The Thommo method of Bowling

[social]

It's always surprised me that nobody has tried to replicate Thommo's action.

Yes it put a strain on the shoulders in particular but he was an absolutely fearsome bowler in his pomp.

We had a good batting line up in 74/5 - Amiss, Edrich, Denness, Fletcher and Greig but we simply couldn't cope with Thommo and to a lesser extent Lillee.

He generated real pace but also could get the ball to lift off a good length- not an easy combination to deal with.

Thommo, Shoaib, Tait, Waqar & Malinga were all slingers & none of those guys had shoulder injuries from bowling

Thommo hurt his in the field while the others were mainly ankles/legs as it puts massive strain on that part of the body

My son is a slinger and has had recurring stress fractures in his ankles and feet for 3 years

 

[Son Of Coco]

I thought he just shuffled up to the crease and went whang.

HTH

As opposed to Joel Garner who shuffled up to the crease because of his wang.

 

[Chin Music]

Similar to Tait who could generate massive pace looking pretty laconic.
All came out of the shoulder.

Yep, power through the shoulders was key. Although a far more orthodox action, Wasim Akram could bowl damn sharp off a short run and that was down to his shoulders too.

 

[social]

Tait is a big guy whereas Thommo isn’t

Tremendous power

 

[Migara]

Malinga is pretty small compared to all above and the man hit 155k+ in his pomp.

 

[Big_Gun]

Never noticed that despite watching loads of Thommo.


Thommo’s action does generate better pace than any other action. Accuracy though is harder to maintain.

I didnt notice the right foot crossing behind his left foot either, I was watching a old video of the worlds fastest bowler competiton that was in the early 1980's and had all the best bowlers of that time, and Richie Benault was commentating, and they showed a slow motion of Thommo's action and Richie talked about how unique Thommo's feet were in his delivery stride of crossing his back leg behind the front leg. (btw he won it easy, his fastest was 147kph, and Holding came second with a speed around 140kph.
Annoys me that they say the bowlers of that era are faster than todays bowlers which doesnt make sense, because in every other sport the players are far better, stronger and faster etc than in their previous era's.

 

[Kirkut]

Malinga is pretty small compared to all above and the man hit 155k+ in his pomp.

I saw Malinga with a belly coming out of retirement and bowling in 85-87 mph range.

Fast bowling is a genetic lottery, no amount of gym will help if you are not destined to bowl quick, take Jacob Oram or Tremlett as examples.

 

[Daemon]

Naseem Shah is kinda slingy too.

 

[Starfighter]

Naseem Shah is kinda slingy too.

I wouldn't really say so. Pretty normal, if somewhat flourished fairly side-on action. Doesn't do the 'behind the line of the back' thing 'proper' slingers do.

 

[Burgey]

Annoys me that they say the bowlers of that era are faster than todays bowlers which doesnt make sense, because in every other sport the players are far better, stronger and faster etc than in their previous era's.

This is a very valid point, though there hasn’t been anyone really bowl consistently as fast as Shoaib or Lee since they retired, and Lee hasn't played since early 2010.

It would be interesting to see whether there’s a general upward trend in the average pace bowled since speed guns have been brought in, but anecdotally I’m not sure that stacks up tbh, in that it’s still a bit of a stand out when someone comes along hitting 145kph plus consistently, let alone over 150kph. It appears to me most seam bowlers top out between 135-140 at test level, give or take a few kph each way.

It might just be that genuinely express (regularly 150kph plus) bowlers are simply freaks of nature and there’ll be the odd one now and then but that’s it. Fast bowling is a very unnatural act tbh

 

[Big_Gun]

This is a very valid point, though there hast been anyone really bowl consistently as fast as Shoaib or Lee since they retired, and Lee hasn't played since early 2010.

It would be interesting to see whether there’s a general upward trend in the average pace bowled since speed guns have been brought in, but anecdotally I’m not sure that stacks up tbh, in that it’s still a bit of a stand out when someone comes along hitting 145kph plus consistently, let alone over 150kph. It appears to me most seam bowlers top out between 135-140 at test level, give or take a few kph each way.

It might just be that genuinely express (regularly 150kph plus) bowlers are simply freaks of nature and there’ll be the odd one now and then but that’s it. Fast bowling is a very unnatural act tbh

Even over a Test match, I doubt Lee or Shoaib average speeds were over 145kph (i'd guess in the early 140's), but, lets say for example since 1980, I would bet that over each decade the average speed of fast bowlers would higher.
Norjte has had the fastest bowling speed average over a Test that I have ever seen, think its was in the late 140's.
Even Anderson's average speed has gone slightly up from 10 years ago

 

[mr_mister]

Having very flexible shoulders would be a must, as would getting the timing right - I've seen a couple of guys who bowled like that who fell off to the side and dragged it off line.

