Shaun Tait's action, a myth-buster ?

[Ram]

Looking at Tait's action, he seems to do EVERYTHING a fast bowler shouldnt do. The slo-mo replays of action are quite revealing. I have always heard commentators, esp former fast bowlers tell that to generate pace, one must have a braced front-knee at point of delivery and higher the arm position at point of delivery, more the bounce. Tait does niether. His arm is terrifyingly low at point of delivery and he has a pronounced bent front knee too. Yet, he is THE quickest bowler in the world and extracts good bounce. Does that bust all theories on fast bowling ? Your views ?

[King]

If he would reduce the bend in the knee he will extract more bounce when pitched up. There is not much that can be done about his side arm action though, that is natural to him. The bounce he extracts is not the kind of bounce McGrath gets but it is more of a nippy bounce. The collapse he does at the time of delivery reduces the amount of bounce he gets when he bowls slightly fuller or from short of good length. McGrath was good exponent of bounce because he delivered from high and used his height well. Same can be said about the likes of Walsh or Ambrose. When Tait bowls short obviously he gets more bounce because of his speed and hammering the ball down at the time of delivery. It's not a myth but a fact a fast bowler is more effective when he uses the height and when his head pushes through towards the target he's aiming at.

[Donny]

There are always exceptions to 'rules' - thus, the saying. Can you imagine 2 more differently structured fast bowlers than Malcolm Marshall and Joel Garner ? :regular_smile:

[Sachinism]

what Donny said

[maaki]

I think there is some difference in his action when he was bowling really fast and the way he was bowling at Perth. I think has a very suspect action which he uses at times to get the pacy deliveries. NZ raising doubts might have made him resort to his legal form of the action..

Looking at Tait's action, he seems to do EVERYTHING a fast bowler shouldnt do. The slo-mo replays of action are quite revealing. I have always heard commentators, esp former fast bowlers tell that to generate pace, one must have a braced front-knee at point of delivery and higher the arm position at point of delivery, more the bounce. Tait does niether. His arm is terrifyingly low at point of delivery and he has a pronounced bent front knee too. Yet, he is THE quickest bowler in the world and extracts good bounce. Does that bust all theories on fast bowling ? Your views ?

[msb1991]

Tait's action has interested me for some time. It all seems to revolve around getting the body in the best position for a maximum impact on front foot landing so that the arm can come over fastest. The follow through is really baffling as he stops almost immediately after delivery - it just backs up my theory that his run up is more rhythmic and the action stops at release. You say that his front leg totally collapses at delivery, but with the pressure he puts on it, it is hard for it not to. His whole action revolves around rotating around the leg with the added pressure of not running through the action. The knee is the pivot for the action, like most bowlers, but Tait has a stronger action than most and one which does not take the pressure off the knee soon after landing. His wrist rotates fully in the action and the arm certainly is bent. When the wrist finishes rotating, then the arm straightens. However, the degree is certainly less than 15degrees, so it is a legal action. This jerk does account for a lot of his pace though. Can't comment too much more on the action though as I am still not sure how exactly it works.