Bowling exercises to improve consistency

It is widely recognized throughout cricket that practice is the key to an individual’s consistency when bowling. This can be attributed in large part to the fact that the more an individual throws, the more he begins to “furrow” his action and, as a consequence, the greater the control he has over where he is throwing the ball. However, bowling aimlessly does not help this improve and, conversely, can cause players to develop bad habits. This makes it imperative that players are constantly challenged and stretched when practicing.

One method of stretching the individual is to place a newspaper of a “good” length inside and outside the stump. This gives the bowler an indication of where to look to hit the ball consistently and means that his performance is easily measurable to you as a coach. The individual must be challenged to hit the area four out of six times and it is important that they are aware of their responsibilities as a pitcher to consistently hit the ball in good areas. The fact that the player has a clear objective as to what to achieve focuses his mind on the task. In addition, this high intensity practice should allow the player to reaffirm good habits within his bowling action and put him in a pressure situation that, in theory, should facilitate the transfer of his skills to the field of play.

Another practice method is to create a “simulated” match situation during a network session. The individual should be encouraged to identify weaknesses within a hitter’s technique and then, using their knowledge of hitters, should seek to apply the relevant skills to achieve their goals of restricting a hitter’s attacking options and hopefully eventually discard the batter. This again puts pressure on the individual and is a good foundation for the match arena, because they are invariably going to experience pressure on some level.