Side on?

Thoughts of Head Bowling Coach, Richard Browning

So important to have a safe action!

How easy is it to identify a mixed action?

It is very difficult to identify a mixed action without the benefit of video analysis. I personally would be very hesitant to conclude a mixed action if I had not had the use of a camcorder to look at a bowlers action from at least 3 different angles. Once you have the footage of a bowler, the first thing to look at is his back foot landing position. This is likely to be in either a side on position (where the back foot is parallel to the crease), a front on position (where the back foot is pointing down towards the stumps) or a mid way position (where the back foot is pointing towards an orthodox fine leg position). The back foot landing position will dictate the hip position (again either side on, front on or mid way) and it is important to ensure that the shoulders and hips are aligned as much as possible. If they are not aligned, this suggests a mixed action. With a side on action, the shoulders and hips will be aligned if the bowler looks to the outside of their non bowling arm, with a front on action, the shoulders and hips will be aligned if the bowler looks to the inside of their non bowling arm and with a mid way action, the shoulders and hips will be aligned if the bowler looks through their non bowling arm.

At what stage do you intervene with a bowler’s action to prevent injury?

The best case scenario for a bowler is that their hips and shoulders are aligned however a recent study of elite fast bowlers found that over 80% had mixed actions of varying degrees. When this is compared to the amount of injuries in bowling these days, I believe that the earlier you can ensure a correct action, the better that will be for the bowler. It is a lot easier to change a bowlers shoulder position to align with their hips rather than the other way round and with this being the case, I dont think you can do enough work on making sure that the alignment is in place regardless of age or ability.

How important is volume of bowling to preventing injury?

There is a bit of a dilemma with this topic between bowling enough to improve and prepare for a season and to take wickets and also bowling too much that you may cause an injury. Bowling with maximum effort sends a force of up to 6.5 times your body weight through your front leg and with the bowling action being unnatural anyway, this has its obvious repercussions. However, you can still work on improving your bowling without putting that force through your body by doing drills. Personally the simple alignment drill making sure that the fundamentals are in place allows our muscles to get used to the positions that they should be in. This is done from a standing start to ensure that everything is in place and a bowler should strictly spend between 3 and 5 seconds making sure that this is the case. With it being from a standing start, this reduces the workload that our body has to do whilst also allowing us to improve our actions. My opinion is that a bowler needs to bowl to get fit for bowling and better at bowling. This sounds obvious but I see day in day out, young bowlers being stopped from bowling due to the regulations now in place. As much as I agree with the regulations, I feel that coaches and young players particularly should be aware that drills such as the one I have already explained can be done and will not contribute hugely to the quota for that bowler.

What advice would you give to a young bowler who has a mixed action and wants to make a correction?

The best advice would be to break your action down ideally by use of a video camera and follow the method that I have described earlier by checking the back foot landing position and working up from there to ensure that the hips and shoulders are aligned as best as possible. Corrections can be made gradually and it is easier to alter the shoulder alignment to match the hips rather than the other way round. One of the only success stories with that is Andrew Flintoff who after hours of work, managed to alter his action to a front on one however critics may argue that this didnt ever actually prevent him being prone to injury. Finally, an area we havent gone into too much detail with is the run up. Young bowlers sometimes fall away and have difficulties with their actions due to an angled approach. The best advice when you do decide to progress on from the alignment drills is to make sure that you are aligned with the stumps from the word go – make sure the run up is straight!