Dehydration Effects on Bowling Speed, Point of Release and Ball Pitching

Running head: RESEARCH DEVELOPMENT
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Research Development
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Does dehydration affect bowling speed, the point of release and where the ball pitches?
Introduction
The demands on the physique of players are determined by different tasks such as
bowling, fielding, wicket, energy and the duration of matches when playing (Callaghan, 2018).
During carrying out the dehydration test matches, the athletes are required to spend about six
hours in the field from morning to evening on monitoring the rate of dehydration levels in their
bodies; as a result, there are effects on the bowling speed, point of release and where the ball
pitches. The players have the opportunities to replace the fluid that is lost during when they take
a break. Nevertheless, it is challenging for most of the athletes to replace the losses of fluid at
the period of play in the hot and also the conditions that are humid (Feros, Young & O’Brien,
2017).
This study will aim to investigate and how dehydration affects the bowling speed, point of
release and where the ball pitches. Performance tests are to be carried amongst the fast-bowlers,
batsmen, and fielders when playing in hotter and the humid environments. The fastest bowlers,
fielders, and batsmen were the participants in the trials carried out in the field. The fluid provision
trial and the fluid restriction trial would consist of two hours standardized training sessions and pre-
training and post-training for the skill performances assessments. The bowling speed, accuracy in the
line and length, the speed and accuracy of over arm, sidearm and underarms and timed running
between the wickets are to be assessed for the pre and post-trainings for every trial.
The status of hydration for an athlete may appear to be vital when determining the factors in
the performance of their exercise. The body losses mass for about two percent through dehydration
and may impair the achievements of the athlete significantly since the decrements are proportional to

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the level of loss of fluid (Worthington, King & Ranson, 2013). However, there have been recent
studies which have revealed the performance of impairment with the mass of the body and losses at
least 1% of it. Exercising in the environments having temperatures that appear to be higher than 25°C
and about 60% humidity may pose a tremendous thermal trauma for the athletes; this may result to
the increase in such as results in increased sweating and have more significant fluid losses (Hilligan,
2008). As a result, the exercises in the environments that are hot decreases the extended and
intermittent exercises capacity among most athletes. The level of the physiological strain on the
cardiovascular and also mechanisms for thermoregulation is excellent with a high degree of
hypohydration (Johnstone & Ford, 2010).
Literature review
The dehydration effects on athletes and concerning their performances on the field have
extensively been researched. Recent studies had indicated that there had been a decrease in the
aerobic and anaerobic skill performances and muscular strengths when the subjects performed
exercises when their bodies were dehydrated. Experimental research has also demonstrated the
motor-skill harm on specific sports exercises such as cricket, golf, surfing, and basketball
following the loss of fluid. There has been some evidence which indicates the detrimental
outcome of dehydration on its effects on the bowling speed of athletes when playing in the field.
According to McCartney, Desbrow, & Irwin, (2017), the individuals who are dehydrated
are recommended to consume at least 1.3 to 1.5 liters of fluid per kilogram of body mass that is
lost to replenish the content of water in the body. It’s therefore noted that fluid has potential to
inhibit or enhance performances such as the performances in athletes when they are exposed to
the hot and humid conditions for long hours. Finding out the best strategies for rehydration

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which may counteract the effects of fluid loss is necessary, and also optimizing the performances
on the subsequent tasks. From this study it is clear that high dehydration levels may affect the
bowling speed and ball release.
Nuccio, Barnes, Carter & Baker (2017), examined the effect of the volume of the
ingested fluid concerning performances. Reducing probability of the gastrointestinal disturbances
influenced the subsequent performances in the field. Thus the significance of the ingesting fluid
impacted on the subsequent athlete’s outcomes on performance (Nuccio, Barnes, Carter &
Baker, 2017). Ingestion of fluid recovered the amount of fluid that was lost and helped to recover
the normal bowling actions, ball pitches and release.
Some studies have investigated the amount of intake of fluids and also the loss of sweat
amongst the athletes. Johnstone & Ford (2010), examined the amount of intake of fluid and rate
of loss of sweat among the cricketers, with the examination of the impacts of dehydration levels
on skill performances of the players from different positions of play. A survey was carried out
amongst the Australian cricketers at a 3 hour training sessions in the hot and humid conditions
showed that most of the players lost about 1200 ml of sweat in every hour with a huge variation
(Petersen, 2010). Additionally, the loss of fluid among the female cricketers in the tournaments
revealed that the average loss of sweat varied from 0.31-0.36 L/h to 1.54L without any statistical
considerable differences between the batsmen, fielders and bowlers (Petersen, 2010). The results
of the studies revealed that the cricketers had large variations in the losses of sweat.
According to Gamage, Silva, Nalliah & Galloway, (2008), the dehydration levels varied
with the rate of ball release and speed of run-up. Due to the significant differences in the speeds
for the run-up, they added that speed for ball release and pitches varied between bowlers as