15th January 2015
o The study looked at 32, healthy injury free, male premier league pace bowlers
o Aim: to investigate the relationship between static and dynamic balance ability, lumbo-pelvicmovement control and injury in cricket pace bowlers at the startand end of the cricket season
o Method: Tests - single leg balance- (SLBT), - star excursion balance (SEBT) and lumbo-pelvic movement control tests
o Lumbo-pelvic movement control tests
1. standing: waiters bow, dorsal tilt of pelvis, one leg standing
2. 4 point kneeling: rocking foward, rocking back
3. Sitting: sitting knee extension
4. Crook lying: knee lift abdominal test, bent knee fall out
5. Prone: prone lying active knee flexion
o Results: 17 (53%) sustained injuries during the cricket season. The lumbo-pelvic movement control tests did not discriminate between bowlers who sustained an injury during the cricket season and bowlers who did not. Performance in the single leg balance test and the star excursion balance test measured at the start of the season was better in bowlers who did not sustain an injury during the season.
Published in Journal of Science and Medicine in Sport Volume 18, Issue 1, Pages 1-120 (January 2015
See here for abstract
Our thoughts:
· The cricket pace bowling action is all about speed and mutlijoint movements. This paper looked at low threshold movement control test ONLY - no high threshold tests with speed or load
· Over half the bolwers sustained injuries (94% sustained during bowling) and only 24% had a low back injury
· What is required is a battery of movement control tests including low thresold tests AND high threshold tests
· A test battery must include multijoint linked tests as its is clear from this paper it is not only low back injuries that are the problem
We, at The Performance Matrix will be developing a cricket specific test battery to find the the movement faults associated with the complex movement of pace bowlers
Assessment is key - we need to think about the test battery and match it to the demands of the task
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