Quick Tip: Manage Your Fast Bowling with 742
How much should you bowl?
All fast bowlers know that the more you bowl the better you get. We also know that the more you bowl, the greater you chance of injury. So every session is a balance between performance and preventing back, knee or shoulder issues.
The ECB has done a huge amount of research into the subject and have come up with a simple guideline for working out how much is too much and how much is just right: 7/4/2
Put simply, 7/4/2 is:
"...in any 7 day period a fast bowler should not bowl more than 4 days in total during that period, and for a maximum of 2 days in a row." - ECB Coaching Insight Volume 4
This gives you plenty of scope to bowl, while also making sure that you rest enough to reduce your chances of injury.
So, for a club bowler, you will bowl on Saturday and Sunday, resting on Monday. This gives you scope for a midweek game and/or a couple of training sessions.
Simple, flexible to your needs and very effective.
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Comments
I have two cricket teams in my part of the city. We are playing the President's Trophy to enter Division 111. Can you plz share some tips for our teams
Thanx
Sound easy until you start to apply it to juniors (the ones coaches should be protecting). They can often be playing, and bowling, in four games a week (school, junior fixtures and adult games) which doesn't leave much scope for training unless the coach turns a blind eye to matches they choose not to know about.
Unfortunately its the better players who tend to have the heaviest workloads so where they could be working on their pace, its often the case that young fast bowlers are required to continually bowl within themselves just to get through the week keeping everyone happy.
Players like that need good management. There is a school of thought that "the more you bowl the better you get" but that ignores the facts.
Older players can self manage if they are away of the rule, younger players need coordination beween coaches. I feel that is an area where we as coaches can improve: communicate with parents, teaches and other coaches in the player's life alongside making sure the kid knows his or her limits.