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[Outlaw]

I wasn't arguing just what you put was contradictory in my opinion with regards to muscle fibres as the type of training you suggest (which is good for cricket) has a similar effect on fibre stimulation to weight training which you where against. You may think I have been misinformed however all I have stated are facts not opinion, but each to their own.

[mattw]

I took inspiration from C Ronaldo as he put weights around his legs when he went football training and that has obviously helped him with his speed and power.

Instead of doing generic weight building as I don't know what is a good work out or not and I played different shots with weights in my hands. This definately helped with the power of shots as you're using the direct muscles whilst weight training that you would when playing shots in a game. I wouldn't say this is the best way to train, but it was a quick way of adding power to your shots.

[Simmy]

i dont think u have to have massive amounts of mussle or power to hit the ball hard,.

i am a big lad(mostly fat not muscle)

allthough i do have muscley arms but i know team mates that are a 3rd of size of me and can hit the ball just as hard due to timing!

its all well and good having brute force(like i have) but with out timing its nothing

[RoCo Da Pixie]

What i find is hitting the ball on the floor for 4's seem to work better for my game than trying to smash everything in the air and giving the chance to be caught when i dont time it as well.

[Outlaw]

Definetely agree with what Matt said thats a simple way to improve your hand speed through the ball in a cricket specific situation I think there was a company who brought out a system with a weighted bat to swing with cant remember who or what but it sticks in my mind! Cricket is a sport where your shape doesn't really affect the ability to hit the cricket ball as has been said it is timing and having excessive muscle mass for a cricketer can negatively affect your game as it could cause you to hold different shapes when batting however you need to be pretty big for this, same with golf one of our clients used to play golf as a hobby and packed on some serious size over a few months the increase in his lats meant his swing plane was all over the place and balls everywhere haha!

[haider-k]

Very interesting. When I was 17 I started going to the gym and put on 2 stones in a period of a year or so. Me, my team mates and coaches have definitely noticed that I got a lot slower in my bowling. I used to be a opening bowler at U17. Now usually just a part timer, so I am concentrating on my batting now. Well I guess you win some and you lose some. So my advice is if you are thinking of gyming it out. You possibly will sacrifice looks for speed. I might be wrong, maybe more specific training would increase your bowling speed, with a professional cricket specific workout. If anyone has any Cricket specific workouts, please do share.

[Outlaw]

I'm no expert on the biomechanics of bowling before I start but a bowling action is all about smoothness, the smoother and more grooved your action the quicker you'll bowl so muscle mass doesn't really come into it too much. My guess is that through your increase in muscle mass via the gym which will have caused you to have a change in shape your bowling action will have changed without you neccesarily knowing due to your changing shape similar to what I mentioned with the golf swing in my previous post which will have resulted in your loss of pace as the action wouldn't be as fluent. Which is why most fast bowlers these days do strength programmes based on improving muscular endurance to enable them to bowl for longer without fatigue etc, this is basically a low weight high rep programme so as not to increase size. But as I said I'm no expert on bowling side of things, did some work with one of the Derbyshire players during the winter if you want an idea of some cricket related gym training pm me happy to help.