Cricket bowling

[SKD]

Looking for tips to increase bowling speed

[Monarchking]

Looking for tips to increase bowling speed

Honestly unsure. As I got stronger my bowling speed didn't increase dramatically . I'm short 5'6 with T. Rex arms where it seems most of the pace bowlers are tall and can bend their backs and rip it into the pitch. 

100% bro science there. So maybe it's leverages and technique. So off to the nets ?

[Pseudonym]

So speed doesn't necessarily equal strength? Interesting.

[HumanPerformance]

 

When thinking about increasing ones "speed" you have to think in terms of increasing the "power" of the muscles specifically involved in the the balls delivery. You may think that most of the power comes from the arm or shoulder but alot of the power comes through rotational tourqe through the torso (much like a boxers punch or batters swing).

So any exercises you can do to strenghten the obliques and abdominals where the twisting of the torso is involved would be beneficial.Such as cable woodchops (particularly coming from high to low).  Also movements directly targeting the abdominal wall such as crunches or cable crunches as well because as wel las the twisting motion the torso also generates power though torso flexion (as mentioned by Monarchking) when the bowler first leans backwards (thus creating a momentary stronger muscular contraction through stimulating the stretch reflex) before powerfully and explosively contracting the abdominals to help accelerate the ball on its downward trajectory. 

Of course the chest and particularly lats are major players in all this as well and in the instance of increasing bowling speed both should be trained in a manner that replicates the bowling action as much as possible.So either dumbbell or even better machine pullovers should be employed. Heavy sets of these of these should be followed with "dynamic" loading as well, such as heavy medicine ball throwdowns (or you could perform the 2 different exercises on 2 seperate training days). By performing these med ball throwdowns as explosively as possible and really concentrating on giving every rep 100% you are teaching the brain to recruit the maximum amount of muscle fibres within the shortest period of time,and opening new nueral pathways to the muscle, both of which will improve your bowling "speed" dramaticaly.Of course whilst performing these make sure you are conciously recruiting the abs by stretching back at that top of the movement before exploding downwards. 

[Phedder]

^ *clapping*

Woodchoppers are great, med ball slams are great, throw this in as a combo of the two as well and you're set *ok*

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pY6-ndAMn9o

I'd like to see them done with a bit more abdominal focus though, so emphasise a little more of a crunch type movement before releasing the ball. 

 

Oh, and of course your run in is going to have a big impact on your bowling speed as well. Improve your timing from your run in and you'll be able to put a lot more of that built up momentum into the ball, though that will take a good coach to help with rather than a few specific exercises. 

[HumanPerformance]

^^

Yes those throwdown variations would be even better than a standard throwdown, thanks for that Phedder. And the run in would be crucial yes.