WORKSHOP – QUINTIC (BIOMECHANICS/VIDEO ANALYSIS)
Dax Sowrey, coach at Undercliffe CC, gives his report of a debut appearance at the Conference for Yorkshire cricket coaches.
This really appealed to me as I want to progress onto Club Coach and hopefully Level3 and video analysis is one of the disciplines needed to achieve that goal. So twenty-odd of us squeezed into one of the smaller rooms to hear Dr Paul discuss the use of the Quintic software to analyse individual performance and technique. This was with a view to identifying problematic areas in the technique that might cause stresses and strains and potential career threatening injuries.
The software was great but I have to say I was more interested in what Dr Paul had to say. He wasn’t there (in his own words) to sell us the software but to actually discuss biomechanics. It was fascinating. He held the whole audience in awe. There were gasps and groans aplenty watching some of the high frame slow motion video clips of well known fast bowlers and their actions.
The amount of abuse that occurs due to having an incorrect technique is frightening! The problem now is that it is all well and good being able to identify that an athlete has an issue with their technique but after a certain age it is irreversible and those athletes know they are playing on borrowed time.
I was left with the overwhelming impression that I could make a difference. Through positive coaching and utilising all the technology and resources available, that potential short term careers could be extended and in fact that the players could become better athletes and achieve even greater feats. I have always said that speed doesn’t always bring power when bowling and Dr Paul proved this with the Quintic video analysis software.
In fact, he pointed out that 85% of our cricket Academy hopefuls are not using their bodies’ power effectively due to too much speed in their run up to the crease. They are travelling too fast for their bodies to handle the stresses and this causes a multitude of effects to occur, notably increased impact stresses on the legs and spine but also a decrease in power and accuracy when releasing the ball. Use of the Quintic technology allowed you to identify an optimum approach speed but also to identify the exact moment that a technique needed to be modified.
After all this, the day came to an end which seemed like quite an anti-climax. So much information had been imparted on multiple levels my head was buzzing but I would have liked there to have been a closing group discussion just to tie up all that had taken place during the day.
I think that I would like to go to the National Conference when it is finalised. The information and tools I gleaned from the YCBCA conference will be put to good use and hopefully will benefit not only my students, my coaching and gameplay but more importantly the game of cricket.
For the full article, please visit : http://www.yorkshirecricketboard.org.uk/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=528:ycb-coaches-conference-2011&catid=310:ycb-seminar&Itemid=32