How to bowl faster and increase your bowling speed

How do you increase your bowling speed?

With steady practice and a way to check it. To increase your bowling speed, get a run-up you can repeat, bowl at an effort you can keep up, and give each set of balls one thing to work on. Measure your bowling speed as you go, so you judge a change on the numbers and not on how a ball felt.

The tips below are habits that make your net sessions easier to learn from. They won't rebuild your action, and they aren't meant to. If you're a junior bowler, work on your pace with your coach.

How do you build a run-up you can repeat?

Measure it and mark it. Pace out your run-up from the crease, put a marker down, and use the same mark and the same number of steps every session. If your run-up changes from ball to ball, so does everything after it.

• Count your steps. Write the number down so you start from the same place next week.
• Run-throughs. Run in without a ball while a mate watches where your back foot lands. If it's the same place every time, your run-up is repeatable.
• Add speed in small steps. Run in a little quicker for a few balls. Keep the extra speed only if you still land in the same place and hit your length.

How do you keep your rhythm in the nets?

Bowl at an effort you can repeat ball after ball. Short sets with a break between them are easier to keep smooth than one long spell. When your run-up or your length starts to fall apart, stop, rest, and start the next set fresh.

Rhythm is easier to feel than to describe, so use your clips. Watch a ball that came out well next to one that didn't, and look at the run-up first: your strides, where you jumped from and where you landed.

How should you practise to bowl faster?

With a purpose for every set. Put a marker on a good length and aim at it. Bowl a short set of full-effort balls while you're fresh, then switch to something lighter. Decide before each set what you're trying to do, so you can tell afterwards whether it worked.

• One target per set. A length, a line, or simply full effort off the same run-up.
• Full effort when fresh. Bowl your quickest sets early in the session, before you're tired.
• Note what you tried. A line in your phone's notes after each net makes the next one easier to plan.

How should you warm up before bowling quick?

Build up to full pace instead of starting there. Get warm with some easy jogging and movement, then bowl a few balls off a short run, a few off your full run at half effort, and only then go flat out. Your first quick set should feel ready, not rushed.

• Same routine every time. A warm-up you repeat makes one session fair to compare with the next.
• Don't skip it when you're short of time. Bowl fewer balls instead.
• Ease off if something hurts. A sore back or side is a reason to stop and speak to your coach, not to push through.

Does fitness help you bowl faster?

It helps you bowl quick for longer. Fast bowling asks a lot of your legs, core and back, and a body that's ready for it keeps your run-up and action together late in a spell. Work with a coach on a plan that suits your age and workload.

One of the most useful fast bowling tips is also the least exciting: be fit enough to repeat your best ball. Spread your bowling across the week rather than cramming it into one long session, rest when you're tired, and keep count of how many balls you bowl. If you're a junior, your coach and club will have their own guidance on how much to bowl.

Why change one thing at a time?

So you know what made the difference. If you change your run-up, your grip and your follow-through in the same week and your bowling speed moves, you can't tell which one did it. Change one thing, give it a few sessions, then decide.

Make it a fair test. Bowl a few sessions the old way and a few the new way, with the same warm-up and the same ball, and compare your typical bowling speed in each. If the new way isn't quicker, or your length has gone, go back.

How do you know if you're getting faster?

Measure every session and compare your typical bowling speed, not your fastest ball. One quick ball can be a one-off. A session average that climbs over a few months is real progress, and you can see it in the numbers instead of guessing.

New to measuring? Start with how to measure bowling speed on your phone.

What should you look for in your clips?

The difference between your quickest balls and your slowest. Filter a session to the top of your bowling speed range and watch those clips, then do the same for the bottom. Whatever changes between the two sets, in your run-up or your landing, is the thing to work on.

Every ball in YORKER AI has its clip, with its bowling speed, line and length on screen, so you can swipe through a session like Reels. Pick out the balls you want your coach to see and share the session in a Huddle.