Progress report, new articles and some BIG NEWS!

Hello everyone,

I apologise for the lack of posting on Get Fit For Cricket. The reason is because I have very kindly been asked to post for Pitch Vision, a brilliant cricket website with plenty of free information and other slightly more expensive but equally brilliant goodies.

I've posted two articles on their site, the first one introduced my research and a few technical considerations, whilst the second one is about the hips and how to use them properly. Everyone knows they should use their hips when they bowl, the problem arises because no-one knows has told you how to use them! Hopefully, the article should help. Links are at the bottom of the article.

Some of you may be thinking that my articles lack information that can be directly applied to bowlers. I am sorry for this, but I promise you that this information is coming! I have plenty of drills that'll help you out, if you want to find some out, send me an email at gffc@hotmail.co.uk and I'll be more than happy to help with drills specific to your needs.

Now for the big news.

I would like to take this opportunity to announce that I'm writing a book about fast bowling!

The book will cover all aspects of training for fast bowlers: technique, flexibility and conditioning. I have spent a long time researching all these areas, I now feel confident enough to put them all together in one place!

The technique chapters will describe the theory and how to put it into practise with drills and exercises. The drills will be set out so that there's a natural progression from one drill to another. I want to make the format as simple as possible, so that you start with the basic drills and eventually move onto the advanced drills.

The flexibility chapter will detail all the why's and how's of stretching for cricket. Although the thought of stretching may make you groan, I can assure that stretching gives you 'bang for your buck'- i.e. when you consider the amount of time that you'll spend stretching, the results you'll get will be more than worth it.

The conditioning chapter will contain information on strength and energy sytems work for cricketers. My friends and family all know how much I love spending time in the gym, so I've done a lot of research to make sure that cricketers will get the most out of thier conditioning training. Most of my methods were pioneered by elite Eastern Bloc Sports Scientists, all I have done is apply them to cricketers. As well as explaining exactly how cricketers should train, I'll also include an annual training template.

Essentially, I want the book to be as simple and effective as possible. I want every coach and bowler to be able to APPLY what I discuss, not just know it. I won't go as far as saying the book will be full of 'underground secrets', but the book will definitely contain a lot of information that I've never heard coaches discuss before, but is vitally important to fast bowling.

Considering the very limited (and in my opinion pretty rubbish) information on fast bowling out there, I think the book will prove to be a useful contribution to a cricketer's book collection!

My articles on Pitch Vision can be found here. Make sure to have a look around the site!

http://www.pitchvision.com/how-to-bowl-fast
http://www.pitchvision.com/fast-bowling-hip-drive

Cheers,

Tom

P.S With regards to the book, I'll be looking for a publisher or somewhere to put it on the internet, if anyone can help me with this it'd be great to hear from you!

Fast Bowling: A new approach

Hi to everyone,

I'm sorry that I haven't posted in such a long time but the past few weeks have been very busy. Fortunately that time has been spent working on two big cricket projects, one written exclusively for Get Fit For Cricket and the other for my end of year Mathematics project.

Since my maths project work is fresh in my mind, today I'm providing a copy of my work on fast bowling. You can grab a copy at http://www.megaupload.com/?d=Q4QOEQN2

What I've done is create a mathematical model of a portion of a fast bowler's action. I've then evaluated it's behaviour and had a look at what we can learn about fast bowling from the model. There is a lot of maths but hopefully the project is written in such a way that the project 'works' without the maths. If you want to get the jist of the project I suggest you read the introduction, the summary of bowling biomechanics, take a look at what the model looks like and then go straight to the results.

The style of writing is much more formal than that of the blog since an informative tone wouldn't have gone down too well with the mathematics department :-D.

It was absolutely fascinating working on the project, there's a huge scope for work in the future so it's an exciting time for me. I hope you get as much out of reading it as I did writing it.

If you feel my work deserves it please 'have a look' at the ads. Every click counts. I'm well on my way to getting the video camera- it will vastly improve the quality of the site, so everyone wins!

Cheers, hope you enjoy the article,

Tom

The bodybuilding myth

I want to clear up something once and for all. In this article, I'm going to discuss the difference between looking strong and being strong. Right now you might think there is no difference- the purpose of this article is to show you that in some case there is.


