How to keep your arm straight when bowling in cricket
Cricket is a spot that requires not just brute force but also precision, finesse and technical excellence. A player’s performance can drastically improve or deteriorate based on their combination of these factors. One such crucial skill in cricket is bowling, where a player needs to keep their arm straight during the delivery stride for legal action. All over the world, budding cricketers struggle with this basic yet essential part of bowling.
The Importance of Keeping Your Arm Straight When Bowling
Before delving into specifics about how it’s done, it’s essential to understand why does one need to keep their arm straight while bowling? Besides being an international rule set by the International Cricket Council (ICC), keeping your arm straight gives you more control over the direction and speed at which the ball travels. Bending your arm means you are changing not only the height from which you release but also the angle and speed.
Legalities According to ICC
The ICC’s law 24 explains that “a ball shall be deemed fair in relation to its mode of delivery if … the bowler’s delivery swing finishes within the area between his/her shoulder and an imaginary line drawn down his/her body alongside the back hip.” To ensure legality, players must try to maintain a smooth action without bending or flexing their elbow, thereby keeping their arm as straight as possible.
Techniques to Keep Your Arm Straight when Bowling
Bowling might seem simple at first glance; however, maintaining a perfect technique is never easy. Tips listed below detail ways through which one can endeavor to keep their arm straight while bowling:
Positioning Of The Grip And Fingers
The positioning of grip plays an instrumental role in ensuring better control during bowling while allowing you to keep your arm straight. Therefore, make sure that your fingers are placed correctly and spaced evenly around the seam, and the ball rests between your thumb and index finger’s base.
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Focus On Your Action
Aligning your action well is a critical step in maintaining a straight arm. Keep your feet parallel to each other, shoulder width apart, with non-bowling hand directing at the stumps. When your non-bowling arm leads back towards your body naturally, it will encourage the bowling arm to drive through and maintain its straight position throughout delivery stride.
Work On Bowler’s Run-up And Rhythm
Strive for consistency as variable run-ups or sudden changes can unsettle you, leading to inadvertent elbow flexion during delivery stride. Instead, maintain regular rhythm while running up to the crease because that makes it easier for muscle memory enhancement in the long term.
Tips for Practicing Keeping Arm Straight During Bowling
Though knowing what should be done and implementing it practically are two separate aspects, some practice techniques could make these efforts easy:
A mirror comes handy where bowlers can observe their own actions assisting self-correction steps along the way.
Partner drills also serve well providing immediate feedback about one’s form early on.
Strength training focusing on shoulders and arms empowers muscle groups responsible for producing a smooth, straight-arm action
Yoga exercises targeting flexibility help improve range of motion needed to keep an arm straight when bowling effectively
Surely there’s still more room to go into intricate technical details about keeping your arm straight when playing cricket; but remember that learning process varies from person-to-person. By diligently following techniques mentioned above backed by real-time practice, aspiration of mastering straight-arm skill in bowling isn’t far-fetched any longer.
