Contributions of joint rotations to ball release speed during cricket bowling: a three-dimensional kinematic analysis

The purpose of this study was to discover the contributions of individual upper body segmental rotations to ball release speed for cricket bowling and determine whether attempting to forcefully flex the lower trunk leads to an increase in ball release speed and bowling accuracy. Three dimensional kinematic data of eight male fast bowlers were recorded by a Vicon motion capture system under three cricket bowling conditions: (1) participants bowled at their stock delivery speeds (sub-max condition), (2) participants bowled at their absolute maximal speeds (max condition), and (3) participants bowled at their absolute maximal speeds but forced to flex the lower trunk (max-trunk condition). The accuracy of each delivery was also measured. The results showed that the average ball release speeds for the max-trunk condition were faster than the other two conditions. A general pattern of proximal to distal sequencing was observed for all three conditions. There was a slight decrement in accuracy seen in the max-trunk condition with respect to the other two conditions. For all three conditions, the upper arm rotation made the largest contribution, followed in turn by torso and thorax rotation, pelvis rotation, linear velocity of pelvis, and forearm and hand rotation.