Abdominal Softness Handicap To Good Bowling In Cricket

Taranaki Daily News, 12 November 1934, Page 11

Abdominal Softness Handicap To Good Bowling In Cricket

COMMON FAILING IN NEW ZEALAND

JT’ACH Saturday since the new cricket season opened I have noticed some voung bowlers rubbing their stomachs after they had bowled two or three overs. I have noticed, also, some young batsmen puffing and panting after they had run a sharp three, and leaning on their bats while they regained breath before they played the next ball; whenever I see a batsman who has run a sharp three panting, and taking his stance for the next ball before he has nronerly recovered his breath, I expect to see him bowled. These and other observations suggest that many young players do not fit themselves physically for a cricket season, and I am led to wonder how much of the decline in the general standard of bowling m New Zealand is due to it. * * *

The good bowler bowls with the whole of his body, but he should not expect his body to serve hnn well unless he has it in good trim. He does not need knobbly muscles, but elastic ones through which power flows freely. The abdominal muscles need to be firm, they are the centre of the bowling action, and they give poise and balance to the body, besides being the part which takes much of the shock of the explosion of energy. A player who has flabby abdominal muscles cannot bowl properly; he does not bowl with the whole of his body, because his stomach protests, and his foßowthrough” lessens; There is neither pep nor endurance in his bowling. He may have plenty of natural bowling ability, but if he starts the season with his abdominal muscles flabby he will not give that ability a free outlet. His bowling will disappoint both himself and his captain, and instead of being encouraged he will be classed as just another failure. / «• * * In one match I watched recently in one of the larger cities of New Zealand a young bowler, medium to fast-medium in pace, was rubbing his stomach after two overs, and in the .whole of the opposing side’s innings, in which a good score was made, he bowled °nly overs, in two periods; incidentally, he did not take a wicket. It was noticed that he was not “following through with his body. The top score for the batting side was made by an old player who was always looking for short runs. This batsman had as a partner for some

time a young player not much more, probably, than half his age. The younger batsman was panting after each short single, and he was eventually bowled while he was still a little “puffed” after a sharp run. The older batsman showed no sign of fatigue at the end of his innings, and finished the day with some very good bowling. Admiring remarks were made in the pavilion about the fitness from season to season of the older player. But I wonder whether or not the stomachrubbing young bowler and the panting young batsman noticed the lesson.

In chatting, some days ago, with two old representative players, each of whom has had a very long career in the game, although one has retired now, I brought the talk round to. this question of physical training for cricket, and found that both of them were insistent on the value of it. Both were in the habit of starting to train for a cricket season several weeks before netpractices started. They practised physical jerks” regularly, and did plenty of walking, running, and skipping. Both agreed on the value of skipping as an aid to cricket, because it helps in footwork and in giving the body poise and balance, as well as in making the legs fit. The more famous of the two old players added that he used to do much bag-punching, and some boxing.

Some young players are keen enough, but make the mistake of assuming.that all the practice necessary for cricket is net-practice. Possibly their coaches have taken it for granted that they have done other training for the game, and have not drawn their attention to the necessiy of it. Some of them also. make the error of assuming that playing a fairly strenuous game in winter is sufficient training for cricket; they should consider the fact that different games make different demands upon various parts of the body, and that the physical training for each game differs in. some respects, although there are certain exercises, such as skipping and bag-punch-ing which are excellent as part of the preparation for any game. I am sure that many young players would benefit if they trained harder before the beginning of a cricket season; they should not fear “staleness” in a season of club cricket on Saturday afternoons.