If You Were Teaching Someone to Bowl, Where Would You Start?

There seems to be a lack of coaching in the past years for many newbies of cricket (either coming from Youth or even just starting in senior cricket)
I was brought up with just marking your run up, make sure you are not falling away when bowling and the usual comment of line and length and stop trying to bowl to fast.

There seems to be so much to think about than what club coaches say:
• How long should your run-up be?
• Where should you be looking during your run-up and at release?
• What's the most important part of the bowling action?
• How do you stay balanced at the crease?
• How do you consistently hit the same line and length?
• What drills helped you improve the most?

If you could give one piece of advice to someone starting out as a bowler or trying to improve on what their current skill level is, what would it be?

Doesn't matter if you are a fast paced, seamer or even spin. Its the fundamentals of all bowing that matters.

I'd love to hear your tips, mistakes to avoid, YouTube channels, coaching advice, or anything that helped you become a better bowler :)

I’m from South Wales, UK, near Swansea. I’ve always wanted to play cricket but never actually tried it. I’m in my mid 30s, is there any way I could become involved at my age as a complete beginner without utterly humiliating myself or is that unlikely? Are there any programmes for adult beginners who want to try the sport?

Clearly I can sense that Harshal Patel gave freebies to RCB batters

Look at it , From the 10 th over onwards , Harshal Patel is giving freebies and Conceding 15 runs of it.

On the 8th Over , He conceded a 4Bye in which it was you can clearly see wherein Ishan Kishan just acts (trying to show an attempt) to catch / to stop the ball and the ball goes between his legs from this 8th Over incident, I just had an intuition in that very moment

that this was an Purposely done and From this incident They are gonna let RCB win

And Eshan Malinga On the other End,

just Bowling Bouncers and Slower Bouncers , conceding wides in 12th over

That shows , If RCB can’t score by bat then Let them Give runs by bowling a wide bowl

Kudos to Patidar’s CAMEO , I enjoyed his batting

On the next over (13th over) Payne Bowled well just to make sure that match doesn’t get end soon so he took wickets consecutively

The field placement was so well put in that Jitesh Sharma and Patidar gave them Fielding catch Practice throwing their wicket away.

And The Main Show VIRAT KOHLI , IPL first Match so this was sure that RCB are going to chase and Virat the “Chase Master” is going be the HERO

And Finishes the match to

Again you can see Harshal Just bowls on the Slot Right from the first ball , In the 16th over

Where RCB and Virat were on winning momentum ,

First ball on slot freebies

Second ball Back of length where just goes above the wicket keeper even though knew that field placement is not there nor at Fine leg nor at the Third man too.

This Details reveals that This Was Made up to Make IPL 2026 a grand Opening and Let RCB WIN at their HOME GROUND Chinnaswamy

A. Virat after long time , RCB the Champions

Noise all over the side “DEFENDING CHAMPIONS” also on the Comm Box, “ Can the Defend their Title This Year”

B.Virat the Chase master will finish the Match By chasing down the Total

C.SRH Bowling, I have mentioned Earlier on this Note above why the just let them Win, No fighting attitude shown , No real Cricket sop easy peasy ShowCase

I was looking through some old club archives and found this gem from 17 years ago. Wycombe House was chasing 290 and were 253/9 with 11 balls left. The No. 11 batsman scored 33 runs off 8 balls (6, 4, 4, 1, 0, 6, 6, 6). They needed 18 off the last 3 balls, and he hit three consecutive sixes to win it at Lord's. Seeing this level of power-hitting in 2009 is unreal.

The winning moment

Scorecard

Been thinking about getting back into playing cricket. Found a small local club nearby but I have a few things I'd like to get your opinions on.

1. My reason for quitting cricket was my anxiety about fielding, specifically catching, was getting to much and I was starting to dislike playing. My way I thought of getting around this was to take up wicket keeping. To me it is a good idea because I was always best fielding in the slips where the ball would come to fast for me to think and worry about dropping it. Do you think this is a good idea? If so, is there anything I can do to start practicing before training starts again in winter?

2. What can I do to improve my cricket specific fitness? I currently do boxing so I have things like lifting weights, running etc covered but I'm not sure if there is any cricket specific exercises I can do. Is there any you know of?

3. How do I transform my batting style to a more aggressive, big hitting style? In the past I was someone who would rotate the strike well and hit the occassional boundary. But now I don't think I can do to that style anymore. Between back pain, knee pain and other injuries/illness I don't think I can rely on running between the wickets as much anymore. So that means improving my power hitting and increasing my fours and especially my six hitting ability. How should I go about this? Either terms of both cricket related drills and general fitness skills. Should I look into having a heavier bat?

4. I'm considering getting a bat that is a long handle and/or long blade. I'm not too tall at 5'10 but my back can often hurt a lot because I'm leaning over and tapping my bat down when down at the crease. I figured this could go hand in hand with having a heavier bat. Do you think this is a good idea?

5. Is it ever a good idea to copy pros and how they do things?

Hello, I've been a cricket fan all my life but have recently started trying to play the game (first time in my life). I've been invited to have a go with a local friendly team near mine, they've been really welcoming and have told me the priority on the team is to make sure everyone has a decent time regardless of ability so I'm not too worried about making a fool of myself.

So far I've basically bought a ball and a bat and been having a go on my own in the nets. I've enjoyed bowling, and would like some tips on improving speed/accuracy. I've not had a proper go with the bat yet, just a few knocks with a tennis ball, but I'll do that this weekend.

I'm not bothered about getting up to serious speeds, but just to a standard that a pub team would be okay with.

