Cricket Coaching Fast Bowling Tips / Increasing Pace Or Perfecting Swing To Take wickets

by Thomas Wilson
(Lancashire, England)

Good afternoon,

My names Tom and I am an opening bowler for my clubs 2nd XI and occasionally 1st XI teams. I am an away swing bowler but feel if I am to consistently take wickets I should be bowling a bit quicker.

I’ve tried this at training by attacking the crease at a higher pace but I lose the swing and consistency I am known for. It also put a lot of strain through my body and I got quite sore quickly.

With this being the case would you suggest anything different to gain pace or even if I should try to bowl faster at all?

Maybe a re-think of my targets would be more suitable?

Like trying to develop an in-swinger and developing the slower ball?

That way I could keep my accuracy and swing as well as having more weapons in my arsenal. (I guess pace isn’t everything, look at Praveen Kumar).

Looking forward to hearing back from you.

Regards,
Tom

Hi Tom, taking wickets is as much about game plan as it is about pace and swing.

Check out this link for ideas on your game plan to take wickets.

Cricket Fast Bowling Tips: Taking Wickets With Swing Bowling

You can have both pace and swing, you will have seen that I have written alot about Dale Steyn on the site and that’s because he has both, speed and swing.

You will find you are losing your swing when you try to bowl fast because your action ( front arm and front side of the body) will be opening up through the extra effort.

The key is to work on it in walk throughs, controlling your action, then in jogging, taking the tempo up over 3-4 overs, always controlling the action and speed, building up to running in hard for 6 to 12 balls.

Proceed with this over a period of months, building it up in short bursts during nets and in middle practices.

Eventually taking it up to being able to run in and bowl fast with good swing for 5 overs.

Learning to bowl fast is going to put greater strain on your body, the only way for your body to adapt is to put it under greater stress, so that means getting stronger to be able to do this. You don’t put your age, but Greg King’s Cricket Fitness
program can get your started with functional strength training.

If you have access to a qualified strength and conditioning coach they will give you an age related program.

Greater strength brings greater speed.

You now have the winter to work on your action and conditioning, it sounds by what you say that you have reasonably good control of your swing, here is a link Fast Bowling / Controlling Swing
to another previously answered question on swing bowling which details wrist and swing drills for you.

You already answer your own questions when you ask about developing in swing and a slower ball, these will be important for you to develop new skills, but not necessarily at the expense of speed. They will round off your arsenal.

You can have pace and swing by working patiently on them.

Best Wishes Coach

About Richard Pybus

I'm Richard Pybus, I've coached Pakistan, Bangladesh, Middlesex, Titans and the Cape Cobras in South Africa and the goal of this site is to help you to play winning cricket.