August 20 08 Spin 79 mAster class for Any young lAds outthere… The drop-sTep. Awith my reviouleon, erhathe mot imortant thing I’ll be emhaiing today ithat you hould n’t think that you are bowling with your hand or your arm or even your houlder – aa fat bowler, your ower hould come from further down, from your legand ecifically your hi. Thimonth, I’m talking about the ‘drote, front-foot block’. Javelin throwerall ue thitechnique and I believe that fat bowlercan learn from them. WhaT iT is A ‘dro-tefront-foot block’ iimler than maybe it ound . It meanthat in your bowling tride, your front leg itraight, while your back leg ibent ayou drag your back foot through the creae and bowl. You’re trying to create a houlder-hiearation ie you’re trying to get your houlderand your hi90 degreeaart from each other. Reaching that oition, with your arm out behind you, you create a tretch reflex – ie your arm will be roelled forwardayour body naturally, intinctively moveyour houlderback to facing forward, in al ignment with your hi. That tretch reflex movement createower from the core of the body. a neW Way of Thinking Thitechnique in’t what mot cricket coachewill tell you: they’ll tell you not to bend your back leg at any cot. They believe you houldn’t ‘collae’ your back leg in your bowling tride becaue you’ll end udelivering the ball from a lower oition. But the imle fact ithat everybody collaetheir back leg athey drive through the creae. Rather than trying to coach fat bowlerto avoid doing it, I want to make them aware that, in fact, thiiwhere a lot of their ower comefrom. The idea that a nahot of a bowler at oint of delivery will how the bod y tandin g traight and t all like a column, the ball 12 incheabove the bowler’full height iimly wrong. At oint of delivery, the body hae imore or le a ‘V’ hae: the legand the tobody make a right angle. When Brett Lee’front foot land, hihiare et back at about 45 degreefrom hifoot. Hitohalf ithrown forward, 45 degreefrom hihi, creating a ‘V’ hae. Lee’head irobably at chet-height to the non-triking batman. Lee i6’1” – but when he deliverthe ball hihead iat around 5’4”. Your back leg will come through bent anyway. What I want to do ihow you why conciouly working on bending your back leg in the right way will make you a fater. Why iT Works Try running over the road and t riing over the kerb – when you hit the kerb, your foot toand your tohalf ithrown forward. And the ame rincile aliein fat bowling – in a more controlled way. Once you ‘block’ your front foot – ie you droit traight, aan anchor to your action – the to half of y our b ody and u ltimately your bowling arm hoot forward. You’re looking to take advantage of your houlder-hiearation, by creating a tretch reflex ie if your arm iout behind you – meaning your hiand houlderare at 90 degreeto each other – it will be automatically naed forwarda78Spin februAry 2010 p i c t u r E s : p A p H O T O s the f ast bowling doct or your hiand houldernaback into alignment. peole often decribe thiaa ‘linghot’ effect but that’confuing – it makeit ound like you are a ‘linger’ and imliethat only the likeof Malinga or shoaib Akhtar achieve eed in thiway. In fact, every fat bowler uethitretch reflex to a certain extent’. Who does The drop sTep? Every fat bowler doeit -–conciouly or coached or not. But look in articular at shoaib Akhtar, Mitchell Johnon and Brett Lee. To my mind, none of thee hawhat I would call a erf ect ‘dro-tefront-foot block’. But all ue the technique of hi-houlder earation to ower their action. shoaib Akhtar, for examle, doenot have a fully t raight front leg when he bowl– bu t hiue o f the hi-hou lder earatio n and the reulting tretch reflex iabout the bet there i: he gethibowling arm right behind hihead and ahifront foot land, hibody and hibow ling arm are dri ven forwardwith great ower. WhaT To do Land oftly with your back foot – not hard amot coachetell you: you don’t want to todead and loe the momentum of your run-u. You are then looking to drag that back foot through the creae for along ayou can through your action. Keeyour front leg traight, o that it hitthe ground quite hard. Jut before it doe, bend your back knee. Ayour back leg comethrough, with your back foot dragging along the ground, your kneewill come level with each other and your hiwill hoot forward. Walking iT Through You can walk thithough now, at home. Bring your right/back leg – with your foot ointing forward – down and jut before your (traight) front leg hitthe floor, tart to bend your knee and drag your foot. Ayour front leg hitthe floor, your kneehou ld be level with each other: your bent back leg iulled through, ayour bowling arm comeover. Your kneewill be level ayour arm comeover, meaning your hiare now facing forward. Intead of thinking of an (unrealitically) ‘high’ action, you are creating extra ower from thiconciouly lower oition. • Ian Pont has been coach to Darren Gough and Dale Steyn and runs courses for players ofall ages. Maverickscricket.com. More from the fast bowling doctor – plus the return ofBatting Doctor Gary Palmer – next month. Javeli nthrowersthrowwiththeirlegs. Anda bigpartof mycoaching, writes IanPont, isto encourag ebowlerstodo thesame–becausethatiswherethe powerwillcomefrom.Javeli n- throwi ngis allaboutmaximisin g powerthroughtechniqu e.Thelast thingajavelinthrowerdoesisthrow thejavelin–andthelastthinga crickete rdoesis bowltheball: everyt hingelsehas tobe inplacefirst. Thevastmajorityoffastbowlers whocometome, especiall yyoungfast bowlers ,haveconcentratedointheir upper-bo dyandon gettingspeedfrom theirshoulde rsandarms.Thismeans theyaremissingouton alltheextra powerthatcanbe achievedbymaking surefeet,kneesandhips andprovidi ng therightbasefor theaction. Theprinciplesfor thedrop-step front-footblockarethe sameas in javelin:theonly differenceisthat a javelinthrowerislookingto launchit milesintothe airwhereasacricketer hastobringtheballdow nwithi n22 yards.And,afterworkingon thedrop step,youmay findyourselfpitching veryfullwithyour extrapowerat first –thosewhotrytogetextr apace purelyfromtheirarm oftenendingup bowlingtooshort. in practice WiTh ian ponT MitchellJohnson: backleg bendi ngand backfootdra ggingas ball isreleased
