The Gospel of Biomechanics

West Indies fast bowlers have been suffering from a number of injuries recently. The batsmen have not been scoring as consistently as many believe, based on their talent, they should, and in its efforts to rectify the situation, the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) has turned to biomechanics.

Just what is biomechanics? Can it really solve the problems? In this interview, Tony Becca got some answers from WICB chief cricket development officer, Dr. Michael Seepersaud:

MICHAEL SEEPERSAUD: Biomechanics is the physics of human movement. It is how the body works.

Q: Fine, but how will it help our cricket, how will it prevent injuries and help batsmen to score more runs?

MS: Over the years, we in the West Indies have been coaching cricket and teaching coaches based on unscientific methods. They may have been right but there was no scientific basis. The feeling was, for example, I am a coach, this is how I used to bowl, and so that is how young bowlers should bowl. Sports science has been making a greater impact on coaching education these days, however, and what these scientists are saying is that the body works in a particular way. Every technique is mechanically based and what we should do is use biomechanics to coach cricket. Don't coach people to bat like Viv Richards. They will never bat like Vivian Richards.

Q: But Richards was a great batsman - so why should we not coach young batsmen to bat like him?

MS: Because he learned his cricket a particular way, because he is from a different culture and because he had special eyesight and so on. We have to teach basic biomechanics. If we look at Richards we will see that he is easy at set up, very relaxed, that when he goes on to the front-foot, the front-foot lands and stabilises before the bat comes down. He is always balanced and that is the hallmark of a great player.

Q: That is true: but what does biomechanics have to do with that?

MS: What happened in the past is that we produced a number of naturally balanced players. Talented, yes, but balanced because their biomechanics was right. Look at the fast bowlers. Today we are not producing these great players for several reasons.

One is because they are not as talented as they used to be, and two is because they are not as strong as they used. They sit before the television with a certain posture and that is not good for them when they grow up. They don't eat well, they don't walk to school anymore, they don't run anymore in the mornings as those fast bowlers used to do, and generally they are not as developed.

As they grow up, they look big in structure. The joints, the bones, however, are not as strong as they should be. Because of that, when they develop bad techniques it has a greater impact on the body and that is why we have some many fractures, stress fractures, problems with the back and so on.

Q: Yes, but how will biomechanics help that?

MS: Simple. A lot of it has to do with mixed action, with technique, that come back to biomechanics, and sports scientists will tell you exactly where the damage will take place. It is a science. We have to remember that. We videotape the bowlers at all our camps, and what do we find? We find that two thirds of our bowlers have what is called a mixed action, that they have had back problems in the past, and we know that they will develop back problems in the future.

That is why biomechanics is important. The coach has to know about biomechanics. If he knows about it, how it works, he can pick it up early in fast bowlers and make the correction. What we have done for this camp, we have brought in some of our fast bowlers, bowlers like Fidel Edwards and Ravi Rampaul. They are young promising bowlers, but with a little problem with the biomechanical technique. Dr (Richard) Stretch, our expert from South Africa, has worked with them and he has suggested the remedial work to be done.

Q: Just what is mixed action?

MS: Let's take Jowayne Robinson - the young fast bowler from here. Jowayne was side-on below but open at the top. When you have that, your shoulder and your hip are not aligned, and both should be aligned. They should point in the same direction. Whether it is the bottom that is side-on and the top that is open, or it is the bottom that is open and the top that is side-on, if the bottom and the top are not in the same direction, that is trouble. You strain your back. Once you have a displacement of the shoulders and the hips, you have a problem.

Another problem is hyperextension. When you move into your delivery, some bowlers lean back. In fact, you have to lean back, bend your back, in order to get momentum. But some bowlers, like Jermaine Lawson, lean back very far, arches the back and that can damage your back.

And there is the lateral movement where you lean too far to the side - where you stretch the spine. Another problem is counter rotation where you twist the back. That is like twisting a wet cloth. Those are the things that biomechanics technique will teach us to look for, to look at, and to correct.

Q: If biomechanics is so good and so important, what happens next?

MS: We are hoping to get biomechanics taught in schools and to get it into our coaching system. We now have a Cuban expert working with us, since September 1, and every coach who comes through us now will be equipped with basic biomechanics technique.

The clinic was also on-the-job training for the coaches and what we are going to do from now on is spot checks. We will look at our fast bowlers, at everything about them - not to see how fast they are bowling, or whether they are bowling inswing or away swing. We will ensure that they warm-up properly and so on, that the fitness is there and that they prepare all the time.

We will be looking at technique. That is crucial. That is where the problem lies. We know there are four techniques: front on - like Malcolm Marshall; semi-open - like Any Roberts and Michael Holding; side-on - well, we don't have many of those around these days; mixed action - and there are too many of those around. Any time you have a mixed action you run into problems. We are training our coaches to detect mixed action and to correct it, and because biomechanics is consistent, all the coaches in the West Indies will be teaching the same thing the same way - will be preaching the same language.

Q: Will that really improve the standard of West Indies cricket?

MS: It is an objective, scientific and consistent way to teach people - to evaluate people. In other words, what we are saying is that it is no use playing a shot like Gordon Greenidge. What is important is whether the batsman is balanced and stable? If he is balanced, if he is stable, then he can play any shot he wants to play. People used to say Viv Richards hit across the line but when we looked at videos of Viv Richards, when we slowed it up and analysed it, he was balanced, his left foot was stable. And you know what the Australians said to us, they said it was because of that why he could hit the ball where he wanted to hit the ball.

Q: So biomechanics will teach our batsmen how to bat, and will prevent injuries to our fast bowlers?

MS: Right. The problems our guys, our batsmen, have is that they are not balanced at set up and their foot, the front foot, is not stable when they attempt to hit the ball. If I show you video tapes now of Gayle (Chris), Hinds (Wavell) and Devon Smith, I will bet that you will see their front foot moving forward and before that foot gets to a stable position, the bat is coming down.

* Republished from the Jamaica Gleaner.