What's the normal journey for a cricketer's throwing arm?

Start strong and get progressively weaker and sore over the course of a season.

Major League Baseball players throwing arms get stronger over the course of an 162 game regular season.

162 games!

So what can we learn from Baseball to ensure that we are getting strong over a season which obviously helps performance?

Firstly, we can learn some arm health principles that Baseball preach verbatim.

1. Regulate you workloads: keep a track of the numbers of throws and frequency of your throwing through the week
2. A guideline is to limit yourself to 40 throws per day. Obviously, this is a guideline only and individual strengths, techniques and robustness need to be taken into consideration.
3. 7-4-2: As with fast bowling, Over a 7 day period, throw no more than 4 times and NOT any more than 2 days consecutively. Again, this is a guideline.
4. Listen to your arm: Baseball players are good at understanding and feeling when their arm is warm and when it is "hot" which is a time when the arm is fatigued and telling you that enough is enough! Build your own awareness up and stop before you get to "Hot".
5. Report soreness to your coach and physio. Again, build their awareness of your shoulder. This will help them to help you.
6. Leg Strength: this is all about the kinetic chain. If our leg strength reduces by 20% then the impact on your throwing arm is huge so to produce the same velocity, the shoulder has to work 33% harder and faster. This has a significant impact on arm health. Keep your legs strong!
7. Use Surgical Tubing or J'bands to Warm up your throwing arm.

So let's look at the last point in more detail.

We never throw to warm up our throwing arm.

How many times have we seen players start a fielding session by picking a ball up and throwing it to a mate or at a target?

This is the best way to fast track towards a shoulder injury!

To warm the arm up before throwing, Baseball players run through a series of Theraband or J'band exercises. This forms part of a structured warm up and strengthening programme which keeps them strong and healthy through the competitive season.

Contrast this approach to cricketers who will generally only touch a theraband during rehabilitation following shoulder reconstruction!

What are the benefits of a good band programme:

• Oxygenates and warms the shoulder ahead of performance
• Provides a deeper, more isolated workout for the rotator cuff muscles. These are the ones that are most vulnerable to breaking down. -Strengthens the shoulder from "inside out".
• Optimises elasticity, flexibility and range of motion. These points are highly relevant in terms of increasing maximal velocity as well as good arm health.
• Aids recovery in between games and fielding sessions.
• Maintains arm health over the course of the season.
• provides a deeper, more efficient stretch than static stretching methods.

So, make it a policy to ensure all players grab a bit of surgical tubing and get into some great arm health habits.