Jak Hotchkiss
Opportunities for Improvement:
- Keep upper body momentum going forwards for longer
(currently become very upright and creating a lean back a few strides out from impulse stride).
Short sprints (15-20 metres) will help with this, holding a cricket ball in your hand while doing them will also be beneficial. It is always amazing how holding a ball can affect a lot of peoples running technique - so if you hold the ball it will give you a chance to train ready for when you will bowl.
- Back foot contact. This becomes heavier when leaning back early and impacting your back leg to collapse more.
Work on creating more back foot stiffness ready to support getting off your back leg quicker (made possible when not being upright and creating a lean back a few strides out from the crease) as you will then need to call on more stiffness from your back foot to support this.
Include these into your warm ups to help:
Straight leg toe taps (or straight leg bounds alternative name)
Bunny hops
Back foot hops - useful to have a slam ball to use with this to challenge your core, but not essential. These can be done with a cricket ball and then bowl into a net as well. 3 Fast hops with a slam ball above your head, then stride and slam - challenges your core, and then focus on quick transfer off your back leg.
- Alignment; Having a slight angle into the crease is fine to a Left handed batter, but not so much to a RHB. Currently you come inwards (not by much). When you run in your left leg is coming across your body and this happens going into impulse stride. Your back foot kicks out slightly (until you lean back less we won't know whether that is definitely being influenced by that lean back - with more forward momentum into the crease it will be harder for your right foot to kick slightly to the left as you go into back foot contact).
Cones down coming into the crease for your last couple of strides to tuck you in slightly to prevent front foot overlapping back foot.
- Alignment - Block Off/Cross over; Not that much of a block off (where your front foot comes across the line of your back - see image below). Some bowlers have it, but those who do it and don't get too many back/side injuries tend to be because they manage to get off their back leg quickly to avoid lateral flexion (leaning to the left from you thoracic area). Because of the leaning back and back leg collapsing it is more of an area to work on to prevent your upper body falling away, however, in your case your front foot makes up for some of the blocking off by rotating through release. This is also a consequence of your stride length being quite short (created from the lining back coming in to the crease).
As above
Try to work slightly straighter at the crease to allow your momentum to go forwards easier/faster and make use of more time on your front leg to use the ground contact for power, rather than a rotational movement through that front foot.
- Keep upper body momentum going forwards for longer
(currently become very upright and creating a lean back a few strides out from impulse stride).
Short sprints (15-20 metres) will help with this, holding a cricket ball in your hand while doing them will also be beneficial. It is always amazing how holding a ball can affect a lot of peoples running technique - so if you hold the ball it will give you a chance to train ready for when you will bowl.
- Back foot contact. This becomes heavier when leaning back early and impacting your back leg to collapse more.
Work on creating more back foot stiffness ready to support getting off your back leg quicker (made possible when not being upright and creating a lean back a few strides out from the crease) as you will then need to call on more stiffness from your back foot to support this.
Include these into your warm ups to help:
Straight leg toe taps (or straight leg bounds alternative name)
Bunny hops
Back foot hops - useful to have a slam ball to use with this to challenge your core, but not essential. These can be done with a cricket ball and then bowl into a net as well. 3 Fast hops with a slam ball above your head, then stride and slam - challenges your core, and then focus on quick transfer off your back leg.
- Alignment; Having a slight angle into the crease is fine to a Left handed batter, but not so much to a RHB. Currently you come inwards (not by much). When you run in your left leg is coming across your body and this happens going into impulse stride. Your back foot kicks out slightly (until you lean back less we won't know whether that is definitely being influenced by that lean back - with more forward momentum into the crease it will be harder for your right foot to kick slightly to the left as you go into back foot contact).
Cones down coming into the crease for your last couple of strides to tuck you in slightly to prevent front foot overlapping back foot.
- Alignment - Block Off/Cross over; Not that much of a block off (where your front foot comes across the line of your back - see image below). Some bowlers have it, but those who do it and don't get too many back/side injuries tend to be because they manage to get off their back leg quickly to avoid lateral flexion (leaning to the left from you thoracic area). Because of the leaning back and back leg collapsing it is more of an area to work on to prevent your upper body falling away, however, in your case your front foot makes up for some of the blocking off by rotating through release. This is also a consequence of your stride length being quite short (created from the lining back coming in to the crease).
As above
Try to work slightly straighter at the crease to allow your momentum to go forwards easier/faster and make use of more time on your front leg to use the ground contact for power, rather than a rotational movement through that front foot.
Some still images for a better idea on the bottom point/s..
Front foot coming across your back foot which would typically lead to more falling away with your upper body. It doesn't lead to much of that which is a positive in a way, but instead of leaning away you rotate your front foot meaning you spend less time on your front leg (losing pace).
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Front foot rotation happens putting a high load through the inside of your ankle without much forward momentum which would allow more of a linear movement over your front leg (and therefore not as much twisting and over pronating of your ankle). Bowling creates a high force through your front foot but when not landing straight or heading in
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Completion of the front foot rotation rather than working in a more linear direction.
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Your cricket ball velocity was between 59mph-61mph.
Your heavy ball velocity was between 56-58mph which isn't much of a drop off demonstrating you have the strength to manage that. Your light ball velocity was at 61mph. This means your arms are effectively working as much as they can right now. Some people have a significant rise in velocity with a lighter ball - suggesting their arm speed is greater than they are producing with a cricket ball so weighted ball exercises will have a significant positive impact for their arm speed and wrist position.
In your case, like anyone, weighted ball bowling will help your arm speed and wrist strength, but they won't have as big an impact as they would for some people (or as quickly as some people would benefit from, anyhow). If you have any access to a ball which is heavier than a cricket ball but similar in size, up to around 300 grams then it is beneficial to use this as part of your warm up or general strength work even if not necessarily priming yourself to bowl. A tennis ball will also help you get your arms used to working faster as well (because there is less weight in your hand and therefore less resistance).
These can be done from kneeling with your left knee down into a net, or from a standing position, or a few paces run as fast as you can into a net (once warmed up doing that one of course).
Your heavy ball velocity was between 56-58mph which isn't much of a drop off demonstrating you have the strength to manage that. Your light ball velocity was at 61mph. This means your arms are effectively working as much as they can right now. Some people have a significant rise in velocity with a lighter ball - suggesting their arm speed is greater than they are producing with a cricket ball so weighted ball exercises will have a significant positive impact for their arm speed and wrist position.
In your case, like anyone, weighted ball bowling will help your arm speed and wrist strength, but they won't have as big an impact as they would for some people (or as quickly as some people would benefit from, anyhow). If you have any access to a ball which is heavier than a cricket ball but similar in size, up to around 300 grams then it is beneficial to use this as part of your warm up or general strength work even if not necessarily priming yourself to bowl. A tennis ball will also help you get your arms used to working faster as well (because there is less weight in your hand and therefore less resistance).
These can be done from kneeling with your left knee down into a net, or from a standing position, or a few paces run as fast as you can into a net (once warmed up doing that one of course).