Why can't kids be trained against very fast bowling machines?

[Leo23]

i have always wondered this

lets say a 10 year old is made to practice every day for 3-4 hrs (with a soft ball that doesn't hurt of course) against a bowling machine cranked up to 120 mph

by the time he is 20-21,wouldn't he be able to treat 90 mph bowling like medium pace? certainly he would not fear fast bowling

why doesn't something like this happen in junior cricket or does it already happen in countries like aus,eng etc?

or will not work at all?

discuss.

 

[Executioner]

Because at the age of 10 you don't develop the adequate strength in your body to resist the blows coming at 120kph..

Usually a 9/10 year old receiving a painful blow might have broken ribs or pain in the beauty bone. It's a matter of resilience.

Also it doesn't work this way that being able to play 120 at 10 means he can handle 140 at 20. It doesn't work like that. A lot of players don't have the necessary reflex needed to become a top cricketer. It takes about 0.5 seconds for the ball to reach the batsman which means reflex is a major factor in batting. This who don't have this reflex can never be top Batsman.

 

[Leo23]

Because at the age of 10 you don't develop the adequate strength in your body to resist the blows coming at 120kph..

Usually a 9/10 year old receiving a painful blow might have broken ribs or pain in the beauty bone. It's a matter of resilience.

Also it doesn't work this way that being able to play 120 at 10 means he can handle 140 at 20. It doesn't work like that. A lot of players don't have the necessary reflex needed to become a top cricketer. It takes about 0.5 seconds for the ball to reach the batsman which means reflex is a major factor in batting. This who don't have this reflex can never be top Batsman.

reflex can be trained

no one can face 90 mph bowling without training and practice

 

[WhenSultansBowled]

Hey OP, have you ever faced a, let's say a 75mph bowler (Saurav Ganguly/Collingwood pace)? For average club cricketers, that is a lot of pace.

80-85mph is a world class pace.

And 90mph is once every few years kinda pacer for Pakistanis/Aussies/Saffers.


For context, India are yet to produce a pacer who has bowled at 90mph regularly.

Why can't kids be trained against very fast bowling machines?

You'd hurt them bad at 80mph. (90mph is a different ball game altogether.)

 

[Convict]

I don't see why you would. 10 years are 10. If you get hit by the ball it will hurt and you will now encourage the kids to stop getting behind the ball when they should.

120 kmph is a speed the average man in his 30s will have issues with. It's also not all that slower than the ball Abbot bowled that killed Hughes.

And thats also ignoring the most obvious issues - 1. cost and 2. 10 years old is way too early to identify talent.

 

[hadi123]

Very dangerous. One bad hit is more dangerous to a 10 year old than it is to a male. And 90mph is too fast. You see most medium pacers in International Cricket may be about 70 mph but at club level that is express. I'm sure extremely talented young kids may face fast bowling machines if they have shown they are useful at batting but you can't just bowl pace like that to newbies or kids who aren't good enough

 

[Leo23]

Hey OP, have you ever faced a, let's say a 75mph bowler (Saurav Ganguly/Collingwood pace)? For average club cricketers, that is a lot of pace.

80-85mph is a world class pace.

And 90mph is once every few years kinda pacer for Pakistanis/Aussies/Saffers.


For context, India are yet to produce a pacer who has bowled at 90mph regularly.


You'd hurt them bad at 80mph. (90mph is a different ball game altogether.)

i have played a lot of club cricket and i am aiming to break into professional cricket

yes 75 mph is fast for club level players but it was fast for current international players too when they played club cricket

the point is that it is about training and adjusting to the pace.

the reason why club cricketers struggle against 80+ bowling is because they are rarely exposed it

 

[Leo23]

I don't see why you would. 10 years are 10. If you get hit by the ball it will hurt and you will now encourage the kids to stop getting behind the ball when they should.

120 kmph is a speed the average man in his 30s will have issues with. It's also not all that slower than the ball Abbot bowled that killed Hughes.

And thats also ignoring the most obvious issues - 1. cost and 2. 10 years old is way too early to identify talent.

yes injury is a valid concern

but i don't agree that 10 is too young. the younger you start the better it is.

