Bowling speeds

[Barney Rubble]

Copied from the CW Coaching Section:

"Finally, we've got everything sorted out - so how fast do you actually bowl? Naturally, the best thing possible to use would be a radar gun - however they're not generally widely available to clubs and schools - but there is a simple way that needs just a stopwatch and a calculator (or maths geek) to provide approximate results. Start the stopwatch when the ball is released, and then stop it again when either the batsman hits (or misses) it, then divide 45 (or 72) by your answer to get your answer in miles per hour (or kilometres). For example, a delivery timed at 1 second has travelled at about 45mph (72kph). To break the magical 100mph (160kph) barrier, the clock must register at 0.45 seconds. Once you get used to working the timer, you will get surprisingly consistent results. I've found that standing at the back of the net, either directly behind or just to the side, gets the best results."

I've been using this strategy for over two years now and it has tallied approximately with radar gun readings I've heard second-hand when kids have gone to the NatWest Cricket Roadshow or whatever!

A quick U11 bowls at around 50mph (80kph). Quick U12s are around 56-57 (90-91). The quickest Colts player we have in the Devon setups is an Under 15 next summer, and has been radared at 77mph (123kph) and clocked by my stopwatch at 72-75.

I'm now capable of calling speeds by eye pretty accurately, and my medium pace is around the Quick U12 speed range, pushing towards mid-60s (100+) when I'm flat out. Generally that results in major spraying of the leg gully region.

Very helpful, thanks Neil - I never though the stopwatch method would actually work, looks from your experience that it does work pretty well. If 0.45s is 100mph, then I think I might have been a little low with my estimate of the fastest bowling I've faced. Going by the replays I'm currently running in my head, and by the timing of my watch, it's probably around 0.5-0.55s, which works out at just over 80mph, but that's a really rough estimate. My off-breaks probably travel at around 37-40mph, and my medium-pace at around 50mph, going by those estimates.

 

[honestbharani]

wow, u actually have a difference in speed between all 4?, usually i just have a difference between my faster one and my leg spinner.

rotf, the only difference between those 4 balls would be in which part of the ground's boundary they end up. lol.


But more seriously, my bowling is generally decent for the first 2 or 3 overs, but once the guys get the hang of it, they just smash me all over the park. I bowl about 3 to 4 overs, go for around 20, pick up a wicket (or two if it is a good day) and then go back to keeping.

 

[Neil Pickup]

Very helpful, thanks Neil - I never though the stopwatch method would actually work, looks from your experience that it does work pretty well. If 0.45s is 100mph, then I think I might have been a little low with my estimate of the fastest bowling I've faced. Going by the replays I'm currently running in my head, and by the timing of my watch, it's probably around 0.5-0.55s, which works out at just over 80mph, but that's a really rough estimate. My off-breaks probably travel at around 37-40mph, and my medium-pace at around 50mph, going by those estimates.

0.5 seconds is 90mph. It's an exponential scale.

 

[The Baconator]

since, the club i used to play at used to have a bowling machine, we used that to measure our speeds, according to that, i usually average around 60-65m/h. thats what 110-115 km/h?

I think its more 95-100. Anyway I think my medium pacers were around the 50mph mark when I was 13, probably a little faster now, but I don't really care how fast it goes, as long as stays on the pitch and bounces once.

 

[Neil Pickup]

For those of you who've heard the word "exponential" and started hiding in the corner:

