Power

NOTE: this blog is about fitness for cricket! Although technical training is mentioned, it is deliberately ignored! However, I have a few tips I'd like to share about technique in the future.

Lets talk about something applicable.

In essence, a game of cricket is a collection of explosive actions. Performing these actions as powerfully and as accurately as possible is the key to being a successful cricketer.


This article focuses on the 'powerful' part. First of all, let's discuss a bit of science.

There are three types of muscle fibres in the body- cardiac muscles, smooth muscles and skeletal muscles. Skeletal muscles are responsible for movement. When coordinated by the Central Nervous system they allow us to move.

Skeletal muscle can be further categorized into fast twitch and slow twitch muscles. Slow twitch muscles are good for endurance events but do not produce a lot of force. Marathons are run using slow twitch muscles. On the other hand, fast twitch muscles fatigue fairly quickly (after approximately 30 seconds) but can produce a much greater force. Fast twitch muscles are almost solely responsible for lifting heavy objects and performing quick contractions as fast twitch muscles can contract much quicker than slow twitch muscles. For more information about muscle composition and contractions have a look at any book on human anatomy.

As I'm sure you've realised, cricketers are mainly concerned with movements which require quick, forceful contractions of fast twitch muscles. Although a game of cricket takes place over a long period of time, it is not an endurance event. Like I said, cricket is a collection of explosive movements. Cricketers need power.

As I mentioned before, fast twitch muscles are responsible for movements which require a lot of strength and movements which require a lot of velocity: these qualities are inversely related.

By this I mean that if a movement requires a great deal of strength, the velocity of the motion will be very low. Watch a powerlifter going for a personal best: the bar will be moving very slowly because the movement require a high level of strength. Conversely, if you pick up a tennis ball you'll be able to throw it as quick as you can because the force necessary to move the object is very small.

So, how can we turn this information into a methodology for training? If you're a bowler, the faster your arm comes over, the faster the ball comes out!. If you're a batsman, the faster the bat comes through, the faster its going to come off your bat! So how do we make things quicker?

The answer is power training.

As I've mentioned before, Power is the product of force and velocity. If you increase the velocity of a movement but keep the the resistance the same, your power will increase. Power in sports terms is just the combination of moving an object as quickly as you can. For a given activity, if you are told your power has increased, it means that you have performed the activity with greater force, with greater speed, or both.

Physiologically, if your power increases for a given movement, three things could have happened:

- You have become better coordinated at performing the movement. Your central nervous system has learnt which muscles to fire and in what order to increase their efficiency.

- Your muscles are contracting quicker. The quicker the contraction, the faster the speed of the movement, i.e. your velocity will have increased. This is known as the discharge rate of the fast twitch fibres.

- You are recruiting (using) more fast twitch fibres. If you recruit more muscles, you will produce a greater force.

Hidden between the lines of the last two points is something that is all too frequently overlooked:

MAXIMUM STRENGTH TRAINING

Maximum strength training teaches your central nervous system to recruit more muscle fibres. Once we have the ability to recruit these muscle fibres, through power training methods we must then teach the central nervous system to contract these muscles quickly. The result is a powerful movement.

Research has shown that greatest increases in power were obtained from higher force and not from high velocity training (Aagard et al, 1994; Enoka, 2002). This goes for all sports. Why do you think 100m sprints are muscly? In my experience, cricket coaches are willing to include high velocity training into their programs but shy away from any form of strength work. The vast majority think strength training is the same as bodybuilding and envisage strength training turning their young cricketers into muscle bound hulks. This is just ridiculous.

I'm going to end things here by summarising:

- Cricket is an explosive (power) sport. We must train to accommodate this.

-Maximum strength is the determining factor of power. We must train maximum strength first and then convert it to power (note: this isn't strictly true for all athletes, but I believe it's the right way to train for those new to strength training)

- Strength training WILL NOT MAKE YOU MUSCLE BOUND.

In my next article I'll talk about how to train. If you're impatient, you can research this yourself. I suggest you start at http://www.rosstraining.com/. It's a fantastic website. Alternatively, send me an email to gffc@hotmail.co.uk and I promise I'll get back to you.

Train Hard!

Cheers,

Tom

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

Why Should We Be Fit For Cricket?

Before I get stuck into the details, I would like to write a little bit about the 'whys' of cricket fitness.

Why is fitness important for cricketers?

Cricket, like any other sport, requires a certain level of fitness in order to perform the basic tasks which make up the game. The three ‘jobs’ of cricket, batting, bowling and fielding use different muscle groups and slightly different ratios of the energy systems (more about this in future posts) in order to carry out thier basic constituents. For example, some tasks like jumping to catch a ball require explosive strength in the legs (mainly the hamstrings) in order to leap up as high as you can, whereas batting is more about the connection of related movements (called a kinetic chain) in order to hit the ball. Chasing down a ball will make you out of breath, but hitting a cricket ball will not (hopefully!), yet doing both over the course of a game will fatigued you. It is clear that a cricketer needs to be capable of many functions in order to be the best cricketer they can.

The right sort of fitness training will improve you ability to perform these functions. Naturally, some people will better runners than others, some will be known for thier natural strength. However, whatever your natural level, everyone can improve with the right sort of training. The right sort of fitness make these tasks easier, more efficient and less nackering. In other words, if you’re cricket fit you’ll be able to hit the ball further, jump higher, ran faster and for longer and it will help you to get out of bed on Monday :-D.

So, now that we recognize that fitness is important in cricket, it’s natural to ask the following question:

How do we get fit for cricket?

Although this may seem like an easy question to answer, it’s done incorrectly at clubs all round the world at many different levels.

For example, has a coach ever asked you to run round the pitch? I know I made my young cricketers do this every training session last year as part of the warm-up. So, here's another question: when have you ever had to run that distance in a cricket match?

Answer: NEVER!!! So why should you train for a medium distance? The answer is that you shouldn’t. If you’re at a cricket training session, never again shall you run around the pitch.

In the past I’ve been guilty of training the wrong way of cricket. We need to talk about the right way. The purpose of this site is to inform you of the right way, which will result in improvements in your game.

Hopefully that gives you a taste of what's to come.

Next time: what does a cricketer need?

Cheers,

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