To prevent, injury, and to enable a full season to hopefully be completed, its essential that a correct warm up and stretching routine be implemented prior to the start of each match, along with dynamic movements to enable bowlers and bats man to stay in optimum performance during long matches. There is dedicated section on stretching within our members area, designed purely for cricket players. Along with building a good base of strength and fitness, the skills of the game should be worked on, ideally as a team in order to produce a higher level of combined skills, as cricket is a sport that is played in two forms, batting and fielding.
So to prevent injury I will need to include a warm up and a warm down to stop lactic acid forming on the muscles. To compete successfully in sports that require speed, athletes use a training technique called interval training. They exercise for a short period at a very fast pace, rest until they recover and then repeat these fast bursts until their muscles do not recover from the hard bursts. This is how lactic acid is formed on the muscles. Your muscles need energy when you exercise and they get their fuel from fat and sugar in your muscles and bloodstream.
The sugar and fat are broken down through a series of chemical reactions each of which release a little energy at a time. If there is enough oxygen in your bloodstream, the sugar and fat are broken down into carbon dioxide and water which are blown off from your lungs when you breathe. When you exercise so vigorously that you can’t get all the oxygen that your body needs, the sugar cannot be broken down to carbon dioxide and water and the sequence of reactions stops and a chemical called lactic acid accumulates in your muscles and spills over into your bloodstream.
This causes your muscles to hurt and you to feel tired. So to prevent this from happening we will warm down (cool down) after the training circuit. Warm-Up: in order to warm up you should take a light jog for a few minutes and try not to over work your muscles. After you have completed the light jog you should move on to stretching your muscles. This decreases the chance of pulling or even tearing a muscle, you should Hold each stretch for a minimum of 20-30 seconds, breathing slowly through your nose, aiming to exhale out through your mouth as you ease into the stretch.
After you have completed your warm up you should now feel fine to move on the training. Warm Down: Once you have finished any form of physical activity, you should gradually allow your heart rate and breathing to lower to a comfortable level, where talking can be performed with ease. Light aerobic exercise such as walking or easy indoor cycling are good, as both of these will allow you to hydrate yourself and also put on warm clothing. Hold each stretch for a minimum of 20-30 seconds, breath comfortably, with deep breathes through your nose, and out via your mouth.
This Is very similar to warming up. This prevents lactic acid building up on your muscles as I explained previously. Other things I have to take into consideration are things such as correct footwear and apparatus. To prevent injury I need to access each bit of equipment I will use. The equipment I will be using: 1 bench, 5x cricket balls, wooden stumps, safety mat and a stop watch to record the time. The main safety precaution needed here is to be careful when moving the bench. I wont need any more precautions because the cricket balls will only be bowled at the wickets.
There wont be anybody in front of the wicket like in a normal game. The psychological aspects of this is to get yourself mentally and physically prepared for the challenge and to be aware of your own safety. Correct foot wearing is essential because if you don’t wear sensible foot wear you could injure yourself. An example of this is if you wear to do a shuttle run in shoes instead of trainers then you put yourself at risk of getting a twisted ankle. Section 4: the circuit my circuit will be made up of 10 stations which will help me improve my bowling skills.
It will also help me improve my upper body endurance. My circuit will be included in detail and will include the muscles and bones that will be worked. All of the stations will have a relation to my sport. The system chosen for my training program is aerobic. I will also have to take into account the principles of training so I don’t overload my muscular system by over working them. So I wont work on the same muscles after each other. Station 1: triceps dips The diagram below is to help explain how that station works on each muscle, bone and system.
This station will go on for 60 seconds in which I will do as many triceps dips as I can in the 60 seconds. This is to help my upper body strength. This may increase the speed of my bowling. I want to improve my bowling because the faster I bowl the more accurate it is. This does work on muscular endurance which is what I am also working on. The more tricep dips your triceps can take the better this is muscular endurance. Station 2: 20 metre short sprints (explanation diagram below) This station will be 2 minutes long and you will have to run between cones that will be set 20 metres apart as many times as you can.
This will increase the run up power by increasing the strength of your leg muscles and the speed in which I can get between the cones. I have put this station second so that I didn’t overload my arm muscles but it will test my muscular endurance again Station 3: slow bowling at a cone. The idea of this station is for me to slowly increase the speed of my bowling. Its will help me get my line and length. This station will also last for 2 minutes as it is aerobic as you need to run up to bowl. This station uses lots of bones and muscles but I will only list the main bones and muscles used.
It does use a few bones and muscles that I use in station 2 but it will not overload them as I haven’t used them that much so far. Station 4: Press-ups I will do as many press up as I can in 60 seconds (1 minute) so this exercise is aerobic as it requires oxygen. The press ups will help to increase the power in my muscles so I will be able to transfer it to my bowl. This also works on my muscular endurance in my upper body. Station 5: sit up and catch ball This station will be done repeatedly for 2 minutes so it is an aerobic exercise.
The sit up and catch test will increase my hand-eye coordination and it will also strengthen the muscles in my abdomen. This will increase my power in my stomach and means I will be able to deliver a faster bowl. I have also made sure not to overload by using my abdominals rather than my legs or arms. Station 6: Run Up and bowl technique This station is design to help my spin bowling. The station will last for 1 minute. The idea of this station is to bowl as many spin bowls at the wicket in 60 seconds. It is a aerobic station because there is running involved. Station 7: 5 Star jumps 20-M sprint.
This station will last for a minute and the idea of it will be to improve stamina and continue working on my lower body and will improve my run up. This station is aerobic as I will be running. I don’t want to overload my upper body so I have chosen to put this 7th in my circuit. Station 8: Catch ball & throw at wicket This station is to help my fielding technique. This is a simple station which will improve my throwing accuracy. It is a aerobic station. This station can also improve my hand-eye co-ordination which in a match will be very useful. The more catches in a match the better. I will again list the muscles used below.
Station 9: Shuttle run, pick up ball and throw at wicket. This is repeated for 2 minutes and is aerobic as there is a lot of running involved. This will help my throwing and improve my accuracy for my aim at the wickets in a fielding situation. In a game this could possibly run out an opponent. The muscles used will be listed below. Slalom and catch ball and return: this is similar to my last station and will last for 2 minutes. This will improve my endurance and again will work on my throwing accuracy and this may overload my lower body as I have used it quite a lot in the last few stations.