 

[WhenSultansBowled]

i have played a lot of club cricket and i am aiming to break into professional cricket

yes 75 mph is fast for club level players but it was fast for current international players too when they played club cricket

the point is that it is about training and adjusting to the pace.

the reason why club cricketers struggle against 80+ bowling is because they are rarely exposed it

Personally, I've never faced anyone bowling more than 70mph. But a cousin of mine who is 19yo WK/Opener in a random club in Pakistan assured that 90mph is a scary pace and instills fear, even if bowler is bowling it all over the place. He was dead serious.

 

[Leo23]

Personally, I've never faced anyone bowling more than 70mph. But a cousin of mine who is 19yo WK/Opener in a random club in Pakistan assured that 90mph is a scary pace and instills fear, even if bowler is bowling it all over the place. He was dead serious.

it is and the only way that fear can be overcome is by exposing players to such pace at a young age

tendulkar was facing genuine fast bowling at the age of 16 in international cricket. yes he had an abundance of natural ability but he was obviously trained to play at such high pace

bowling machines are the best investment that a club can make. ideally every club in the country should have one. i'm sure pcb has enough money to afford it

 

[WhenSultansBowled]

it is and the only way that fear can be overcome is by exposing players to such pace at a young age

tendulkar was facing genuine fast bowling at the age of 16 in international cricket. yes he had an abundance of natural ability but he was obviously trained to play at such high pace

bowling machines are the best investment that a club can make. ideally every club in the country should have one. i'm sure pcb has enough money to afford it

You can't take example of SRT here. He was a unique talent.

But yeah, I do get your point.

 

[Eagle_Eye]

yes injury is a valid concern

but i don't agree that 10 is too young. the younger you start the better it is.

In your OP you said 120 mph... some posters are mistaking it with 120 kph! You are advocating insane speed to bat against.

If you have batted against the a bowling machine, then you would know that once the bowling machine gets past mid 80s, it becomes unpredictable where it would land and the bounce it generates every time. At 100 mph it would be almost impossible to play with ball moving around so much, you will infact be encouraging bad technique.

 

[Leo23]

In your OP you said 120 mph... some posters are mistaking it with 120 kph! You are advocating insane speed to bat against.

If you have batted against the a bowling machine, then you would know that once the bowling machine gets past mid 80s, it becomes unpredictable where it would land and the bounce it generates every time. At 100 mph it would be almost impossible to play with ball moving around so much, you will infact be encouraging bad technique.

but over the years such kids will eventually be able to adjust. humans have amazing power to evolve. if 100 yrs from now bowlers are able to bowl at 120 mph then the batsmen will also become capable of facing that pace

the point of making them face 120 mph is not to make them capable of batting against such high speed since they will never be facing such speeds while playing the game at any level but it would certainly make them extremely well equipped to face 85-90 mph bowling and at least they wont be afraid of the ball

 

[mak36]

lets say a 10 year old is made to practice every day for 3-4 hrs (with a soft ball that doesn't hurt of course) against a bowling machine cranked up to 120 mph

So you want a 10 year old to face a small projectile aimed at them at speeds of up to 120mph, but you will use a "soft ball" so it won't hurt them? )

 

[mak36]

Because at the age of 10 you don't develop the adequate strength in your body to resist the blows coming at 120kph..

Usually a 9/10 year old receiving a painful blow might have broken ribs or pain in the beauty bone. It's a matter of resilience.

Also it doesn't work this way that being able to play 120 at 10 means he can handle 140 at 20. It doesn't work like that. A lot of players don't have the necessary reflex needed to become a top cricketer. It takes about 0.5 seconds for the ball to reach the batsman which means reflex is a major factor in batting. This who don't have this reflex can never be top Batsman.

Re-read the OP. He's not suggesting 120kph, but 120mph. Insane.

 

[Executioner]

but over the years such kids will eventually be able to adjust. humans have amazing power to evolve. if 100 yrs from now bowlers are able to bowl at 120 mph then the batsmen will also become capable of facing that pace

the point of making them face 120 mph is not to make them capable of batting against such high speed since they will never be facing such speeds while playing the game at any level but it would certainly make them extremely well equipped to face 85-90 mph bowling and at least they wont be afraid of the ball

Human evolution is not that simple. To bowl at remarkable pace you need to have an unnatural physique. You need to have seriously lean muscles but really powerful ones. Also your joints and ligaments need to be exceptionally resilient.

