Ian Leslie Pont (born 28 August 1961 in Brentwood, Essex, England) is an English former cricketer and current International Coach, specialising in T20 as a Head Coach and developing the speed of fast bowlers across all formats. Known for a powerful throw and a brief foray into the world of baseball, Pont mainly played for Essex during his career, as did his brother Keith Pont. Ian Pont won the Nat West (1985), Sunday/Pro 40 League (1985) and County Championship (1986) titles with Essex. Biography Overview Ian Pont is a well known bowling coach. With his joint baseball and javelin backgrounds, Pont brought ballistic biomechanics to fast bowling. He has simplified the technical aspects of pace bowling coaching by creating the 4 Tent Pegs Drill and ABSAT coaching now accepted by many respected coaches, as a blueprint for engineering a safe, robust bowling action whilst increasing speed and accuracy. He is an author of three books. His first book The Fast bowler's Bible, is used by coaches and players at all levels all over the world. His second book Coaching Youth Cricket is recommended reading by the ECB. His third publication Ultimate Pace Secrets, reveals how pace in the bowling action is generated. Whilst some feel Pont is far ahead of his time he has also been an inspiration to others to coach speed in fast bowlers and develop on his pioneering work. Creating the phrase "Pre-Turn" for cricket, he has enabled players to focus on hip/shoulder separation, which is key to generating speed. Additional Pont's cricket ball throw of 126.18m set in Bellville, Cape Town in 1981, is the second longest verified throw of all time. He had tryouts as a pitcher with six Major League Baseball teams including New York Yankees and Philadelphia Phillies in 1986 and 1987. Aside from cricket and baseball, Pont briefly joined Thurrock Athletics Club where he took up the javelin and had basic lessons in technique. It became apparent he had an aptitude and within just six weeks he had thrown the then Olympic qualifying standard of 72m. British Olympic Javelin Coach, Margaret Whitbread, mother of Olympic Gold medallist Fatima Whitbread, saw Pont throw and commented, "he has the most natural throwing arm this side of the Iron Curtain". Due to Pont's contract with cricket he never pursued the javelin when many felt he was destined to become a rival to Great Britain star,