Pace Bowling | Cricket coaching, fitness and tips

How to Coach Luck Into Your Bowlers

Every team has the unlucky bowler who beats the edge to ohhs and ahhs from the slips yet picks up the rare wicket.  The ball just swings too much to find the edge.

Can you turn that bowler from “unlucky fred” into “fantastic fred”?

The Need for Speed Challenge: How Fast Can You Get in 30 Days?

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If there is one thing I have learned about the fast bowler’s union it’s this: there is a real passion, hunger and knowledge for bowling with pace.

But there is also frustration at the lack of coaching advice that helps you get quicker.

As Ian Pont often says; there is a terrible fear in the cricket world that really fast bowlers are also really injured bowlers. Coaches want to do no harm so they do no coaching to improve speed.

Ask the Readers: Give Your Pace Bowling Coaching Advice

We get many coaching questions emailed to us here at PitchVision Academy. Today, in the spirit of rebuilding community, I want to ask for your advice for a fast bowler.

The question comes from long time reader and podcast listener Alek, and it’s all to do with the position of the back foot.

So, over to Alek for more explanation:

 

Field Settings: Fast/Medium, Old Ball, Club Wicket, Long Format

This is a special field setting for a particular type of seam bowler: One we set up to give a prize away here.

The bower in question has a unique style in that he bowls wide on the crease and gets plenty of seam movement.

He mainly plays 50 over club matches with draws possible, bowling in the middle of the innings or towards the end.

Ask the Readers: Set a Seam Bowler Field and Win a Prize

It’s been a while since I asked for your help in return for some online cricket coaching; but now the time has come again.

I need your help with setting a field for another new player in my team. Yes, this is a real life problem.

Like last time with our left-arm spinner, we have a new bowler.

So the question is:

What is the best field for a medium pace seam bowler in a club league match?

Grind It Out: How to Bowl Well on a Lifeless Pitch

Dead pitches make for very dull cricket: Unless you learn how to spice things up.

My club is a perfect example. Pitches that have no pace or bounce means batsmen have plenty of time to handle stock line and length bowling.

Slips have little chance of a catch carrying.

Draws are commonplace, as is boredom.

It’s why our bowlers have started working on variations that help on slower pitches when it’s a stalemate:

Cricket Show 120: Big Bash, Rosalie Birch and Bowling like Malinga

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The Boss is on the show again this week as we discuss the new Australian Big Bash League and how it might influence club cricket.

Plus former England International Roaslie Birch is on the phone talking about her work introducing young people to cricket with the Chance to Shine charity.

But this is a cricket coaching podcast, so we also answer your questions on how to bowl with a slingy bowling action like Malinga, and how to increase your pace as a spin bowler without losing revolutions on the ball.

A Typical Summer Week for an Injury-Free Club Fast Bowler

Staying healthy during the season is one of the biggest challenges to fast bowlers at every level.

Bowling quick is tough on the body. The stress on muscles, joints and ligaments is huge and when you are playing regularly recovery times are never enough.

Cricket Show 117: Solving the Problems of Fast Bowling

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Paddy Sadler is a fast bowler for Watsonian CC, Cambridge MCCU and Scotland Under-19. This week’s show is dominated by an interview with Paddy.

 He tells us about some of the problems facing ambitious young fast bowlers playing club cricket and going to University.

We discuss how to get into rhythm; balancing work and cricket; what practice is best and how to keep your focus if you are bowling badly or getting hit.

 

Here’s a Video Timeline of How to Warm-Up before Cricket

We all accept the importance of a warm up to prepare your body and mind for the game if you play any serious level of cricket from school upwards.

So how does a modern cricket club do it?

We looked at the hour or so that our case study club, Watsonian CC, took to warm up in a league match in Edinburgh.