23/03/2024
Should you drag the back leg in the delivery sequence? Does it make you a faster bowler?
Well, there is no scientific research yet on this phenomenon. There is mixed opinion among experts as to whether this technique is important for pace production.
My coaching experience is that ~90% of pace bowlers who drag the back leg bowl about 5 kph faster with it than when they don’t. About 10% bowl 5 kph faster with no back foot drag.
But does the back foot drag itself produce faster speeds, or are there other mechanisms at play?
First, the drag of the back foot is a passive process in that a bowler will not be actively trying or thinking to drag the foot along the ground. It happens naturally as a result of relaxing the back leg and allowing a long delivery stride to stretch the rear hip flexors to pull the leg along.
Second, having the back foot grounded has a scientific rationale in providing a larger base of support to make it easier for a bowler to be balanced at the crease. Better balance generally means greater energy transfer to the ball to bowl faster.
Third, a balanced position at the crease can help the front leg to be straighter, and thus enable a bowler to take advantage of this technique.
Fourth, pace bowlers generally perform less lateral flexion of their trunk (side bend) with the back foot grounded. This is only true if the back foot drags in a straight line towards the front knee. A wide drag / arc of the back foot can be observed in bowlers who laterally flex excessively. Regardless, less lateral flexion can enable greater forward flexion over the front leg, which is linked with faster ball speeds.
So, dragging the back foot may be indirectly important in producing faster ball speeds, by improving balance which in turn could help with straightening the front leg and enabling the trunk to catapult forwards over it.
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22/03/2024
Fast bowlers typically extend (lean back) and rotate (twist) their trunk to be more side-on when gathering the ball.
Why is this technique beneficial?
Extending and rotating the trunk while driving the knee forward creates tension along the abdominal region. Stretching the muscles and tendons creates elastic energy that can be used for rapid shortening of the muscles in the delivery sequence.
You may think this technique is only for side-on bowlers. However, Mark Wood is a front-on bowler but extends and rotates his trunk to pre-load the abdominal musculature with elastic energy, ready to explode upon landing.
This technique can produce an extra 10kph in club level pace bowlers compared with no trunk rotation in the gather.
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06/03/2024
Must the front leg be perfectly straight to bowl at express speeds?
You may be surprised to hear the answer is no!
Ok, there have been express bowlers who bowled with a straight front leg such as Brett Lee and Jeff Thomson. However, others such as Shoaib Akhtar, Mitchell Starc, and Shaun Tait bowled / bowl with a flexed front knee.
Generally speaking, the straighter your front leg the faster you should be able to bowl. The front leg functions to transfer the linear momentum from the run-up to angular momentum, so the top half of the body can be brought forward over the front leg in a pendulum-like manner while the bowling arm lags behind to create that “whip”.
However, it may be counterproductive if you are trying to chase a perfectly straight front leg if you are already nearly straight.
You are better to think “what level of knee flexion is acceptable if I want to maximise my chances of bowling really fast?”
I think 0-30 degrees of knee flexion is within an acceptable range to allow you to bowl fast. Any more than 30 degrees of knee flexion and the front leg is not as effective as a lever. It does not mean you can never bowl fast, but it does mean you will probably need to be maximising other components to help.
Fortunately, there is a systematic approach you can employ to learn how to bowl with a straighter front leg from a full run-up. This approach can take anywhere from 2-4 months of work depending on how much straightening is required to enter the acceptable range. Last year I had 4 young pace bowlers who started at ~45 degrees of knee flexion. After 2-4 months of following the approach their front knee only flexes by 5-15 degrees now.
It’s all in the system and philosophy which are grounded in scientific evidence and coaching experience.
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