DineticQ: Need for speed

What is PaceFlow?

Mark King, Co-Founder and Chief Scientific Officer of DineticQ, Professor of Sports Biomechanics at Loughborough University, and accredited human movement specialist for the ICC and ECB: The PaceFlow app offers anybody in the world the chance to upload a couple of videos – one from the rear and one from the side – and then to receive all of our knowledge. Everything we’ve learned over 20 years has been put into an app to get everyone to the best they can be with fast bowling.

Kevin Shine, ex-county cricketer for Hampshire, Middlesex and Somerset, England’s lead fast bowling coach from 2006 to 2019, and currently Nottinghamshire assistant and fast bowling coach: When I took over at the ECB in 2006, to find that 50 per cent of the bowlers of national interest had stress fractures, I realised that my experience alone as a bowler wouldn’t be enough. I decided to find a way to work with the very best, and so sought out Mark. We knew this was going to be a long-term method and thus went to PhD level where, along the way, we were working out what we could coach at the same time. We’d apply our ideas and look at the results, and fortunately we had some brilliant bowlers to work with.

Paceflow is the technical pillar of fast bowling, and provides an amazing bowler profile. Every time we sign a new bowler, I’ll use the app to get me a profile for the next day where I can use the red, amber, green system to put their coaching system in place. Then once their six-week programme is done, the footage goes in again and as long as the score is creeping forwards then I’m utilising the data correctly.

As we’ve quantified improvements with the score as well, it helps keep things simple for the bowler, while the coach will receive more biomechanical feedback. The coach can rely on this profile as it’s built of experience, peer-reviewed work and most importantly that it's been applied.

It covers performance, injury and legality, which is everything a young bowler needs to be aware of.

The biomechanical challenges of fast bowling

MK: There is so much information around this, but what was really important we boiled down to performance and injuries. We want to bowl faster but not get injured so there’s a juggling act. Biomechanics is just one part of that jigsaw puzzle and we started here as technique is key. So many people have poor technique which if corrected could be better in both facets. We understand more of the science behind fast bowling. More players have longer careers as we are able to look after them better from a sports science perspective.

How does Mark Wood do it?

Mark Wood, one of the world’s fastest bowlers, has recently signed on as an ambassador for Paceflow, having utilised Mark and Kevin’s expertise throughout his career.

MK: If we knew the complete answer we’d be laughing! He has a lot of the attributes that are linked to pace, and a lot that are unique to him. Ultimately he is able to apply a lot of force to the ball to make it accelerate really fast. That starts in his run-up. It’s effective and gives him energy at the crease. He’s very effective at converting that run-up speed into ball speed in an explosive way.

KS: If you’re ever in the privileged position of standing near Mark as he runs into bowl, you’ll realise he’s an unbelievable athlete. His run-up is bouncy and rhythmical, he’s got an older style ‘jump-gather’, and during that time he keeps the ball constantly moving. When he lands the sound is incredible. This probably wasn’t his friend to start with, as his ankle was getting into tricky positions, but through making some slight adjustments using force plate data we’ve attempted to make it easier for him. We focused on lengthening his run-up and delivery stride to take away some of the forces, and he did this completely by feel. He’s also got amazing coordination and is a ridiculously skilful bowler. I actually get a bit frustrated when he’s always bowling to the short-ball plan; he can swing a ball both ways and has very good control of the wobble seam.

The essentials for fast bowlers

By Kevin Shine

1. Making bowling feel easier

I’m looking very closely at technical aspects, but I don’t want to put a lot of noise into bowlers’ heads. My type of coaching will be more around the shapes, communicating using laymans’ terms rather than technical jargon. I'm then using feedback I get from the bowler and video footage to analyse more carefully.

2. Strength

Strength refers to an awful lot of things, but bowling is a power exercise, and power is underpinned by strength. What we found with a pace programme we used to take over in South Africa, was that when the guys did a strength session before a technical session, the technical sessions were completely different and brilliant. You’d have the central nervous system lit up and the bowlers were no longer finding it hard to achieve the shapes we were looking for.

3. Workloads

The first time I heard about acute chronic workloads I thought it sounded a bit complicated and funky but I have subsequently spent a long time doing this and working out what numbers work for my fast bowlers. Mine are all different shapes, sizes and paces of bowlers – at Notts we’ve got Olly Stone, Josh Tongue, Mo Abbas, Dillon Pennington – and I found they all have different sweet spots for their loads. They trust me to bowl them a little more or less on any given day, but I’ll also just bowl them quite a bit and change the way that they bowl.

The three pillars I work to are different frequencies, volumes and intensities.

Visit dineticq.com for more information or navigate to their sales page to purchase a report for your own assessment.