Fast Bowling: How to Bowl Faster (Cricket)

Run-up/Approach

The run-up/approach is vital to bowling - you rarely see an express fast bowler that does not achieve great speed/momentum through his run-up and those that try bowling fast without enough momentum will be putting excessive stress on their shoulders.

It is important to find an appropriate run-up length that will allow you to achieve good rhythm, generate good speed and power through the bowling crease. Find what works best for you through experimentation - you might want to trial different lengths in practice from15-25 paces (Brett Lee's run up length is 21 paces) or alternatively, mark a set starting point on an open field, run up and pretend 'bowling blind' (eyes closed) when you feel you have maximum momentum behind you, repeat this upto 10 times and find the average (they all should be fairly close to each other) - that is your ideal run-up length (measure it in paces and remember it).

Remember, longer run-ups aren't necessarily better as they can waste energy (you may decelerate or not generate any extra pace during a long run-up), time (slow over rates) and cause you to fatigue faster.

Because the run-up is so important to generating great bowling speed, acceleration and speed are important qualities to possess as a fast bowler. Acceleration and speed are best improved by a combination of strength training (which will also help prevent injuries when done correctly) and sprint training (which will also help improve your stamina by creating a greater 'speed reserve'). For strength training I would recommend focusing on compound exercises (e.g. squats, deadlifts, bench press, military press) for best results and for sprint training I would recommend focusing on a range of short acceleration distances (5-40m) and 'flying sprints' over short distances (10-20m).

For more indepth information about strength training, I would recommend reading through this wikia or better yet, obtaining a copy of Mark Rippetoe's Starting Strength (an iconic book for beginners/novices to weight training) .

For more indepth information about sprint training, I would recommend starting with this article, reading through Charlie Francis' material on his forums and/or one of his popular DVDs such as GPP Essentials (available on his website).

* I would advise consulting a health professional before beginning a new exercise regime

Delivery Stride/Bowling Action

Your bowling action is an individual preference - there are genuine express fast bowlers with very different actions and delivery strides e.g. front on (Malcolm Marshall and Mike Proctor), side on (Dennis Lillee and Wasim Akram), mixed (Brett Lee and Shane Bond), sling (Shaun Tait and Jeff Thompson). Finding out what works best for you is important.

The keys are to have a cocked wrist, be 'tall' at the crease (i.e. not collapse significantly in your bowling stride), reach high with your lead arm (non-bowling arm) looking through the 'window' and pull the leader it down explosively, which will allow you to take advantage of the body's natural levers. You can practice this off a couple of steps (without a run-up) to get the feel before incorporating it.

Watch footage of some of the aforementioned great fast bowlers and others such as Shaoib Akhtar, Michael Holding, Waqar Younis, Dale Steyn, Colin Croft, Mohammad Aamer, Jason Gillespie and Mohammad Sami for inspiration and different express fast bowling actions.

I would recommend obtaining a copy of The Fast Bowlers Bible for a more in-depth look at bowling biomechanics.

Finish/Follow Through

After the delivery has been released you want your momentum/weight/energy to still be behind the ball heading towards the batsman in a straight line.