Felton P J, Shine K J, Yeadon M R, King M A
School of Science and Technology, Nottingham Trent University, Nottingham, UK.
School of Sport, Exercise and Health Sciences, Loughborough University, Loughborough, UK.
J Sports Sci. 2025 May;43(10):915-925. doi: 10.1080/02640414.2025.2480921. Epub 2025 Mar 24.
Research on strength in cricket fast bowling has focused on ball release speed over technique. This study investigates how increased strength affects performance and front foot contact-phase technique during fast bowling. A planar, 16-segment, whole-body torque-driven simulation model, customised and evaluated for 10 elite male fast bowlers, was used to optimise the technique for maximum ball release speed under 3 conditions: 1) original strength; 2) 5% increased lower body strength and 3) 5% increased lower body + shoulder strength. As strength increased across conditions, discrete and continuous one-way ANOVA's with post-hoc t-tests, highlighted ball release speed increased (40.7 vs 41.3 vs 41.5 ms; < 0.01), vertical front foot ground reaction impulse decreased ( < 0.023) and mid-phase bowling shoulder extensor torque increased (53% to 61%; < 0.05). No significant differences were found in phase time, ground reaction forces, joint kinematics or joint kinetics, although the increased strength techniques exhibited less knee extension, reduced trunk flexion and greater shoulder extension, contrary to expectations. This suggests that increased strength may lead to alterations in the front foot contact technique which allows greater muscular momentum to be generated. Caution is advised when considering using strength interventions to alter the front foot contact-phase technique.
板球快速投球的力量研究主要集中在球的释放速度而非技术上。本研究调查了力量增强如何影响快速投球时的表现以及前脚触地阶段的技术。使用一个针对10名精英男性快速投球手定制并评估的平面、16节段、全身扭矩驱动模拟模型，在三种条件下优化技术以实现最大球释放速度：1）原始力量；2）下肢力量增加5%；3）下肢力量增加5%+肩部力量增加5%。随着力量在不同条件下增加，采用事后t检验的离散和连续单因素方差分析表明，球释放速度增加（40.7对41.3对41.5米/秒；<0.01），前脚垂直地面反应冲量减小（<0.023），投球中期肩部伸肌扭矩增加（53%至61%；<0.05）。在阶段时间、地面反作用力、关节运动学或关节动力学方面未发现显著差异，尽管力量增加后的技术表现出较少的膝关节伸展、减少的躯干屈曲和更大的肩部伸展，这与预期相反。这表明力量增加可能导致前脚触地技术发生改变，从而产生更大的肌肉动量。在考虑使用力量干预来改变前脚触地阶段技术时建议谨慎。
