Is this the winter that you finally get better? You can’t keep calling yourself a batsman if you’re only averaging 11, you just can’t. We look at what BOLA’s bowling machines can offer… it might be just what you need.
With the honourable exception of golf, there probably isn’t a sport in the world that demands such a focus on unrelenting technical graft as cricket.
Even when you’ve ‘got it’, you can find out you’ve got a new problem somewhere else. Cricket is hard work, it’s dedication. But we wouldn’t want it any other way.
We’re big fans of bowling machines, namely because there isn’t a friend in the world who can bowl for as long as we need to actually make improvements. Here are a few options from BOLA – if your club hasn’t already invested, get on to them.
WHAT BOLA DO
In 1984 the team at BOLA started messing around with prototyping and a year later Surrey CCC bought the first BOLA bowling machine. It then took a decade trying to get people used to the idea. That’s an argument that’s finally been won.
“Our primary market is everyday club cricketers who are looking to improve, and it is possible to improve with quantity,” says managing director Nye Williams. “Quality’s not everything. People can improve massively within the confines of very poor technique. They just get better at doing it the more balls they face.
“I’ve got hundreds of club users who would say they’ve massively improved just by using a machine, regardless of the coaching input. At the very highest level if you want to coach a particular thing then the reference ball is absolutely priceless in terms of a ball that is in the same place each time so if you want to teach somebody to work out faults in somebody’s technique then that is definitely the way to go.”
THEIR PRODUCTS
THE BOLA PROFESSIONAL BOWLING MACHINE
The Daddy. This is BOLA’s headline offering and it does it all. Your club really should get one, if they don’t already.
Able to reach speeds well beyond the ability of most club cricketers the BOLA is your machine for all seasons. It has swing and spin settings, it can land the ball in the same spot every ball or it can produce more random results.
This is a machine that will allow you to work one one specific skill, or your entire game, at your leisure.
Used extensively by professional clubs the BOLA is the absolute go-to for improvement from players right at the very top to, well, to you.
MERLYN
Who doesn’t want to smash Shane Warne for six? There literally isn’t anyone on this planet who doesn’t want to come a few yards down the track, get to the pitch and dispatch Warnie 10 rows back – if only to see his face try and remember how to move so that it could accurately reflect his disappointment.
The Merlyn is a brilliant piece of kit. You may remember it making headlines in 2005 as England sought to find a way to deal with that Aussie leggie (basically the reason it was invented), and if you haven’t been lucky enough to face one yet then you’ve got to find a way.
Research undertaken by BOLA and Sussex University demonstrated that – on a scale of 1-10, if 1 is perfection against a real bowler – a conventional bowling machine may be a 10 in terms of how a batsman’s trigger movement is affected. A TrueMan is a 2. Also, don’t forget, you’re essentially facing Mitch. How fun is that!
The TrueMan is perhaps the most contemporary of BOLA’s offerings. You can operate it from your phone and it’s the kind of design that should excite young cricketers. Again, like the BOLA junior, this fits through the door and goes in the cupboard. Logistically, it’s easy as pie.
