My girlfriend is a huge fan of TV show Strictly Come Dancing. It might be about dancing, but it reminded me a lot of bowling fast.

One of the main criticisms the judges make about the celebrity dancers is their lack of "hip action", especially in the passion-fulled Latin dances like a tango. When they get it wrong they look stiff and unnatural. When they get it right it appears their hips are barely connected to their body.

Now think away from dancing and towards the great fast bowlers.

Like dancers, they use their hips.

Like dancers, a good fast bowler appears to separate their hips from their body.

The difference is that the fast bowler does it to propel a cricket ball at high speed, but the movements are all from the hips.

So to bowl faster, do you need to take up the salsa, tango and merengue?

Not quite! Although you can take some inspiriation from those wonderful dancers. Here's how to spot of you need a littl more Latin in your bowling.

Film your hip action

Step one is to take a look at your hip action currently. It's easy to spot if it's working.

Download the PitchVision app (for Android on Google Play or iPhone on the App Store). Then use it to film yourself from the side, as shown in this guide video:

What are you looking for?

If you have created a good seperation between hip and shoulder, and strong drive of your hip through you will see your knees together at the point you release the ball.

As you can see in this example from the PitchVision app, this bowler's knees are not together. His hip has trailed and - depsite having a braced front leg - he has lost a huge amount of speed as his back hip trails behind his shoulder.

(By the way, the arrows shown in this still were draw using the PitchVision app drawing tools, click here to find more about that)

If you see your knees like this, you have work to do!

If you see your knees together as you pause the video at ball release, pat yourself on the back. You can work on something else!

Work on your hip action

If you do spot this energy leak, then you know your next step is to get to work. There are two tricks to better hip drive

• Tent peg drills
• Med ball thows

Option three is to take up salsa dancing, but we have no hard evidence this has a direct crossover. It's more fun than cricket performance-related in all honesty.

Still, if dancing inspires you to bowl faster, use it.

Don't forget to get the PitchVision app to help you bowl faster. It's available now for free.