Common bowling mistakes - Part one

I have been a bowling coach for many years now so believe me when I say that no two bowling actions are exactly the same. I have seen actions ranging in type from the ‘frog in a blender’ to the ‘graceful and athletic’. Most actions are somewhere in between and it is my job as a bowling coach to make the individual’s action the best it can be with the skills the student possesses. 

Having said that, there are some common mistakes that I see over and over. I will be addressing these over a series of blogs in the coming weeks. 

Bowling is a very technical skill and there is a lot of room for error. It is rare that a student comes to me for coaching with a good action from the start. It does happen; some students are either naturally talented and have taught themselves correctly, or they have had some very good coaching previously. However, most bowling actions require work - which is lucky for me since that’s how I am able to make a living! 

Passing on poor advice

I believe that poor advice about how to bowl is being passed down from generation to generation. This is completely understandable when parents are passing on their own knowledge. Many parents learned how to play cricket as children, and their knowledge comes from what their own parents told them. Unfortunately this poor advice is also seeping into the club scene; many parents are coaches themselves and volunteer their time to assist with training. This is wonderful for grassroots cricket, and I encourage parents to continue to be involved with clubs. However if these parent-coaches have never been taught to bowl correctly, these common myths about how to bowl will keep being passed on. Even the paid club coaches with all their coaching certificates are guilty of this mistake. What you are about to hear will be very familiar to my coaching clients, as it is my biggest coaching gripe.

DO NOT BRUSH YOUR EAR!!

Ok, how many of you reading this right now admit to telling your son or daughter to brush their ear? Maybe you haven’t actually said the words but I bet many of you have been told to do this yourselves when learning to bowl. I hear it all the time; “Keep your arm straight and brush your ear”, “Don’t throw the ball, brush your ear with a straight arm”, “stand side on and brush your ear”. I have been telling my students for years that if they hear a coach tell them or another student to brush their ear when bowling a cricket ball, they have my permission to kick that coach in the shins. (I don’t actually want the student to do this, but in their own gentle way inform the coach concerned that this is very poor bowling advice!)

Why is this poor advice?

The reason ‘Brush your Ear’ is poor advice is simple. I have seen many students who take this advice literally. Students who brush their ear with their bowling arm will consistently release the ball from the left of vertical. To understand what vertical is, picture a right handed bowler in delivery stride and imagine a line drawn straight upwards from their left foot. Vertical is where the hand passes this imaginary line. Brushing your ear causes students to release the ball from the left of this imaginary line - in other words, left of vertical. 

There are some test cricketers who consistently bowl left of vertical, but they all have one thing in common - they are very fast bowlers. They use the angle they create to intimidate the batsman. However, unless a student is as quick as Mark Wood, Ben Stokes or Shannon Gabriel then you are doing them no favours at all by not correcting their action early in their career. 

What’s wrong with left of vertical?

Left of vertical bowlers are prone to injury. The sudden change of direction in action causes stress to the back and lower body. Over time, this can cause stress fractures or other bowling related injuries. 

Brushing the ear results in the arm being too far left at the moment of release. If the bowler stays upright and keeps their head straight, the angle created will take the ball down the leg side. To compensate for this, the student will tilt their body and head towards the off side as they release the ball. They will consistently bowl in swingers or seamers from wide of the stumps, angling the delivery in towards the right handed batsman. 

Bowling left of vertical will impact their ability to shape the ball both ways. A student who is bowling left of vertical will not be able to bowl an outswinger that is on target. To be on target, a bowler needs to release the ball right of vertical, and angle the seam of the ball towards the slips. If the bowler angles the seam correctly for an outswinger, but releases the ball left of vertical, they will direct the ball further away, off the cricket pitch and nowhere near the stumps. Any outswinger the student attempts to bowl will end up at first or second slip and the umpire will call wide. Not a great result, so it is no wonder then that left of vertical bowlers give up on the idea of ever bowling an outswinger. The outswing delivery which is so effective for bowlers like Anderson, Woakes and Archer will never be part of their artillery.

How do we correct this mistake?

When teaching a youngster to bowl correctly, the coach should encourage the student to have a high arm and to release the ball from the right of vertical. Imagine the line of vertical again and encourage the student to stay upright and to maintain their head position over their left foot in delivery stride. The student will naturally bowl from the right of vertical if they square their hips and shoulders correctly. A simple but effective way to help a student feel where their arm should be is to get the student to stand square on to the target with their head straight and their bowling arm raised, and wedge a cricket ball between their neck and shoulder. The arm should now be right of vertical and roughly in the correct position to release the ball.

A high arm is needed to avoid the low arm sling which is also problematic - but that’s an issue for another blog!  There are many other elements to a bowling action which need to be coached correctly and over time I will do my best to highlight these. For now though, please help me pass the word on: DO NOT BRUSH YOUR EAR, but release with a high arm slightly to the right of vertical.  Thank you!

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Frustrations of a leg spin bowler

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My Flickit Teams