First of all , take a look at the video below. Skip to about 5:46 and just watch for a minute. I think its fairly amusing anyway.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WyF--C0r8PI

As I'm sure you've noticed, this bloke is big. Admittedly not as big as some, but it's obvious that he 'pumps iron'. The bodybuilder, Markus, says that he's been training since he was 13 and that he's 29 now (sourced from his website). According to him, he's been bodybuilding for 16 years. So, naturally, I'm sure most of you would assume that he's pretty strong.

Unfortunately, this video demonstrates that he's not. The late Mike Mentzer, the coach, says that the plates are 45 pounds, so with 6 plates he's deadlifting about 270 pounds (120kg). He does a set of two as a warm-up, does three more decent lifts, and then two more bad lifts (he doesn't manage to 'lock the weight out').

Please don't think I'm bragging by saying this (serious strength trainers will say I'm weedy!), but I can just about lift what he's lifting with a bodyweight of 76kg and a whopping total of one month practising the deadlift. Anyone who knows me will know I haven't quite got his physique :-D.

I'm telling you this for one reason: to demonstrate the most under-appreciated fact in fitness training-

Bodybuilding isn't Strength training

In another video, Mike Mentzer says it himself: 'you are a bodybuilder not a weight trainer. We are not training for strength, we are training for body growth'. In other words, bodybuilders train to look strong and not to be strong.

As you've surely realised, this is a very important difference. As sportsmen, we are not interested in looking good. As human beings we might be, but as cricketers it makes no sense to specifically train your body for size.

Remember, bodybuilders train for competitions, were they are judged on their size and proportions. Over the years, bodybuilders have found the most efficient ways to get bigger. They are not judged on strength, and as such being strong has no use for them.

Science can even explain this difference. Most bodybuilders train to failure (that is, they perform a certain movement until they fail to do so) with medium weights. This type of training induces sarcoplasmic muscle growth, and is characterised by an increase in the water retention of the cytoplasm of the muscles. Consequently, the size of the muscle increases due to greater water content without an associated increase in strength.

I wasn't aware of this difference until a few months ago. The reason why this difference is so poorly documented is mainly due to the places we look for this information. Men's health magazine, for example, has no use for strength training. They need cover models who look good. They don't care if he can squat 500lbs, and neither do you. We just want to look like him. So they tell you to train like a bodybuilder. There's not much of a problem with this in my eyes.

The problem comes when coaches try to incorporate bodybuilding routines into their sports programs. This is disastrous, as players end up big but not strong. Their gains in muscle size are not adding anything to their performance.

To bring home my point, here's another video of a personal hero, Ross Enamait. This bloke is a beast.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yOiY4mh8gVk&feature=channel

As the Americans would say, 'do the math': Ross is lifting over three times his bodyweight!! To me, that's much more impressive that looking like the hulk. Notice as well, he's by no means a big guy! Clearly, he has felt no need to bulk up to become insanely strong.

To conclude, in my opinion I think the bodybuilding myth will continue for a long time. Louis Simmons, a notable powerlifter predicted that bodybuilding would be the death of strength training- unfortunately he was right.

Strength training is an absolutely crucial part to all sports- its such a shame it's done incorrectly so frequently. The cult of bodybuilding is to blame for the inappropriate training methods that I see performed by the rugby players at my university gym. It is the cause of our addiction to style over substance. It's also part of the cause of our society's obsession with image. As a sportsman, you are wasting your time if you follow a bodybuilders routine.

If you want to get strong (and put on some muscle as well) then this is what I would recommend:

- If you're new to strength training, start off doing 1-2 training sessions per week with 2 days rest inbetween. Just ensure that weight training doesn't hinder your sport specific training sessions.

-Do 6-7 compound exercises (look this up if you don't know what this is). In my opinion, there is no place for isolation exercises in sports training.

- Do 6-7 reps in each set at a weight of about 50% of your 1 rep maximum (1RM). Move the weight as fast as you can, but with extremely strict technique. This is the most important part from sportsmen. You don't play sport slowly, so dint lift weights slowly (there is a more scientific reason for this).

- Do 3-4 sets.

