Peak outward acceleration and ball release in cricket

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to investigate the utility of peak outward acceleration (POA) measured from an inertial sensor worn at the wrist as an indicator of the critical end point of the bowling action – ball release, a critical element when assessing illegal actions. Twenty-one finger-spin and fast bowlers from nine countries were recruited from the ICC under-19 Cricket World Cup to take part in this research. Bowlers delivered a cross section of their standard deliveries while wearing an inertial sensor placed on their wrists. Ball release was determined by a validated motional analysis ball release (MABR) protocol and compared to the simultaneously collected POA. POA was shown to be highly correlated with MABR (R(2) = 0.98) and a Bland-Altman plot indicated that all 148 trials were within the 3.42 frame (0.014 s) limits of agreement. POA when measured by an inertial sensor worn on the wrist during bowling had a close relationship with an established method of identifying ball release in a biomechanical laboratory regardless of bowler and delivery type. Further, accuracy can be achieved with the adoption of a simple regression equation applied to the POA and as such is a valid measure of ball release in cricket bowlers.

Illegal bowling actions contribute to performance in cricket finger‐spin bowlers

“…All variables were normalized to 101 points using a cubic spline in a custom MATLAB program (Mathworks Inc; Natick, MA, USA). BR was determined for each bowler when the distance between the ball origin and the carpal marker exceeded the length comprising the second phalangeal and the radius of the ball …”

“…While research examining the area of illegal actions in cricket has been undertaken, the primary focus has involved quantifying or exploring improved methods for the accurate measurement of elbow kinematics . While this research has explored important issues, the underlying and fundamental question, what is the relationship between elbow extension values and known performance benefits, has yet to be sufficiently answered.…”

“…While it is important to understand the implications that bowling with an illegal action has on performance for all types of bowlers, it is especially important for finger‐spin (FS) bowlers, as their basic biomechanical movement often includes elbow extension through the BR event . Researchers also need to move past a simplistic model of using BR velocity as the criterion measure of performance and include other variables such as the ability to place revolutions on the ball, which has been shown in the literature to distinguish spin bowling performance …”

“…ball revolutions, cricket, finger-spin bowling, illegal action quantifying or exploring improved methods for the accurate measurement of elbow kinematics. [5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15] While this research has explored important issues, the underlying and fundamental question, what is the relationship between elbow extension values and known performance benefits, 16 has yet to be sufficiently answered. Further, perhaps other biomechanical variables (other than elbow extension) discriminate bowlers who deliver the ball with an illegal, compared with a legal action.…”

An Architectural Based Framework for the Distributed Collection, Analysis and Query from Inhomogeneous Time Series Data Sets and Wearables for Biofeedback Applications

“…These include 3D motion capture systems, 2D video, force plates, heart rate and electromyography data, and, more recently, ambulatory body worn sensors (such as inertial sensors) and even smart phones [5]. These have been combined in applications as diverse as gait studies [6], swimming monitoring [7] and bowling action in cricket [8]. As stand alones, these instruments have proven to be able to provide effective feedback for interventions to improve sporting outcomes.…”