Bowl fast: 2. Bowling at the right time

When I was a young boy, I was told to brush my ear with my arm when I bowled. It was probably the worst piece of advice I ever got.

Imagine standing in front of a bowler and he puts his arm up to bowl in the 12 o’clock position. Well, any hour before 12 is good – but a minute past 12 starts to be a negative: you start to lose some pace and you’re likely to push the ball down the leg side. It’s the difference between being a shot putter and a javelin thrower: if you want to be a shot-putter, put your arm past 12 o’clock. If you want to be a javelin thrower, put it at 11.

Ideally, you should be standing up straight and bowling with your arm in a relaxed position to release the ball at around 11 o’clock. The 12 o’clock position itself, if you can hit it absolutely spot on, isn’t wrong. But in striving to bowl from that position, you will very probably go past 12 and start pushing the ball. Your bowling hand should be directly above your bowling hip: ie, assuming you’re a right-arm fast bowler, your right hand should be above your right hip.

If you end up leaning so far to the off-side that your bowling hand is above your left hip at point of release, it’s 1) less comfortable and 2) likely to diminish both your pace and control.

Sri Lanka’s Lasith Malinga bowls from about ten o’clock and he bowls at 90 mph. If he bowled at even a minute past 12, he’d lose a lot of pace. You can’t possibly bowl with a high arm at 12 and be quick. The
only guy who does it is Shaun Pollock – now, he’s a great bowler but he’s not about pure pace. And I’m talking about generating maximum pace.

Bowlers who think they have to bowl from 12 o’clock will compromise their action to get into that position: they’ll fall to the off-side. You see kids almost bent at right angles falling towards cover but because they’ve got a high arm, their coaches tell them they’re doing well. But, as well as reducing pace and control, that can eventually make you a candidate for a back injury. And their follow-through just takes them right into the side netting – rather than pulling them down the pitch in the direction of the stumps, as it should.

Fast bowling guru Ian Pont has worked with top players including Dale Steyn and Darren Gough and is the author of The Fast Bowlers Bible. For details of Ian’s ongoing courses and one-to-one tuition, see his website: www.maverickscricket.com