- Train in a circuit (i.e. do one set of one exercise, then move onto the next exercise).

- The next session, move up to 60% of your 1RM (don't' recalculate this, just use the same number from the week before). The session after that, use 70% of your 1RM. The week after should be a back-off week, where you use lower weights (50% 1RM) but focus solely on a very quick execution. This session will improve your power. The next session, move up to 60% and so on.


However, please note that there is no one-size-fits-all training method. If there was we would all do it! What has worked for me may not work for you. The most important thing is to get stronger. If you're not getting stronger, experiment with this sort of structure and find out what works for you.

For more info, see future posts or email me at gffc@hotmail.co.uk. You may be interested in 'Westside for skinny bastards', http://www.defrancostraining.com/articles/38-articles/60-westside-for-skinny-bastards-part1.html

If anyone tries this, I'd be interested to hear about your results after 10 weeks.

Train hard and have fun!

Tom

Stretching (it's important, honest!)

Stretching is the process of elongating the muscles before exercise in order to prepare the muscles for physical activity. I want to write a wee bit about why it's important, and then go on to set out a simple stretching routine specifically for cricketers.

If you're the sort of person that groans at the mention of a warm-up or stretching I'm going to ask you to bare with me for a minute- hopefully I'll change your mind about it.

There are four types of stretches: dynamic (a stretch through a range of motion), static (a dynamic movement which is then held at the extrema), isometric (a stretch against resistance) and relaxed (a stretch aided by resistance).

For example:

Arm Rotations are dynamic;
A lunge held at the deepest point is a static stretch;
Doing the splits propped in between chairs is a isometric stretch;
A front split is a relaxed stretch.

Each different type of stretching works a different variety of flexibility. For example, you may be able to kick above foot about your head (a dynamic movement) but that doesn't automatically mean you can do the splits. Clearly different sports require some types of stretching and not others. Gymnasts require all types of flexibility. As cricketers we only require dynamic flexibility.

This is the reason why it is pointless to do static stretches before a game. Static stretches impair the contractile force of muscles for up to one hour (Fowles et al, 2000) and may even INCREASE the risk of injury. There is no place for static stretching in cricket before a game. The only time you hold a static position in cricket is when you pose for the cameras after playing a glorious cover drive for four...

... I'll let you decide how frequently you do that.

Although there is no place for static stretching before a match, a well trained and experienced athlete should participate in isometric and relaxed stretching. Isometric stretches are the quickest way to improve the tensility (or flexibility) reserve of your muscles. In a given muscle, the flexibility reserve is the difference between the maximum reach of a movement and the amount of movement required for in a sport, e.g. the difference between how high a kick boxer has to kick dynamically and how low he can go in the splits.

Although this is quite a complicated topic, simply put; the bigger the flexibility reserve, the smaller the risk of injury.

Unfortunately, isometric stretching is fairly taxing on the muscles and requires a background in strength training to ensure injuries will not occur. If you're interested, send me an email (address at the top) and we'll discuss it.

Back to dynamic stretches.

Dynamic stretches are the best way to increase active range of motion. It is also the best stretching method to perform before cricket. I would also advise performing dynamic stretches on days when you're not exersising as well, as it will increase your active range of motion without a warm-up.

Here is a sample stretching routine that you could perform before a game and after you wake up (ideally before breakfast as eating inhibits blood flow around the body). If you find that you're getting tired from the stretching routine, stop.

Perform the stretches in the order given below.

Arm Rotations: spin your arm round in several directions, gradually increasing the speed. Perform 15 reps per arm or until you feel blood rushing to your hand. Fast bowlers should definitely do this unless they want thier hand to be throbbing and painful after the first ball!

Hugs: hug yourself, then immediately try and clap your hands behind your back, then very briefly hug yourself again. Once you have done a clap, after a hug try and bring your arms higher up your back. When performing the hug, flare your back muscles out and shrug your shoulders. Perform 15 reps.

Kicks to the front: Put your hand out in front of you. Using your hand as a target, attempt to kick your hand with the leg on the same side as your hand. Once you manage to kick your hand, move it up. Continue to move it up until you cannot kick any higher. REMEMBER to work up gradually and don't go too fast. You shouldn't need to swing your legs. Perform 10 reps with one leg, then move onto the next. Perform 2-3 sets depending on whether you reach your maximum range of motion after each set of 10 reps.