Time	MPH    	KPH    
0.40	112.500	180.000
0.41	109.756	175.610
0.42	107.143	171.429
0.43	104.651	167.442
0.44	102.273	163.636
0.45	100.000	160.000
0.46	97.826	156.522
0.47	95.745	153.191
0.48	93.750	150.000
0.49	91.837	146.939
0.50	90.000	144.000
0.51	88.235	141.176
0.52	86.538	138.462
0.53	84.906	135.849
0.54	83.333	133.333
0.55	81.818	130.909
0.56	80.357	128.571
0.57	78.947	126.316
0.58	77.586	124.138
0.59	76.271	122.034
0.60	75.000	120.000
0.61	73.770	118.033
0.62	72.581	116.129
0.63	71.429	114.286
0.64	70.313	112.500
0.65	69.231	110.769
0.66	68.182	109.091
0.67	67.164	107.463
0.68	66.176	105.882
0.69	65.217	104.348
0.70	64.286	102.857
0.71	63.380	101.408
0.72	62.500	100.000
0.73	61.644	98.630
0.74	60.811	97.297
0.75	60.000	96.000
0.76	59.211	94.737
0.77	58.442	93.506
0.78	57.692	92.308
0.79	56.962	91.139
0.80	56.250	90.000
0.81	55.556	88.889
0.82	54.878	87.805
0.83	54.217	86.747
0.84	53.571	85.714
0.85	52.941	84.706
0.86	52.326	83.721
0.87	51.724	82.759
0.88	51.136	81.818
0.89	50.562	80.899
0.90	50.000	80.000
0.91	49.451	79.121
0.92	48.913	78.261
0.93	48.387	77.419
0.94	47.872	76.596
0.95	47.368	75.789
0.96	46.875	75.000
0.97	46.392	74.227
0.98	45.918	73.469
0.99	45.455	72.727
1.00	45.000	72.000
1.01	44.554	71.287
1.02	44.118	70.588
1.03	43.689	69.903
1.04	43.269	69.231
1.05	42.857	68.571
1.06	42.453	67.925
1.07	42.056	67.290
1.08	41.667	66.667
1.09	41.284	66.055
1.10	40.909	65.455
1.11	40.541	64.865
1.12	40.179	64.286
1.13	39.823	63.717
1.14	39.474	63.158
1.15	39.130	62.609
1.16	38.793	62.069
1.17	38.462	61.538
1.18	38.136	61.017
1.19	37.815	60.504
1.20	37.500	60.000
1.21	37.190	59.504
1.22	36.885	59.016
1.23	36.585	58.537
1.24	36.290	58.065
1.25	36.000	57.600
1.26	35.714	57.143
1.27	35.433	56.693
1.28	35.156	56.250
1.29	34.884	55.814
1.30	34.615	55.385
1.31	34.351	54.962
1.32	34.091	54.545
1.33	33.835	54.135
1.34	33.582	53.731
1.35	33.333	53.333
1.36	33.088	52.941
1.37	32.847	52.555
1.38	32.609	52.174
1.39	32.374	51.799
1.40	32.143	51.429
1.41	31.915	51.064
1.42	31.690	50.704
1.43	31.469	50.350
1.44	31.250	50.000
1.45	31.034	49.655
1.46	30.822	49.315
1.47	30.612	48.980
1.48	30.405	48.649
1.49	30.201	48.322
1.50	30.000	48.000

 

[Barney Rubble]

0.5 seconds is 90mph. It's an exponential scale.

Ah, didn't realise that. In that case 0.55s is the upper limit for me, I really can't imagine I've ever faced much upwards of 80mph, certainly not 90mph. I wouldn't even be able to see 90mph given how much I struggled against 77-80 - faced 25 balls of it and played and missed about 10 times! I reckon I can play anything up to 70mph fairly well though - although it has to be fairly pitched up for me to score off it. I struggle against short, nippy bowling - don't think I watch the ball closely enough out of the hand. I took a 75mph beamer flush on the elbow a few months back because I didn't pick it - and it hurt. I was bowled next ball because I couldn't tense my left tricep to play a forward defensive.

 

[PY]

Fastest I've faced is 80mph I've been told. I wasn't able to play proper shots but I just flat-batted at it and as I backed my eye, I was timing pretty much everything off the middle though I can't claim to be able to cope with it.

The guys got majorly angry and started peppering me with very short-pitched rib ticklers and throat missiles. At this point, I filled up my boots........with turd. I couldn't see it properly and every time I tried to get bat on ball, I missed by a foot and got caught several times on the chest and arms so I started to try avoiding them but they seemed to follow me across the crease.

I left the net grateful I still had a full set of teeth.

 

[open365]

^lol.

i'll have to try that stop watch thing,almost half the arguments my club has is over speeds and who's the fastest.
i'm 14 and i guess i'm pretty quick for my age so i reckon i would be around 60mph(i'm also 6 foot tall).
i faced a lancashire u16 pace bowler in nets once and he was lightening,even of 2 paces.

 

[Scaly piscine]

Very helpful, thanks Neil - I never though the stopwatch method would actually work, looks from your experience that it does work pretty well. If 0.45s is 100mph, then I think I might have been a little low with my estimate of the fastest bowling I've faced. Going by the replays I'm currently running in my head, and by the timing of my watch, it's probably around 0.5-0.55s, which works out at just over 80mph, but that's a really rough estimate. My off-breaks probably travel at around 37-40mph, and my medium-pace at around 50mph, going by those estimates.

