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How to measure bowling speed

pnesam07

Cricket Spectator
Anyone know anyway of measuring bowling speed in the nets? ive heard about this speed gun and for £129 its not worth it.
anyone know any cheap speed guns or any other ways of detecting how fast you are bowling?
and whats a rapid speed a 14 year old fast bowler?

cheers fellow cricket fans
 

Manee

Cricketer Of The Year
I had one of them, not too great in judging speed since you have to pitch it on the correct length which you enter in.
 

Spinksy

Banned
Anyone know anyway of measuring bowling speed in the nets? ive heard about this speed gun and for £129 its not worth it.
anyone know any cheap speed guns or any other ways of detecting how fast you are bowling?
and whats a rapid speed a 14 year old fast bowler?

cheers fellow cricket fans

Have you tried Ebay? I find that it usually has those types of things for low, low prices. A rapid speed for a 14 year old fast bowler would be 125-130 km/ph there is a guy who I had to face with kind of speed.................and well, he broke my ribs.
 

Jakester1288

International Regular
Have you tried Ebay? I find that it usually has those types of things for low, low prices. A rapid speed for a 14 year old fast bowler would be 125-130 km/ph there is a guy who I had to face with kind of speed.................and well, he broke my ribs.
********, you faced John Lovett, and he is nothing like that speed. He is about 110-115kph when on song. And I don't think any 14 year olds can bowl 130km/h either.

Here is an example I printed off a few years ago, but you need another person, a stopwatch and a calculator:

Finally, we've got everything sorted out - how fast do you actually bowl? Naturally, the best thing possible would be to use a radar gun - however they're not genrally available to clubs an schools - but there is a simple way that needs just a stopwatch and a calculator (or a maths geek) to provide approximate results. Start the stopwatch when the ball is delivered, and then stop it when either the batsmen hits or misses it, then divide 45 (or 72) to get your answer in miles per hour (or kilometres). For example, a delivery timed at 1 second has travelled at 45 mph (72 kph). To break the magical 100 mph (160 kph) 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 behind the net, either directly behind or just to the side, provides the best results.
 

Son Of Coco

Cricket Web: All-Time Legend
You could get someone to drive a car at different speeds alongside the net and when the speed the ball's travelling matches the car's speed check the speedo and voila! :sleep:
 

jonny1408

School Boy/Girl Captain
If you use a stopwatch, and start it when the ball leaves the bowlers hand and then passes the wickets.

Then:

0.50 - 90mph/144.85kph
0.55 - 81.8mph/131.6kph
0.60- 75mph/120kph
0.65 - 69mph/11kph
0.70 - 64mph/103kph
0.75 - 60mph/96kph
0.80 - 56mph/90kph
0.85 - 52mph/85kph
0.90 - 50mph/80kph
0.95 - 47mph/77kph
1.00 - 45mph/72kph
1.10 - 40.9mph/65kph
1.20 - 37.5mph/60/35kph

These happen to be fairly accurate as i tried it at a Yorkshire Durham county game and seemed to come out within 5 mph of the speed that came up on the screen which was probably down to human error.

I then tried this on myself and realised I could just about hit 70mph which I was delighted with as i consider myself a medium pace and I'm 15
 

Howzatone

School Boy/Girl Cricketer
How fast would you say would be a minimum to bowl a bouncer that would get up to about the throat?
 

Manee

Cricketer Of The Year
Hard to say, bouncers are all about strength at the crease. I have seen Pollock get a bouncer head high at 60mph.
 

Howzatone

School Boy/Girl Cricketer
Well, I'm only 5ft 9 and have quite good strength at the crease but have never had the guts to fully go through with a bouncer as I'm too worried that it'll be clubbed for a boundary!
 

Manee

Cricketer Of The Year
Have some balls and give it a go. The key to a bouncer is to keep your back foot along the ground but this will require practice. The second picture shows what I mean and the third shows the ideal way to follow through with your weight into the ground. This will require practice and the best way to practice is simply bowling on some grass to a friend with a newish ball off about 10 yards with no run up and just try to find what intricacies get the ball to leap up.
 

Son Of Coco

Cricket Web: All-Time Legend
I've never had any problems bowling decent bouncers until the last year or so. Not sure if something's changed in my action, or whether it's due to the Gabba balls we use now going soft around the seam very early on. I used to get bounce off a decent length even though I'm not so tall (about 180cm)

Used to cut it in, so a bouncer was usually quite handy if it pitched on or just outside off and cut back.
 

Son Of Coco

Cricket Web: All-Time Legend
Well, I'm only 5ft 9 and have quite good strength at the crease but have never had the guts to fully go through with a bouncer as I'm too worried that it'll be clubbed for a boundary!
It's a bit of a different prospect on UK wickets too, unless you're playing on a hard dry wicket then it's a waste of time. The wickets I played on were generally a bit softer and anything short would just pop up. The went alright on synthetic in the 20/20 comp though :happy:
 

Arutha

Cricket Spectator
I am 16 years old, and I'm a pace bowler.

Some guys think I'm real fast, they tell me I'm around 125 km/h.

COuld someone help please?

Thanks!
 

Jakester1288

International Regular
Work what out? The speeds?

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.

Stolen from CW, I haven't seen the article in ages, but found this on the forum in another thread.
 

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