Kicks to the side: Same procedure as above, just kick out to the side. You may find that your hip clicks: as long as its painless, don't worry. Again, 10 reps for 2-3 sets.

Squats: I suggest you youtube 'bodyweight squats' to get the technique correct. Make sure your knees don't go beyond your feet. Go down as low as you can (ideally with your butt around ankle bone level). These are tiring, so only perform 10-15 reps depending on your fitness levels.

Torso Twists: Sit on the floor with your legs straight and wider than shoulder width apart. Bring your hands up to your arm pits and twist at the waist, making sure your arse doesn't come off the ground. Do 10 reps on each side, with 3-4 sets. Don't bounce. Go as far as you can, then immediately bring your body back to the front.

Side bends: Still on the floor, with your arms by your armpits, bend to the side. Do 10 reps with 3-4 sets.

Forward bends: Still on the floor, bring your feet slightly closer together. Bend forward, making sure your back becomes curved. We want the back to curve to stretch the back muscles out. Again, perform 10 reps with 3-4 sets.

Shoulder Raise: Lie on your stomach and put your arms by your shoulders. Use your back muscles and your arms to push your torso up, but make sure your hips stay on the ground. Work up to locking your arms out.

After performing this sequence of stretches you should feel supple and ready to exersise. Make sure you do a general warm up before sport to prepare your entire body, including your heart, your lungs and your muscles. However, one thing I see too often is a warm up which is too intensive: the players use vital energy stores before the game has started! I suggest skipping (like a girl) for 20m or so and jump rope as good all-round exersises.

If you follow these steps, you will reduce the risk of injury. However I will put as a DISCLAIMER that by performing this routine you remove any responsibilty on my part for any injuries that occur during this routine. Although the risk of injury should be very small if performed correctly, you perform these exersises at your own risk. Like I said before, sueing me would be lame.

Enjoy and work hard!

Cheers,

Tom

NOTE: for more info on stretching, I would recommend reading 'Stretching Scientifically' by Thomas Kurz. Although the writing is quite technical, anyone can gain valuable knowledge from this excellent book.

What Does a Cricketer need?

Cricketers come in all shapes and sizes: I think most would agree there doesn't exist a winning formula for the ideal batsman, bowler or all-rounder. For example, Michael Holding is very tall, Brett Lee is not so tall. Both were/are frighteningly quick. However, all the really good cricketers have features in common.

In my opinion, a truly great cricketer should be an athlete. The Australians are brilliant at developing athletic cricketers. Their players have the ability and technical prowess to reach an elite level, but maximize their ability by being in fantastic physical condition (with the exception of Shane Warne). I think it’s certainly been a determining factor in their dominance over the last 10 years (present form excluded!).

For the purpose of this article, let’s crudely define ‘fitness related attributes’ as activities which, when trained, are taxing upon at least one of the three energy systems of the body. So, by this poor man’s definition, hand-eye co-ordination would not be eligible to make the list. This may be controversial to some, but I don’t want this article to get too long so I’ll only include the essentials.

Using this definition, I believe the following attributes must be found in a cricketer in order to get the best out of their ability, and to maximize their personal performance. Although these qualities would be found in an elite player, but every cricketer should strive to improve these attributes if they want to become the best cricketer they can.

Acceleration power: If you're not standing around in the field, you're sprinting. The longest period of exertion in cricket is the time taken to chase a ball. In track and field terms, chasing a ball is a very short distance event, just like 60m or 100m. In other words, its all about maximum velocity. Obviously, you want to chase down the ball as quickly as possible, so you want to get up to your top speed as soon as possible!

Decceleration power: Whether you're running a two or three or stopping to pick up the ball, the quicker you can slow down, the longer you'll remain at top speed, which simply means you'll do everything quicker.

Agility: and I don’t mean ladder drills agility. Although this is a fairly small detail, being able to turn quickly will save a lot of time when chasing down a ball.

