If you’re a fast bowler, the chances are you want to know two things: how quick you are bowling, and what you should work on next. Until now, the answer to both needed a speed gun, a biomechanics lab, or a coach with a very good eye. Not anymore.
PaceFlow Lite is a free iPhone app from DineticQ that gives you all the information you need from a single video recorded on your phone. Last season, Wisden readers were shown biomechanist-reviewed reports from PaceFlow, the Loughborough University spinout. Now they can get a taste of what’s on offer without spending a penny.
It started with a familiar frustration: a bowler can film their own action and see everything, yet measure nothing. Now the phone does the measuring.
Users prop a phone side-on to the pitch, eight to ten metres from the crease, and film one delivery. The app finds the ball and the bowler, then measures the action at the moments that matter: back-foot contact, front-foot contact and release. It gives you the ball speed, the run-up speed, a PaceFlow Lite score, and one thing to work on, with a drill for it.
Film from behind the stumps as well and it adds the rear view: alignment, and a traffic-light reading of arm straightness at release.
Not only about pace
The science behind the measurements comes from Professor Mark King at Loughborough University, who has studied fast bowling for more than 20 years. The coaching, the drills and the plain-English feedback come from the coaches at Fast Bowlers Ltd, a team that includes international fast-bowling coaches.
Honest numbers
When the app is not sure of a speed, it says so rather than guessing. Measurements work best at 60 frames a second with the phone on a tripod, and the set-up guide on the recording screen helps you line up the phone.
For coaches and clubs
Coaches can run a whole squad from one phone: record every ball in a session, review frame by frame, draw on the video and talk over it, and watch each player's trends across the winter. Clubs and indoor centres can put a QR code on the wall so anyone in the nets can try it.
Built for juniors in the UK
There is no messaging between users at any age. Notes go only from a coach to their own player, and under-13s need a parent's approval to use the app.
PaceFlow Lite is free on the App Store now. Film a ball, see how fast you are, and find out what to fix.
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