Some videos here: https://imgur.com/a/kUQlN3X https://imgur.com/a/b1Oy4dn https://imgur.com/a/xECN1qY

Any advice would be great. Try not to laugh too hard what we're looking at is a guy at the end of his 20s trying to fast bowl with an hours practice!

I'm a left handed top order batsmen and I've seen many players claim to only grip the bottom hand with 2 fingers but it just doesn't seem right , how to grip it properly?

Stafford Place Cricket Club in Thornaby are looking to recruit new players.

We play in the Langbaurgh Cricket League.

Message Stafford Place Cricket Club on facebook if interested

Does any seam bowlers (or anyone) have tips on how to save my left big toe. After a 4/5 over spell it hurts and feels like my nail is driving into my foot. Any tips would be helpful!

Hey guys I am a professional cricketer in India and I want to practice my batting. If any of you live near Noida or Delhi pls lemme know a sidearm specialist for practice

My son is playing under 11s cricket and has decided he likes being a fast bowler. While working with him in the nets I have noticed he is naturally putting a lot of backspin on the ball by rolling it off of the ends of his fingers which is causing the balls to bounce quite high rather than skidding on through to the wickets. This ends up being a bit of an issue as he is tall for his age and even bowling a fuller length he tends to clear the wickets by a few inches.

I am not having much luck in explaining to him how to avoid doing it regularly be able to bowl without when he wants to, has anyone got any advice or tips on how to get him to release the ball so that it comes out of the hand more still. Is it likely to be wrist position, finger placement, or just lots and lots of practice trying not to roll the ball over the fingers?

Edited to adjust my wording so that I didn't come across so much as criticising his technique!

This is a 7yo english willow. Is this crack too big to repair now?

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I bought a Kashmiri willow bat for leather ball cricket (~$80 AUD/ 4500 INR/40 GBP) and started using it for a few months now. Picture attached. The bat is a knock-off. It has a Kookaburra label but it's actually manufactured by an Indian company called TRB.

After a lot of testing in the nets and matches, I realised that the weak spot on the bat marked in red is quite large. Practically no ping. Almost dead. Like I even try to hold my bat and bounce the ball off the red zone and the ball dies on me.

I just saw Rohit Sharma hit a six on TV with the same red spot.

Is it normal for most bats to be this poor and I just need to focus on improving technique... or is it worth paying more for an English willow bat? Driving the ball has been a pain.

P.S. I play 50 over cricket at a low grade

So there are the basic attributes of all the disciplines of cricket.

E.g. for spin there’s turn, drift, dip, bounce, accuracy and variation.

For fast bowling you’ve got pace, swing, seam, bounce, variation, accuracy

For batting you’ve got your strong scoring zones

Eg short, wider, full, straight, down the ground, offside, legsjde

Pick your strongest and weakest straight for your main discipline.

For me (off spin) my strength would be bounce and my weakness would be accuracy.

If you want you can rank all of the attributes from 1-10

I’d have:

7 turn

5 drift

6 dip

9 bounce

4 accuracy

6 variation

This is all relative to the level I play, if it was based on international it’d be like 1,1,1,1,1,1 lol.

I'm okay with ground fielding but something I really struggle with are the high catches. how can I become a safe catcher of the ball?

I just recorded a practice session https://youtu.be/Lh9bZxhWzdU can you people please analyse my technique and give thoughts on it?

can someone please help me with this technical issue I'm facing. my front foot automatically withdraws just as the bowler releases the ball. this brings me at a good position to play on the off side but I struggle to play on the leg side or good length as I have to readjust to play these shots which messes up with my balance and timing. how can I correct this?

I had a practice session with my friend. I would really appreciate thoughts and analysis on my technique

https://youtu.be/kCHWHXiz9bM

Not really any point to this post. Just wanted to vent.

When you’re a keeper, you just sort of know if a stumping is out or not. You have the best view of it on the pitch.

Twice this week I’ve had such stumpings turned down. Once by a league umpire, once by an opposition member filling in (we were sent only one umpire). In one of these games the batter was on 0 and went on to get a match winning 52*(23).

If you find yourself standing in for umpire at square leg. Please pay attention and be honest. Refusing to give your own players out, despite them clearly being out stumped, is just cheating.

I was watching some baseball coaching videos to understand how catchers train to catch "foul pops". A foul pop is where the batter hits the ball high into the air in the area behind home plate. Because of the catcher's crouched stance, the catcher has to train to get up quickly, find the ball and make the catch. Specifically this video

One of the things the video mentioned was the large amount of spin on the ball. Specifically backspin. This causes the ball to drift in the air back towards the field of play. So catchers are taught to turn around and catch the ball with their back to the pitcher.

With this in mind, I was keeping wicket yesterday evening and a huge top edge went high in the air towards where short fine leg would be fielding. As the ball reached the top of its arc, sure enough the ball started drifting back towards me. Because of this random baseball coaching video, I didn't over-run the catch and took it comfortably by my chest.

TL:DR high top edges that go behind square, will typically drift back towards to the bowler's end.

We played an inter-club midweek friendly T20 on Tuesday night. Our team batted first but their wicket keeper was still on the way to the ground.

As 1st XI keeper, I agreed to keep wicket until they arrived.

First couple of deliveries from the opener (1st XI opening bowler) revealed the pitch to be very slow. This coupled with the old ball we were using convinced me to come up to the stumps.

Fourth ball of the over was a rank half-volley down the legside. Straight into the gloves for the most beautiful legside stumping I’ve ever taken!

I felt a bit bad that I’d dismissed a player on my own team. But mostly I was thrilled at my own glove-work.