Power: By mine and Tudor Bompa’s reckoning (see Periodization: Training for Sports, T.Bompa) power is the most important feature for any cricketer. In mechanics, power is defined in the following way:

Power = Force x Velocity

The sporting definition is slightly different, but this formula gives us as good an understanding as we need. Cricketers need to be able to provide as large a force as possible quickly. When batting, the force is provided by the weight of the bat, the velocity comes from our arms and slightly from the torso (more on this in future blogs). When bowling, in crude terms the faster our hand is moving, the faster the ball is going to come out (I don’t think I have to justify this, although mechanically I can) (NOTE: this statement is correct, but there is much more to bowling than this simple fact. Hate to say this again but see future posts!). When chasing down a ball, you sprint. To propel yourself forward, you apply a force against the ground with your foot. The velocity is provided by how quick each push is performed. The power to throw is provided by rotational energy from the legs and trunk, and elastic energy stored in the tendons of the upper body. The quicker the arm is accelerated, the greater your power will be.

These are hugely simplified explanations and are by no means the whole story , but all the above will be explained in detail in the future. I have included these so you can see how large a role your power plays in cricket.

Power Endurance: having the power to throw a ball 300 yards is impressive, but of no use to a cricketer if you cannot repeat that throw throughout the game. Power endurance refers to the ability to produce maximum power for extended periods.

Stamina: put simply, cricketers need to give it their all the whole game. Stamina in cricket is about lactic acid tolerance and in game recovery between bouts of activity (see later).

Core Strength: ‘core strength’ is a buzzword in the fitness industry and the moment, but the concept itself is not flawed. ‘The core’ refers to the rectus abdominal muscles (the six-pack muscles), the obliques (muscles running down the side of your abs), the transverse abdominal muscles (deeper muscles running around your waist to your spinal column) and the Latissimus Dorsi (strong muscles running up your back). I would also include the hip flexors as they play an important part in bowling. Core strength refers to a strong, stable and most importantly balanced core region. This is so important for cricketers because rotation plays a role in all parts of the game. Secondly, the stronger your muscles, Also, its important for overall health because a strong core means a well supported spine. How many time have you heard bowlers complaining of lower back pain? I would postulate that this was caused by either a mixed action or quite simply poor core strength. Every cricketer needs a strong core!

All of these attributes can be improved. Too often we are sold the story that ‘he’s good because of genetics’. I would not doubt the role of genetics, but to me it’s a get out of jail card to replace hard work and a lack of knowledge of the sport. Personally I’ll always downplay the role of genetics because I don’t see the point in discussing it. You can’t change your mum and dad, but you can improve upon what they have given you.

This is far from a complete picture, and may seem confusing. I’ve tried to keep it as short as possible but I could write for days and still not cover everything I’d like to. My aim is to build up a large source of information which will ultimately help to make your cricket better.

Right. Time for some serious stuff.

Next time: Power talk or how to hit the ball further.

Next time after that: GPP training and the 3 energy systems

Next time after that: Fast bowling and how to train for it.

Tom

A Quick Introduction

Hi everyone,

My name is Tom and I'm the creator of Get Fit for Cricket. Basically, I'm fed up of the fitness industry, especially when it comes to Cricketing matters.

About a year ago, I started wondering about such matters as:

How can I bowl faster?
How can I jump higher?
How can I run faster?
How can I hit the ball harder?
How can I throw faster and further?

To me, these seemed like fairly important questions. However, I was shocked to find that the game's understanding of cricket bio-mechanics (especially bowling) is very poor. I've read some incredible things in this time period. For example, I read a website suggesting that all real quick bowlers have a 'stiff back'- a completely unfounded claim without a shred of evidence to back it up!

I've done quite a lot of research on these questions. Science provides answers and I intend to provide you with these answers over the next few weeks, months even longer, depending on the feedback I recieve. Whenever possible, I'll provide links to peer reviewed scientific papers to back up my claims.

I would like to make it clear that this blog is about being fit for cricket, so I'll only disucss technical matters when I think its necessary and useful to.


Possibly the most important thing is that I'll never push a particular product or try and sell you anything. Everything I'll provide on this blog will be completely free.

Please feel free to email me or leave comments, I guarantee to reply to every correspondence I receive, just as long as it's sports related.

Enjoy and don't forget to ask questions!

Tom