Ask a junior coach what the front foot should do and you will usually get one of two answers. “Land in the crease.” Or, from the better ones, “land on a straight leg.”

Both are true. Neither says anything about which way the foot is pointing when it lands.

That is a strange gap, because the front foot is the point where the whole action meets the ground. Everything the bowler has built up in the run-up, the jump and the back foot landing arrives at that one foot, in a fraction of a second, at full speed. If the foot is pointing the wrong way when it lands, every bit of that force is going through the ankle and the knee at an awkward angle.

And it happens on every ball. In the nets, in matches, in the extra overs at the end of training. Hundreds of times a week.

What a splayed front foot looks like

A splayed front foot is one that opens out on landing. Instead of pointing straight down the pitch, the toes turn out towards the off side (for a right-armer). Sometimes it’s a small turn. Sometimes the foot is landing almost sideways, as if the bowler is about to step off the pitch towards cover.

What we want is simple: the front foot points straight down the pitch. Laces at the batter.

That’s it. It isn’t a style question. Front-on, side-on or somewhere in between (and that is decided by the back foot, not the front), the front foot still lands pointing at the target.

Why it matters for the joints

Think about what the front leg is being asked to do. At front foot landing the bowler is travelling forward fast, and the front leg has to stop the base of the body dead. That’s the brace, the “ram rod”: heel first, then the whole foot, leg straight and locked out through release. It’s the wall the action hits, and it is how the top half gets thrown forward with the ball.

A straight leg pointing down the pitch can take that force in the direction it was built to take it. A leg sitting on a foot that is turned out is being asked to brace one way while the foot points another. The ankle and the knee end up taking the load at an angle, with twist in it, rather than straight through.

That is an awkward way to load two joints, and it is not a load a growing body should be taking hundreds of times a week. When we see a badly splayed front foot on a trial video, we flag it as something that can create ankle and knee problems, not just as a technical untidiness.

Why it matters for pace

The same fault leaks speed.

Fast bowling depends on the base stopping hard and the hips driving through against it, before the chest, before the arm. The order is the whole game: base firms, hips drive, chest follows, arm last. One mile an hour gained at the hips can be worth up to ten at the arm.

A foot turned out to the side is a poor base to brace against. The wall is pointing in the wrong direction. Some of the energy that should be going down the pitch at the batter gets pulled off to the side instead, and the bowler’s line tends to suffer with it. You get a bowler who works hard, feels like they’re putting everything into it, and wonders why the ball isn’t coming out any quicker.

It also interferes with the brace itself. It is harder to hold a straight, locked front leg when the foot underneath it is angled away. A splayed foot and a front leg that won’t stay braced often turn up together.

Why nobody spots it

Three reasons.

It is invisible from the side. Most people watch a bowler side-on, from square leg or mid-wicket. From there you can see whether the front leg is straight, but you can’t really see which way the foot is pointing. You need to be behind the bowler, looking down the line.

It is too quick. The foot is on the ground for a fraction of a second before the follow-through takes over. With your own eyes, at full speed, you will not see it. On a phone, frame by frame, you will.

The ball still goes down the other end. Young bowlers are brilliant at compensating. A bowler with a splayed front foot can still bowl straight, still take wickets, still look “fine”. The scorebook doesn’t record the angle of a foot. The ankle and knee do.

How to check it tonight

You need a phone and a few deliveries.

Stand behind the bowler, in line with the stumps, roughly where a deep umpire would stand. Far enough back that the whole body is in frame. Film at normal full speed, not slow motion. Two or three deliveries is plenty.

Then step through the footage frame by frame and stop on the moment the front foot lands. Ask three questions.

One. Which way are the toes pointing? Straight down the pitch at the batter, or turned out to the side?

Two. Are the feet landing on railway tracks, back foot and front foot about hip-width apart on two separate lines, or is the front foot stepping across onto the same line as the back foot? A crossing front foot and a splayed front foot are different faults, but both are alignment problems and both are worth knowing about.

Three. Switch to a side-on clip of the same bowler. Does the heel land first, then the whole foot, and does the leg stay straight until the ball has gone?

Be honest and be careful. A tiny angle on a blurry clip is not a diagnosis. Make the call only when you can clearly see it. But if the front foot is obviously landing turned out, delivery after delivery, that is worth acting on now, not after the next growth spurt.

What not to do

Don’t just shout “point your foot!” from the side of the net.

The front foot is the end of a chain. Where it lands and how it points is tied to the alignment of everything that came before it: the run-up, the jump, the back foot, the line of the hips and shoulders. A bowler can force their toes straight for a few balls and then go straight back to the old pattern as soon as they’re bowling properly, or they can twist somewhere else to make it happen, which helps nobody.

It needs to be coached, deliberately, as part of the whole action. Name it. Show it on video. Work out why that bowler lands that way. Fix it in the positions and drills, then check it again on film until laces-at-the-batter is the only way they know how to land.

The honest summary

Everyone watches the ball. Some people watch the arm. Hardly anyone looks at the front foot, and it is the one part of the body that takes the whole action on every delivery.

Laces at the batter. Heel first, whole foot, leg locked. If your child’s front foot isn’t doing that, it is costing them pace now, and it may be costing their ankles and knees later.

Film it. Look at it. Then get it coached.

If you’ve filmed your child and you’re not sure what you’re seeing, that’s what our video trial is for, boy or girl.

Ian Pont is Director of Cricket at the National Fast Bowling Academy and has coached fast bowlers at international level. This article is general coaching guidance and not medical advice — if your child has pain in the ankle, knee or back when bowling, see a doctor or physiotherapist.