From time to time, guest posters will give you a slightly different take on cricket. Today David Virgo of cricketfitness.com gives his views on the idea of core stability.

Cricket is an intermittently explosive game that requires explosive speed strength, rotating, bending and holding of certain positions. The core strength will enhance these qualities. Adequate core stability keeps you safe from injury and able to produce power throughout these movements.

But the topic core stability almost immediately conjures up visions of sit-ups, sit-ups and more sit-ups.

You speak to most cricket players, coaches and followers of the game and to them this is how core stability is developed. Unfortunately it is not the case and if you attempt to develop core stability this way you will only succeed in creating muscle imbalances.

The core is not just abdominal muscles.

Just doing sit-ups wont cut it for core stability. The core consists of 29 muscles consisting of abdominals, Hip region musculature, back and gluteal muscles. I feel it should be called trunk training because of the area all of these muscles are contained in. I have even heard it referred to as pillar training.

The benefits from effective core stability for cricket

• Correct postural alignment and maintenance
• Trunk or core region stabilisation during movement
• Force reduction produced in that area
• Power and force production

If your core is weak the arms and legs will be weaker: You are only as strong as your core.

The core acts as a link or a communicator between arms and legs. If that link is not strong enough you will be wasting energy and your movements will lack power and speed. You will have what is called energy leaks from your core region.

Core stability training needs to be carried out in different planes of movement. Movements such as bending and straightening, twisting and rotation and stabilizing or statically holding.

A big part of my training with cricketers is incorporating all of these movements into their training to develop strong and stable trunks or cores. Also a lot of hip mobility work is incorporatedalso to allow more freedom in the hip area allowing cricketers to create more power in all cricketing actions.

A cricketer needs a strong core to be at his best. The fact is that if his core is weak, his extremities will lack the power and speed needed for cricket: He will not be training and playing to his full genetic potential.

For helpful hints and exercises on core stability and every other aspect of cricket fitness, visit David's website www.cricketfitness.com