As I've mentioned before, slinging actions used to much more common, some amount of 'slinginess' was common from the fastest bowlers until the front-foot rule removed the distance advantage of the side-on, long-dragging action. But the only other person I can immediately recall with that particular, rock-back-then-foward action is Voce. Both he and Thomson pivoted their whole bodies around almost like a spinner, keeping their hips and shoulders relatively in line (I wonder if that's why Thomson never picked up a significant back injury?)

Interesting, I didn't know it was so common back then. Were any of Larwood, McDonald, Gregory or Bowes slingers? Constantine?

 

[Daemon]

I wouldn't really say so. Pretty normal, if somewhat flourished fairly side-on action. Doesn't do the 'behind the line of the back' thing 'proper' slingers do.

View attachment 39200

Right, I just took slingy to mean side on to a big degree

 

[Starfighter]

Interesting, I didn't know it was so common back then. Were any of Larwood, McDonald, Gregory or Bowes slingers? Constantine?

Gregory (middle of top row) and McDonald (third row third from left) yes, Larwood somewhat - he extended he arm behind his back but not so dramatically as the first two, Bowes and Constantine no.

 

[Pup Clarke]

There is a young quick who I saw in the WBBL called Milly Illingworth. Very slingy action reminiscent of Thomson. I wonder if she based her action on him?

Good pace too. Was hitting 120ks regularly

 

[howitzer]

There is a young quick who I saw in the WBBL called Milly Illingworth. Very slingy action reminiscent of Thomson. I wonder if she based her action on him?

Good pace too. Was hitting 120ks regularly

Magnificent name.

 

[Starfighter]

Even over a Test match, I doubt Lee or Shoaib average speeds were over 145kph (i'd guess in the early 140's), but, lets say for example since 1980, I would bet that over each decade the average speed of fast bowlers would higher.
Norjte has had the fastest bowling speed average over a Test that I have ever seen, think its was in the late 140's.
Even Anderson's average speed has gone slightly up from 10 years ago

I'd bet Shoaib's average speed in the Lahore test in '03 was noticeably faster than Nortje's, and quite possibly the fastest test of all time. Anderson is both probably fitter than he was in the mid 10s and is intensively load managed. And I don't think he's faster than he was in the 00s. But he's unusual. Mitchell Starc, for example, is noticeably slower.

I think if you'd measured the average speeds of seamers you'd find the main increase is from India, Bangladesh, NZ and SL finding faster bowlers. I think the change for Aus, SA, England and WI would be very modest - WI would have gone backwards.

 

[Ashes81]

I didnt notice the right foot crossing behind his left foot either, I was watching a old video of the worlds fastest bowler competiton that was in the early 1980's and had all the best bowlers of that time, and Richie Benault was commentating, and they showed a slow motion of Thommo's action and Richie talked about how unique Thommo's feet were in his delivery stride of crossing his back leg behind the front leg. (btw he won it easy, his fastest was 147kph, and Holding came second with a speed around 140kph.
Annoys me that they say the bowlers of that era are faster than todays bowlers which doesnt make sense, because in every other sport the players are far better, stronger and faster etc than in their previous era's.

It's something that has always intrigued me.

If you watch top level sport from 40 or 50 years ago, it's looks so slow and pedestrian compared to today's sport.

But fast bowling looks much the same.

Were the fast bowlers of the 1960's and 1970's really bowling at the same sort of speeds as today's equivalents and if so how is that possible.

And what about going back even further to your Larwoods and Tysons.

Is there a physical limit to how fast you can bowl and did we simply reach that limit a long time ago.

 

[Coronis]

It's something that has always intrigued me.

If you watch top level sport from 40 or 50 years ago, it's looks so slow and pedestrian compared to today's sport.

But fast bowling looks much the same.

Were the fast bowlers of the 1960's and 1970's really bowling at the same sort of speeds as today's equivalents and if so how is that possible.

And what about going back even further to your Larwoods and Tysons.

Is there a physical limit to how fast you can bowl and did we simply reach that limit a long time ago.

Apparently its similar in terms of baseball pitching, from some very brief reading I’ve done. (Same caveats would surely apply regarding speed gun accuracy and where the speed is actually)

 

[Migara]

Express bowling needs freaks of nature. Just like sprinters or power lifters. It looks like we are stagnating with the pace, because the supply of freaks has now leveled off. If we need to see more faster bowlers we need to expand the game. USA and China would be the best bet to increase the pool than any other country. USA is known to produce athletes. China just due to it's massive population and unlike India a systematic way to identify talent, could produce next generation of bowlers. However it needs these two countries to take on cricket seriously.