Easier said than done sometimes, but keeping it as simple as this does work wonders!

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