Short report: Recovery of jump performance after a simulated cricket batting innings

Abstract

The time-course of physical recovery was determined after a 2-h 20-min, simulated cricket batting innings. Several vertical jump measures were assessed before (baseline), immediately after, 24 h after and 48 h after simulated batting. Six, male, academy cricketers (20 ± 2 years) completed a previously developed simulated batting innings (BATEX) at an outdoor net facility. At each assessment point, participants completed countermovement-jumps, squat-jumps and 5-repeated reactive-jumps on a contact mat. Compared with baseline, countermovement flight time was similar immediately after, but decreased 24 h after batting (−3.0 ± 1.8%, p < 0.05, effect size [ES] ± 90% confidence interval [CI]: −1.38 ± 0.52). At 48 h post, countermovement-jump flight time was similar to baseline. A similar pattern occurred in the squat-jump and the decrease in squat-jump flight time 24 h after simulated batting approached significance (p = 0.053, ES ± CI −0.80 ± 0.51). The 5-repeated reactive-jump measures (flight time, contact time and reactive-strength-index) did not decrease after simulated batting (p > 0.05), but there were moderate effect sizes calculated (0.64–0.96). These findings support the continued use of countermovement flight time to assess recovery in cricket, since full recovery of jump performance occurred 48 h after a simulated, prolonged and high intensity-batting century.

Keywords:

• countermovement-jump
• intermittent exercise
• reactive-strength-index
• squat-jump