BOWLING : What distances do fast bowlers cover

What distances do fast bowlers cover?

 

GPS technology has allowed sports to track how far a player has covered during the course of a game.

Most of this is spent walking, with the bowler covering approximately 2 km striding and over 1 km sprinting. Sprints occur every 70 seconds or so and last for approximately 3 seconds. The average sprint distance is approximately 20 m with players clocking up almost 70 sprints per game.

What this means to you as a player or coach

This information firmly puts cricket on the map as a high intensity intermittent sport. As such, conditioning practices should reflect the demands of the game.

Long slow runs for cricketers should be kept for off-season recovery purposes only, with the majority of conditioning done through interval training.

In terms of player recovery, it is vitally important that the player re-hydrates and re-fuels immediately post-game so that the recovery process starts as soon as possible.

 

How does it take for a bowler to get tired?

 

In an attempt to find out the effects of bowling repeated spells on accuracy, and speed, a group of six first class bowlers bowled two, six over spells separated by 45 min of light activity..

Bowling speeds were barely reduced (125.7 kph versus 124.7 kph), and accuracy was similar during the two spells. It was also found that run-up speed in the final five meters was strongly related to bowling speeds.

As a side note, perceived effort in the second spell was higher than the first.

What this means to you as a player or coach

Taken together, these results mean that you can be confident that your bowlers should be able to maintain speed and accuracy during a competition for at least six overs.

Plus, a second spell is unlikely to have any effect.

It also highlights the importance of an effective strength and conditioning program to improve peak running speed and run-up speed.

It's also important to note the increase in perceptual fatigue without any change in bowling pace or accuracy. This finding emphasizes the importance of recovery strategies between spells or following games.