Effectiveness of Bosu Ball Versus Swiss Ball Exercises on Bowling Speed Among Male Sub-Elite Cricket Fast Bowlers in Sangli City- A Comparative Study
Authors: Sawant Yash Vijay , Chavan Shwetambari 
Published: June 2022

Background:
Cricket is a popular sport played in several countries, majorly in India, Australia, England, New Zealand and South Africa. There are different version of cricket i.e. test format, twenty-twenty and one day. It has been stated that fast bowling is the toughest job in cricket and a pace bowler needs to be stronger than the rest of them. In bowling there are 5 stages - the run-up, the pre-delivery stride, the delivery stride, the follow through and the ball release. Core muscle development is believed to be important in many functional and athletic activities as core muscle recruitment enhances core stability and also helps to provides proximal stability to facilitate distal mobility. BOSU was a synonym for ‘Both Sides Up’. BOSU ball training works on two principles i.e., balancing of left and right sides and timing efficiency during the up/down movement. Swiss ball exercises quantified abdominal muscle activity during the crunch, push-up and bench-press exercises. Numerous other Swiss ball exercises are used in training and rehabilitation to enhance core stability.
Aim:
To compare the effect of BOSU ball and Swiss ball exercises on bowling speed among male sub-elite cricket fast bowlers in Sangli city.
Methodology:
Participants were explained about the nature of the study and the intervention. Their informed written consent was taken. 32 participants were selected based on the selection criteria. Prior and after the treatment both the outcome measures, core stability and bowling speed test were measured. The bowlers were asked to bowl as fast, accurate and consistently as possible as you would bowl in a match. The speed of this balls was measured in km/hour using the radar gun. The core stability was checked by Pressure Biofeedback Unit, the participants were told to lie flat on back with PBU under there back and knees flexed. Then the PBU was inflated to 40 mmhg and the participants were told to extend their leg while controlling their core muscles and the change in the PBU were noted. Subjects were randomly divided into 2 groups. Group A was given BOSU Ball exercises and Group B was given Swiss Ball exercises. All the exercise were performed for 6 weeks, 3 alternate days per week.
Results: Statistical analysis was done within group using paired t-test, which showed significant improvement post exercise protocol in both the groups p value 0.001. Statistical Analysis done between group using unpaired t-test showed significant improvements in Group A compared to Group B post exercise protocol with p value 0.001. The effect size of group A was 8.05 for core stability and 6.05 for bowling speed test and the effect size of group B was 4.91 for core stability and 4.43 for bowling speed test. Which shows Group A is better than Group B.
Conclusion: Both the exercise groups are effective in improving core stability and bowling speed but BOSU Ball group was found to be more effective than Swiss Ball group.

Key words: BOSU Ball, Swiss Ball, Core Stability, Bowling Speed, Radar gun, Pressure Biofeedback Unit, Cricket, Fast Bowlers.