Humans don't evolve physically much. Our evolution is more in the intellect. Evolution basically has more to do with churning out unfit people but we have such unique equipment that we can survive long even if we are unfit.

I think my discussion will be more scientific but I hope you get the gist.

Btw like I said human reaction time is 0.1 s and to face a delivery which takes 0.5 seconds to reach you is not going to be easy. Even with evolution.

And don't forget physical training techniques have reached a peak. This means athletes currently are fitter than their seniors but not much difference between the current and future generations.

 

[JattMaula]

I speak from experience. Faced a ranji reject turdler on concrete pitch once. I'm still scared of red ball.

 

[Diffusion]

Very few players who make it to the international level have a problem with reacting to pure pace. A bowling machine can't teach you how to play seam, swing and length because you need to read that from the bowlers action.

 

[Eagle_Eye]

but over the years such kids will eventually be able to adjust. humans have amazing power to evolve. if 100 yrs from now bowlers are able to bowl at 120 mph then the batsmen will also become capable of facing that pace

the point of making them face 120 mph is not to make them capable of batting against such high speed since they will never be facing such speeds while playing the game at any level but it would certainly make them extremely well equipped to face 85-90 mph bowling and at least they wont be afraid of the ball

Pace is not the issue if it's a straight ball... you saw how easily nick knight played Akhtar's 100 mph delivery.

It's the movement and bounce at that pace which is the greatest difficulty or at any pace to be honest.

To train for high speed with moving ball, you need to be in peak physical condition all the time.... 10 year old just isn't physically developed enough to be handling such quick reactions... you will have to pyramid up to the plateau level for the child can handle.... and then find ways to breaking that plateau and keep repeating the process. Most of this will require training outside of cricket to up the physical strength and conditioning....

 

[Slog]

I don't see why you would. 10 years are 10. If you get hit by the ball it will hurt and you will now encourage the kids to stop getting behind the ball when they should.

120 kmph is a speed the average man in his 30s will have issues with. It's also not all that slower than the ball Abbot bowled that killed Hughes.

And thats also ignoring the most obvious issues - 1. cost and 2. 10 years old is way too early to identify talent.

He is talking about 120 miles per hour

 

[Slog]

also you cant break the limits of human reaction time

 

[Syed1]

No bowler will ever bowl at 120 mph so why put the young kid under so much stress?


Also it doesn't work that way that somebody plays a fast bowl and automatically he/she would have good timing on a slightly slower ball.

 

[msb314]

I have personally faced a bowler in club cricket who was bowling around 80 mph and trust me that is very fast for the average player.

It was fast enough to the extent that I had to modify my stance so that my back foot was only a few inches from the stumps - just so that I could gain previous milliseconds in reaction time

 

[reversehook]

Only if it was that simple. Sir anything coming at 120 kmh is too much for 10yr old. Even if for arguments sake we say that 10yr old can cope with the pace etc, that still wont be enough to have the kid ready and developed. If such was the case no medium pacer would have survived. What is more important is getting their mental game ready. Teach them game awareness, and lots of practice, that will do wonders compared to cranking up the bowling machines.

 

[Arham_PakFan]

I have faced a bowler who is extremely quick,85 mph+,in tape ball cricket,and I have never been able to handle such pace,though I am a decent enough bat and am fully grown.To imagine a 10 year old to face even faster bowling is ridiculous tbh

 

[Rana]

It's not impossible to face that kind of pace but it doesn't do the kid any good for his confidence. Decent players will occasionally miss the 77mph+ delivery and get bowled. An average 10 year old will not be able to develop his technique in the correct way if he is forced to become older than he should be.

All the best coaches in the world will tell you, if you get your basics perfect only then will you be able to build on it and become better than the rest

 

[UN talkz]

Only if it was that simple. Sir anything coming at 120 kmh is too much for 10yr old. Even if for arguments sake we say that 10yr old can cope with the pace etc, that still wont be enough to have the kid ready and developed. If such was the case no medium pacer would have survived. What is more important is getting their mental game ready. Teach them game awareness, and lots of practice, that will do wonders compared to cranking up the bowling machines.

