The effect of equipment modification on the performance of novice junior cricket batters

Abstract

Equipment scaling has yielded better performance in children in comparison to using adult equipment. To better inform applied practice in junior sport, an investigation of additional equipment modifications designed to further simplify the task is required. This study therefore aims to determine the effect of increasing surface area of cricket equipment (bats and balls) on batting performance and technique. Forty three children (Mage = 5.2, SD = 0.8 years) completed a cricket batting task in which they aimed to hit the ball through a target zone while using either regular scaled, or modified bat and ball with an increased surface area. The number of bat-ball contacts were significantly higher when using the modified (M = 13.81, SE = 0.42) compared to the regular scaled ball (M = 10.65, SE = 0.49). Batting performance measured as shots played through target areas was also significantly higher when using the modified (M = 31.78, SE = 1.97) than the regular scaled ball (M = 28.85, SE = 2.27). More desirable technique was also observed when using the modified compared to the regular bat. Findings suggest that further modifications to regular scaled equipment can enhance skill production.

The Role of Nonlinear Pedagogy in Supporting the Design of Modified Games in Junior Sports

“…Mini-tennis condition of practice was found to increase the rallies length and the percentage of forehands (Fitzpatrick et al, 2017). Similar effects of scaling equipment (e.g., smaller and lighter ball, lower net) and playing area have been found in basketball, volleyball, cricket, football, and badminton, as children performed better skills, had more opportunities to practice skills (e.g., dribbling), and play matches that further look like adult form of the game (Hadlow et al, 2017;Dancy and Murphy, 2020;Ortega-Toro et al, 2020;Harwood et al, 2021).…”

Exploring the influence of task and environmental constraints on batting and bowling performance in cricket: A systematic review

“…points based on the scoring zones) were reported to be significantly higher with the modified ball (modified tennis ball with circumference 42 cm), as compared to the regular ball (compressed tennis ball with circumference 20.8 cm) and regular cricket bat for children with little or no experience of playing cricket in a formalised programme. 27 One potential explanation could be due to the increased circumference of the ball, which may have simplified the striking task. 27 Similar results have also been observed in youth tennis athletes, where modified tennis balls (lower compression) with reduced dimensions, mass and coefficient of restitution resulted in a more favourable bounce as compared to the standard ball which provides less time for a racket-ball impact.…”

“…27 One potential explanation could be due to the increased circumference of the ball, which may have simplified the striking task. 27 Similar results have also been observed in youth tennis athletes, where modified tennis balls (lower compression) with reduced dimensions, mass and coefficient of restitution resulted in a more favourable bounce as compared to the standard ball which provides less time for a racket-ball impact. 39,40 Therefore, task modification should be encouraged in order to bring about the practice of a behaviour under representative conditions.…”

“…16,[28][29][30] Ten studies reported the effect of equipment, namely batting pads, ball type and bats on cricketer's performance and these studies reported performance parameters such as three runs time, runs (boundaries), rebound characteristics of the ball, bowling speed and accuracy. 10,20,21,27,31,[33][34][35][36][37] The remaining six studies investigated the effect of pitch type on bowling performance. [22][23][24][25]32,38 The summary of findings of the included studies has been provided in Table 2.…”

Modified Duo Tir as an Alternative Training Media to Improve Shooting Accuracy in Petanque

“…However, ball compression has no effect on the number of forehands, backhands, first serve, and double fault strokes. Dancy and Murphy (2020) in their research results show that the number of ball hits on the bat is significantly higher when using a modified ball than a regular-sized ball. Batting performance using a modified ball played in the target area is also significantly higher than regular-sized balls.…”