Bowling Physiology

Bowling Fitness Testing

Fitness is important for bowling, and as such it is important to undertake regular fitness testing to monitor your fitness, and determine which areas of fitness you should address.

Strength — body strength is required for carrying the ball and to hold body positions to correctly execute the skill of bowling. A hang-grip strength test would be appropriate, as well as testing leg strength such as with a wall sit test.
Power — upper body power is important in the bowling delivery. There are a range of medicine ball throwing tests which assess both upper and lower body power.
Endurance — A level of endurance fitness is necessary for you to reduce fatigue during games and tournaments. Some tests for aerobic or endurance fitness include beep test, step test and the 12 minute run.
Flexibility — Being flexible enables you to perform the actions of bowling fully and reduce the chance of injury. The sit and reach test is a good test of lower back and hamstring flexibility. You should also test shoulder and trunk flexibility / rotation.

With all fitness testing, you should make sure you perform the test correctly and accurately record your results. That way when you repeat the test at a later date you can confidently compare results and see if there was any real change in your fitness.

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< see also fitness training for bowling