Simultaneous measurement of back and front foot ground reaction forces during the same delivery stride of the fast-medium bowler

Abstract

Six male cricket bowlers (mean +/- s(mean): age 23.5 +/- 1.3 years; height 1.83 +/- 0.04 m; body weight 826 +/- 20 N) performed their typical bowling action at a set of stumps positioned at standard pitch length (20.1 m). A specially designed force platform rig allowed the correct positioning of two force platforms to be achieved beneath an outdoor polyflex runway (0.017 m depth) for each player's delivery stride pattern. For the back foot, the peak vertical ground reaction force was 1.95 +/- 0.08 kN (2.37 +/- 0.14 BW) and the braking force was 0.77 +/- 0.12 kN (0.94 +/- 0.16 BW). For the front foot, the peak vertical force was 4.80 +/- 0.92 kN (5.75 +/- 0.98 BW) and the braking force was 2.93 +/- 0.56 kN (3.54 +/- 0.67 BW). The mean peak vertical loading rate for front foot contact was 205 +/- 52.8 kN x s(-1) (249 +/- 64 BW x s(-1)) with mean values ranging from 81 to 446 kN x s(-1) (98 to 540 BW x s(-1)). The range for back foot contact was much smaller, 25-70 kN x s(-1) (30-85 BW x s(-1)), with a mean of 41.7 +/- 7.10 kN x s(-1) (50.6 +/- 8.6 BW x s(-1)). Mean peak impact occurred 24 ms after touchdown for the back foot and 16 ms after touchdown for the front foot. At impact, mean peak loading rates were greater for the front foot at 246 kN x s(-1) (298 BW x s(-1)), with a range of 80-483 kN x s(-1) (98-534 BW x s(-1)), than for the back foot at 65 kN x s(-1) (79 BW x s(-1)), with a range of 40-84 kN x s(-1) (49-110 BW x s(-1)).