Muscles and bowling fast

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mas cambios

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Muscles and bowling fast

I know that manee has posted this elsewhere but I thought it might be a good opportunity to get someone else's point of view.

Just what are the key muscles for bowling (pace) and what is the best way to train them, not only for strength but for the fast explosive action that is needed for pace.
 
Re: Muscles and bowling fast

Would you believe it's actually not that important?

Training for bowling is about improving movements, not muscles. An good analogy I use (borrowed from elsewhere) is training each finger individually to try and improve your catching. That's not going to work and neither will training muslces individually.

You can see more here: http://www.harrowdrive.com/what-muscles-are-used-in-a-cricket-shot/

Also, I would say there is no single best way to do this. Ideally you will be training with whole body explosive movements combining speed, strength and coordination but there are exceptions to this. Most exercises will be trained using full range of motion while standing up, just like you would while bowling.

Don't bother with light weights for high numbers of reps unless you have a very specific reason to do so (which some people do, and saying "I don't want to get big" is not a reason).

It's important to train your legs, most of the time using single leg training. It's slao important to track your progress and keep trying to improve.

That's about as specific as I can get!
 
Re: Muscles and bowling fast

That's a very good analogy and makes sense, so in effect you're saying that the key thing is improvement your movement and getting that as optimised as possible in order to generate a good bowling action and pace?

Taking the muscle thing off on a slight tangent, what are the muscles to look after in order to minimise injury?

I've always been told that it's the trunk (abdominals in particular) that is the important area - do you agree?
 
Re: Muscles and bowling fast

Yes that's right. Movement is the comination of strength, speed, mobility, balance, coordination and endurance so it's a tricky thing to explain. It's much easier to understand by working with an experienced trainer.

As to injury prevention, that's quite individual as everyone has slightly different movement patterns. Some people are more injury prone that others because of this.

However, generally speaking a bowler will want to do preventitive strengthening and stretching exercises around the shoulders (rowing movements especially), strength and power work around the hamstrings (but not hamstring curls as a general rule) and lots of core work.

Core training is not just situps and crunches though. In fact I discorage performing these. The core is a very complex concept that deserves a whole different post.
 
Re: Muscles and bowling fast

Bowling quick is about the set-up and biomechanics...without too much scientific ballocks, if the body is in line and in a sprung (catapult) position, you will propel the ball towards the target.

Imagine being at school with a ruler and chewed up paper. The position that you hold the ruler back ready to fire, is the position you want your bowler at the point of delivery.

This is not the only thing. Watch a left arm bowler, bowl around their front leg. This decreases pace as the bodies momentum reduces. Brett Lee is the model fast bowler. Everything in a line going towards the target (the Batsman). This starts from the run-up through the delivery stride and into the follow-through.

Bowling is no longer a case of running up and getting it down as fast as you can.
 
Re: Muscles and bowling fast

leggeb4 said:
This is not the only thing. Watch a left arm bowler, bowl around their front leg.
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Could you please educate me as to how a left arm over the wicket fast bowler should go in straight lines toward an off stump target of the right hander. Angled run up? Angled action?
 
Re: Muscles and bowling fast

leggeb4 said:
Bowling quick is about the set-up and biomechanics..
Click to expand...

I agree completely.

It's also about having strong, powerful muscles that can stretch and contract with precision timing and efficiency. Good training can improve this considerably.
 
Re: Muscles and bowling fast

i was just wanting to know if more muscle behind a good action such as movement, timing and being aligned with the batsmen increases bowling pace. The reason i ask i am 15 years old and playing senior cricket for my club and i have been told i have a beautiful action but am not as quick as i can be. Then other players at the club have been telling me to workout to build pace. Does it work?
 
Re: Muscles and bowling fast

100notout said:
Then other players at the club have been telling me to workout to build pace. Does it work?
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It certainly does.

The more efficiently your muscles can contract and relax in the right order the faster you will bowl.

A lot of this is down to technique and genetics but the right training can make a huge difference.
 
Re: Muscles and bowling fast

100notout said:
i was just wanting to know if more muscle behind a good action such as movement, timing and being aligned with the batsmen increases bowling pace. The reason i ask i am 15 years old and playing senior cricket for my club and i have been told i have a beautiful action but am not as quick as i can be. Then other players at the club have been telling me to workout to build pace. Does it work?
Click to expand...

I just wanted to note that although your action may be aesthetically pleasing, it may not be as good as it seems. Even the more clever people may only look out for the momentum gained by an action but maybe not the equally important leverage of the action.

The people who think that you have a good fast bowling action may be the same people who believe that Daryll Tuffey has a good fast bowling action.
 
Re: Muscles and bowling fast

May I just quickly ask if my training programme is fine.

It involves two sessions a day, either side of revision for GCSE Mocks. The first session is interval sprints of 20m; 6 reps x 4 sets for the first week, 6 reps of 5 sets for the second and 6 reps of 6 sets for the third. The evening session is planks (the forearm pressup holding things) for as long as I can hold them before collapsing. I was thinking about wrist curls too, to strengthen the wrist to allow me to swing it both ways. The 'curl' is also a pretty specific exercise to the wrist flick in the action too.

If I have learnt well from this site, that is cricket specific running for batting, bowling or fielding and core stabilisation for the strength in the bowling action as well as strengthening of movements in the action.
 
Re: Muscles and bowling fast

Harrowdrive said:
It's a good start Manee.

What are your goals?

Are you progressing?
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I'm definately progressing in the planks. The first time I did it, I could only hold for 10s but already, in the second go, I could hold it for 30s before collapsing.

Interval sprints have been given a back seat, in that I am not doing them today until I get over my cold - it is freezing outside and I hope to resume the sprints tomorrow.

The goal is to be able to bowl at 65mph by December 29th (which is when I will next be timed), the highest I have ever been timed at is 59mph but I feel like I can get more if I can run in ball after ball with greater core strength.

Attached is my diary of winter training.
 
Re: Muscles and bowling fast

Harrowdrive said:
Planks alone are OK but you need to do more.

Have you got access to a gym?
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Not right now, but I could use the school one ,after my mocks, once or twice a week.
 
Re: Muscles and bowling fast

Get in there as soon as you can Manee.

In the mean time try some bodyweight training.
 
Re: Muscles and bowling fast

I'll be honest, I prefer a proper workout in the gym with weights but bodyweight is so easy to pickup there is no excuse.

It's hard to do much else in an online forum like this.
 
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