Research Report: How Dehydration Impacts Bowling Performance

This research report investigates the effects of dehydration on bowling performance, specifically focusing on bowling speed, point of release, and ball pitch. The study involved twenty cricketers from Winners Academy, UK, undergoing fluid provision and restriction trials. The results indicated that dehydration levels significantly impact bowling performance, affecting run-up speed, ball release, and accuracy. The report analyzes sweat rates, fluid intake, and urine output, revealing a correlation between dehydration and reduced body mass. Desklib offers a platform to access this report and similar assignments, aiding students in their studies.

Running head: RESEARCH DEVELOPMENT
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Research Development
Student’s name
Institutional affiliation
Date

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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

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dehydration levels continued to increase. The results showed positive correlations between the
speed of run-up, ball pitches, and ball release but recorded a negative relationship between the
speed of run-up and the accuracy; this suggested that the bowlers usually selected the approach
of speed which gave out the optimal ball speeds and efficiency. However, Duffield, Carney &
Karppinen (2009), reveal that the data which is available does not maintain conclusions that the
dehydration levels make essential contribution to the ball release speed and ball pitching.
Ikegawa et al., (2011) stated that the lengths for the delivery stride were dependent on speed for
the approaches to every delivery slide and the physical fitness of the bowler. They argued that
the dehydration levels of the bowler increased with the speed of ball release and reduced the
delivery stride and the approach inhibited the ability of mastering of the side on delivery.
However, there has been little data that is currently available to validate the general conclusions
that were made.
Methods
Participants
Twenty cricketers that included six batsmen, eight fast bowlers and ten fielders from the
Winners Academy from the United Kingdom volunteered to participate in the study to find out
dehydration effects on the bowling speed, the point of release and where the ball pitches. The
participants have investigated injuries and were found to be fit to carry out the research. All the
athletes later received an incentive of a voucher for the participation in the study. The participants
were found to have previous experiences in fast-bowling and had previously trained with the

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overweight and underweight balls during the last seasons. The participants were told about
procedures and the risks before taking the study.
Procedure
The study was carried out by the use of cross-over designs with two free trials in the
field. This included the Fluid Provision and the fluid restriction trials. The tests took place after
seven days each with the activity and control for two days preceding every trial and fasting from
9 pm till morning on the day before trial. On the trial day in the morning, breakfast was
provided with standardized volumes of fluid to ensure the athletes were euhydrated before the
tests. The breakfast involved meat sandwiches, pieces of butter cake, medium-sized banana and
also milk, this complied with recommendable pre-event meals for the athletes. Body masses,
urine specific gravity and also the urine color measurements were undertaken before each trial
and evaluated the hydration status at the pre-trial for all the days of trial. Each of the trials was
conducted for about four hours and also involved two-hour sessions of training with pre-training
tests and post-tests of assessment of skills.
The two-hour training session involved the specific cricket drills which included running
short distances and sprints, the cricket activities and field drills that were carried out in the
routine of training that was supervised the coach of the team. The sessions of exercise were also
controlled to maintain the same amount of time and intensity for the trial days to avoid effects to
the post-test performances. The aim being ingesting the fluids at steady rates and regular
intervals in the after every two-hour training sessions to maintain low body mass losses in the

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final pretrial with an intake of fluids. The Pre and post-test performances assessments involved
bowling, batting and field performance tests.
The bowling speed test was carried out during the exercise and they occurred in the four
stages which included the run-up, pre-delivery stride, follow through and the delivery stride. The
commencement of the run-up stage is when the bowler tries to jog or walk over approach marker
and increasing the speed gradually when approaching the wicket, this makes him leap in the air
prior to the pre-delivery stride to make the front foot hit the ground (Petersen, Pyne, Dawson,
Kellett, & Portus, 2011). For the success of fast bowling, there were combination of different
range of factors; one of the most critical variables for the process is the speed that a ball takes
when it is released.
The athlete’s body masses were also measured by use of the calibrated digital weighing
scale and the results measured to the nearest 0.1 kg. The masses were obtained with the athletes
wearing minimal clothing. This was after they wiped off the sweats and emptied their bladder.
Each athlete was then given a drink bottle for ingestion of fluid and separate containers to collect
the urine. The total volume of fluid and urine produced during the four hour trial period was
determined.
A sweat sample was of collected on each of the trial days by use of a sweat patch which
was applied in the lumbar-vertebral region. Their skin was cleaned with an alcohol solution and
deionized by use of the sterilization techniques. The sweat patches were then removed after
every hour. The pre and post-trial urine samples were obtained to measure the hydration status of
the athletes.

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Results
From the tests that were carried out on the athletes, it was discovered that, the Mean
ambient temperature level (30.1°C) and humidity level (77%) were not different from the Fluid
Provision and the fluid restriction trials. The average ambient temperature throughout four h
ours for every trial day was 27 °C and 33°C for the two trials with a humidity level of 68% and
70% on average. The speed of the wind was not recorded, but the Department of Meteorology
indicated that the mean speed of the wind was three mph at the time of the study. The data for
the loss of mass, ingested fluid volume, the amount of urine passed, and the calculated loss of
sweat over the four hour periods for every group of the athlete for the trials were also found for
the trials.
There existed a difference in the loss of body weight with the athletes losing about 0.7%
of the mass of the body during the fluid provision trial and about 3.8% during the fluid restriction
mode. The mean sweat rates were 840 ml/hour in the fluid provision trials and 864 ml/hour for
the fluid restriction trials. The Batsmen had a significant loss of sweat and fluid intake. The
output of urine was extensively lower in the fluid restriction trials compared to the fluid
provision trials. The results led to little performances in the field which affected the bowling
speed, point of ball release and where the ball pitches.
Conclusion

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From the observations, it was clear that dehydration affected the speed of bowling, the
point of ball release and where the ball pitches. The higher amounts of dehydration were as a
result of prolonged times that were taken during the outdoor cricket performances in the field.
The increased dehydration levels led to the decline of performance such as low bowling speeds
and accuracy amongst the fast bowlers, the side and over arm speed of throwing, the skills and
the fielders, and completion of runs for the batsmen. The performance levels were not altered
when the players ingested plenty of fluids to maintain their mean body mass losses.

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