It would work relatively well because the two reaction times (starting the stopwatch and stopping the stopwatch) cancel each other out, so the only human error there is if the reaction times differ (which they shouldn't by too much and you'll be doing a few deliveries anyway). Another thing you'll have to think about using this method is that yorkers/beamers will take less time because the ball isn't pitching and immediately losing 10-15 mph (or whatever). I presume Neil's figures are for a good length delivery, but measuring the speed off full tosses/yorkers would provide the most reliable speeds.

 

[chris.hinton]

Neil

How do you do it cos i timed a ball at 0.78 x 45 and it cam too 35.1 where am i going wrong

 

[Jamee999]

I'd say the word divide may be the key.

 

[Scaly piscine]

Neil

How do you do it cos i timed a ball at 0.78 x 45 and it cam too 35.1 where am i going wrong

Should be 45/0.78 = 57.692 = 58mph. Or just refer to the table in post 25 of this thread.

 

[BoyBrumby]

I thought the speed gun actually measured the speed as the ball leaves the hand? Obviously when the ball pitches it loses speed.

 

[Scaly piscine]

I thought the speed gun actually measured the speed as the ball leaves the hand? Obviously when the ball pitches it loses speed.

A speed gun does, but if we're using this guestimation method then a 80mph delivery that pitches on a good length will take fractionally longer to reach the batsman than a 80mph yorker.

 

[Barney Rubble]

I thought the speed gun actually measured the speed as the ball leaves the hand? Obviously when the ball pitches it loses speed.

That's true - this method measures the average speed over the course of the ball's journey, therefore a ball which is clocked at, say, 80mph with this method is actually a fraction faster than a ball clocked with a speed gun at 80mph - the stopwatch method takes into account the slowdown that occurs between hand and bat.

 

[sqwerty]

Travis Friend usually bowls in the 130s imo. Maybe he hit the 140s when he was in great rhythm or something, but I have generally seen him bowl a bit slower. I doubt he was hitting career best form playing club cricket, so I doubt he was over 140 at the time.

Yeah....dunno what he was bowling at our club......he said he had been clocked at those speeds in the past. He was still one of the quckest in the comp though.

We used to have Andrew Jones (left armer played for NSW and was clocked as the fastest in the country at one stage apparently). He would bowl off 3 steps and was rapid.

Chucked his bouncer though.

 

[sqwerty]

Copied from the CW Coaching Section:

"Finally, we've got everything sorted out - so how fast do you actually bowl? Naturally, the best thing possible to use would be a radar gun - however they're not generally widely available to clubs and schools - but there is a simple way that needs just a stopwatch and a calculator (or maths geek) to provide approximate results. Start the stopwatch when the ball is released, and then stop it again when either the batsman hits (or misses) it, then divide 45 (or 72) by your answer to get your answer in miles per hour (or kilometres). For example, a delivery timed at 1 second has travelled at about 45mph (72kph). To break the magical 100mph (160kph) barrier, the clock must register at 0.45 seconds. Once you get used to working the timer, you will get surprisingly consistent results. I've found that standing at the back of the net, either directly behind or just to the side, gets the best results."

I've been using this strategy for over two years now and it has tallied approximately with radar gun readings I've heard second-hand when kids have gone to the NatWest Cricket Roadshow or whatever!

A quick U11 bowls at around 50mph (80kph). Quick U12s are around 56-57 (90-91). The quickest Colts player we have in the Devon setups is an Under 15 next summer, and has been radared at 77mph (123kph) and clocked by my stopwatch at 72-75.

I'm now capable of calling speeds by eye pretty accurately, and my medium pace is around the Quick U12 speed range, pushing towards mid-60s (100+) when I'm flat out. Generally that results in major spraying of the leg gully region.

There's another variable though isn't there?

I don't believe that is how the speeds are measured......They were showing the breakdown of the bowlers speeds during the Ashes. ie Brett Lee - leaves hand at 90mph, 80 when it pitches, 70 when it hits the bat etc.....

Looks like you'll need 3 stopwatches

 

[sqwerty]

There's another variable though isn't there?

I don't believe that is how the speeds are measured......They were showing the breakdown of the bowlers speeds during the Ashes. ie Brett Lee - leaves hand at 90mph, 80 when it pitches, 70 when it hits the bat etc.....

Looks like you'll need 3 stopwatches

ah ok...looks like this has been covered already....ignore previous post

 

[Neil Pickup]

Whatever the science is, my method gets close to radar gun readings, it works for me!

 

[chris.hinton]

i did it wrong