Sir,,,, he is talking about 120MPH not KMPH

 

[Rafa]

120 mph ))

Considering that it was for the kids I didn't bother to read the unit of the speed and assumed it to be Kmph, but now I'm shocked to check that someone is advocating for kids to face 120 MPH Bowls from machines.

 

[Convict]

He is talking about 120 miles per hour

oh yeah. That's borderline manslaughter.

 

[hafizexpress]

Jheez 120 mph for even international players would be harsh. Reading this thread has been kinda funny haha and the original proposition is not ideal no. You can't have cricketers coming up with deformed bodies due to being smashed by the bowls coming from a bowling machine that fast.

 

[Major]

The ball that philip hugh recieved was 130ish kph.

 

[kingusama92]

Cause they can't play it.

Their reflexes have to be built up to that speed and that requires a lot of work. You don't just take a 10-year-old to the nets and crank up the machine to 100-120MPH (regardless of ball type). It is a useless exercise because the kid won't even see the ball.

They could go to the nets every day and still won't see it!

Facing speed is about progression. You build that mind-muscle connection by slowly raising the speed and that takes a long time.

Now, let's say your theory is spot on and the young child learns to face 100-120MPH with soft balls. What happens when that's changed to a hard ball?

They have to retrain themselves because the ball will jag off the seam.

It's simply smarter to build them up to a reasonable pace and use age-appropriate match experience to raise their batting ability.

 

[Cryin Out Loud]

..........
tendulkar was facing genuine fast bowling at the age of 16 in international cricket. yes he had an abundance of natural ability but he was obviously trained to play at such high pace......

Not only was Sachin at another level in terms of talent, he was also gifted in another aspect which is often disregarded- predicting what the bowler was going to bowl next.

I remember Aamir Khan, the actor, one said (did he tweet it? Don't recall) that he was sitting next to SRT in an IPL game (SRT was watching too) and the man predicted 6 times out of 6 what the bowler was going to bowl. It was uncanny. SRT has also hinted at this ability.

How he came by it I don't know, but as a corollary I was reading a cricket article that said that the very greatest batsmen, the best of the best so to speak, managed to have this kind of blueprint in their heads where they knew where the ball was going to be most of the times, a split second before it was bowled. That's why they had so much time usually to play.

While I don't believe people will be able to play 100mph plus bowling comfortably ever (unless we are talking scifi type biological modifications), I think you have the germ of a training idea.

A training method for adults that does not use soft balls, or any kind of balls, but something that is laser or virtual reality driven so that everything i simulated as in actual conditions, including maybe the feel of the bat, the ball hitting the bat, etc, but you don't get physically hurt if the 'ball' hits you. That may be useful for training.

 

[Convict]

Not only was Sachin at another level in terms of talent, he was also gifted in another aspect which is often disregarded- predicting what the bowler was going to bowl next.

I remember Aamir Khan, the actor, one said (did he tweet it? Don't recall) that he was sitting next to SRT in an IPL game (SRT was watching too) and the man predicted 6 times out of 6 what the bowler was going to bowl. It was uncanny. SRT has also hinted at this ability.

How he came by it I don't know, but as a corollary I was reading a cricket article that said that the very greatest batsmen, the best of the best so to speak, managed to have this kind of blueprint in their heads where they knew where the ball was going to be most of the times, a split second before it was bowled. That's why they had so much time usually to play.

While I don't believe people will be able to play 100mph plus bowling comfortably ever (unless we are talking scifi type biological modifications), I think you have the germ of a training idea.

A training method for adults that does not use soft balls, or any kind of balls, but something that is laser or virtual reality driven so that everything i simulated as in actual conditions, including maybe the feel of the bat, the ball hitting the bat, etc, but you don't get physically hurt if the 'ball' hits you. That may be useful for training.

He was also 16. A very talented 16 year old with good technique can play high level cricket.
16 is nearly a man. 10 year olds on the other hand...