How England’s Matthew Potts is trying to bowl faster by ‘slowing things down’

[vvvslaxman]

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/cricket/2024/09/26/matthew-potts-england-bowling/

 

Matthew Potts is redoubling his attempts to become quicker in an attempt to turn himself into an indispensable part of England’s bowling attack.

England’s pursuit of pace and variety in their bowling attack led Gus Atkinson to become an integral member of the Test side this summer, while 6ft 7in left-armer Josh Hull won a shock Test debut. Olly Stone has also been picked as a like-for-like replacement for Mark Wood in both Test and one-day international cricket.

Compared with these players, Potts is comparatively orthodox: a 6ft 2in right-arm seamer renowned for his accuracy. But even fulfilling the unglamorous role – similar to that performed by Chris Woakes – Potts is well aware of England’s preference for extra speed. He has made tweaks to his run-up and front arm in recent months in a quest to unlock more pace.

 

“It’s to do with how my run-up is and how explosive I can be, and maybe using my front arm a little bit more efficiently,” Potts explained ahead of the fourth ODI against Australia at Lord’s on Friday.

“I have quite a bustly run-up, but slowing things down sometimes actually turns it into being slightly faster. So just working on things and tinkering around.”

So far, Potts’s increased speed is only marginal. In his two Tests this summer he averaged 82.2mph, compared with 81.4mph in 2022. But his focus is still revealing: even for their stock bowlers, in red and white-ball cricket alike, England crave men who can regularly hit the mid-80s.

“I’m just trying to keep my average up, I think trying to keep up at 84-85 consistently throughout the day,” Potts explained. “Sometimes I feel as though my last ball of the day is faster than my first ball.”

 

For all the emphasis on the peak pace bowlers can reach, even more important is their capacity to maintain speed. This was among the reasons that led England to turn away from Ollie Robinson – frustrated by his tendency to lose pace over the course of a day, sometimes rendering him unfit to bowl altogether, and in back-to-back Tests.

 

While those with more unusual gifts are unleashed in short bursts, Potts’s role in the England bowling attack is akin to being the dependable designated driver. Yet he considers more speed essential to making his long, accurate spells more threatening, particularly abroad. In Pakistan, Potts is likely to play his first away Test, after eight at home.

“It’s something that I’ve looked at: being not only useful in England, but also useful elsewhere,” he said. “There’s been like a change, trying to increase my ball speed, try to be a bit more effective elsewhere. I think I’m taking positive steps towards trying to make myself useful everywhere.

“You need a little bit extra in other places. But when it comes to it, it’s all about control. How much can you increase it with control? I think one of my key assets is control, but it’s about kind of exploring the boundaries in which I can keep control and try to find my peak speed.”

In India at the start of the year, Potts took 20 wickets at 17 apiece for England Lions.

Two years ago, when he toured Pakistan but was not picked in the final XI, Potts does not believe that he would have been as well-equipped to succeed.

“No, probably not,” he reflected. “I probably didn’t have the extra ball speed. It’s something I’ve been working on over the last kind of six or seven months, trying to increase that for suitability for different conditions. I probably wasn’t ready for that, and my game probably wasn’t at that level just yet.”

Woakes batted at No7 when England won the ODI World Cup in 2019, and performed the role again during the summer Test series against Sri Lanka. While Potts is not as capable with the bat, he has placed more emphasis upon his batting this year, and hit 149 not out for Durham in a County Championship game.

“I’m definitely trying to push my batting,” he explained. “It’s a key role in the side, to be a bowling all-rounder, and that’s something that I looked at at the start of the year. There has been a lot of work going into my batting, a lot more than there has been [before].”

[vvvslaxman]

I think our current fast bowlers should try to get their average speeds up.  

[Nikhil_cric]

Most bowlers can bowl their fastest when their run up speed is around 80% of their sprinting speed. 

 

I think Potts will benefit from cutting his run up speed a bit. 

[Need4Speed]

coincidentally I watched this doc yesterday..how they are trying to slow Hasnains run up for getting better as well..we do have some pacers who can get benefit with this approach too

 

 

Edited Tuesday at 09:05 PM by Need4Speed

[tapandrun]

Slow down run-up is this not same as not rush to the crease ?? 

 

Fast bowler should not rush in their run up so that they do not have to apply sudden brake on reaching the crease and lose all the momentum they build.

Tait didnt had v.fast run-up but will to put all his body while releasing the ball.

 

In the video they talked about having the will/desire to bowl fast, not all mechanics have to be right , larger biceps can give the illusion of chucking.

 

Interesting that Husnain went for speed in place of bio-mechanics as his action is already reported and he just got cleared.

Is there any evidential proof that snapping of wrist works with heavier ball ??Yes  it works with lighter balls , wind-ball not sure any-one can use their wrist to such an extent that they can extract more bounce than using shoulder and bit of back also heavier balls does not dip so aggressively with the snap

 

[vvvslaxman]

With minor adjustments without compromising on natural action you can improve your top speed.  If you really are going to build a bowling unit for all the conditions pace is a must. There are certain conditions where dibbly doblly 125 kph would do. But we don't select horses for courses. We stick with a XI as long as possible. Basically we end up going in with seamers that are unsuitable for some surfaces.

[rkt.india]

6 hours ago, Nikhil_cric said:

Most bowlers can bowl their fastest when their run up speed is around 80% of their sprinting speed. 

 

I think Potts will benefit from cutting his run up speed a bit. 

Untrue. Not every bowler is same. It depends on what kind of a bowler you are. Like Umran Malik bowls faster when he runs in fast. Bowls slower when when runs in slower. Dale Steyn was same. His run-up speed will increase when he bowled at his fastest. 

[Muloghonto]

How fast your runup needs to be, depends on your jump at the beginning of your bowling action. 
The translation of inertia of the body into inertia for the ball happens when the jump happens. If you have little to no jump or a highly fluid 'hurdler's jump', your runup needs to be fast.

If you got a huge jump like Imran khan did or a sudden stomping jump like Patrick patterson, then what speed you run in doesn't matter, as most of the inertia transfer is created by jumping. 

A good example of how just jogging in at grandma speeds doesn't really impact speed if you have no jump is Glenn McGrath

A good example of how just walking in with an average jump doesnt impact speed is Burmrah.