The influence of cricket bowler's joint rotations on ball release speed

Abstract

The aim was to identify: first, how cricket bowlers' upper body segmental rotations influenced ball release speed; second, whether flexing forcefully the lower trunk increases ball release speed and bowling accuracy. Vicon motion capture system was used to record three dimensional kinematic data of 8 male fast bowlers under three cricket bowling conditions: sub-max condition, max condition, and max-trunk condition. The accuracy of each delivery was measured. It shows that the average ball release speeds for the max-trunk condition were faster and proximal to distal sequencing was a typical pattern. A slight decrement in accuracy was observed in the max-trunk condition. In all conditions, the upper arm rotation made the largest contribution, followed in turn by torso and thorax rotation, pelvis rotation, linear velocity of pelvis, forearm and hand rotation.