Log your bowling in nets, training and matches, and see your weekly balls and overs at a glance. The tracker compares each week with your recent average, gently flags sudden spikes and long gaps, and helps you build up gradually. Your log stays in your browser only.
Building up gradually
- Small steps, often. Add a little bowling each week instead of jumping from nets to a long spell. There is no proven percentage for club bowlers, so let steady weeks be your guide.
- Space your bowling days. Two or three bowling days a week, with a gap between them, suits most club bowlers.
- Coming back from a break? After two weeks or more off, start with short spells off a shorter run and rebuild over several weeks.
- Plan lighter weeks. Guidance for young pace bowlers suggests one light bowling week every 4–6 weeks of the season, and that habit suits older bowlers too.
- Pain changes the plan. Low back pain, side pain or pain in the bowling shoulder is a reason to stop and see a physio or sports doctor.
How this bowling workload tracker works
Each session you log is converted into balls (6 balls to an over) and added up by week, Monday to Sunday. The tracker then compares the current week with the average of the 4 weeks before it (or 3 if that is all the history you have). The current week is left out of that average on purpose, because including it makes the comparison look smoother than it really is, which is one of the criticisms of the standard workload ratio.
A gentle flag appears when your week is about 50% above your recent average, a firmer one when it is around double, and a “returning bowler” flag when you have had two weeks or more without bowling. It also notes when you bowled on back-to-back days. Effort is saved with every entry and appears in the CSV export, but the weekly totals count every ball the same.
What the research says, and what it does not
Much of what we know about bowling workloads comes from elite Australian fast bowlers studied by John Orchard, Rebecca Dennis, Billy Hulin and colleagues. In one study, elite fast bowlers who bowled more than 188 balls a week, or had less than two days of recovery between sessions, had a higher injury risk than those bowling 123–188 balls a week with 3–4 days between sessions. Another found that bowling more than 50 overs in a match was followed by a higher injury risk over the next 3–4 weeks. A third found that when a bowler’s weekly load was well above his 4-week average, his injury risk rose the following week (weeks at more than double the average carried about 3 to 4.5 times the risk of lighter weeks), while a high, steady load was protective. A 15-year study added that tendons cope worst with sudden jumps and best with consistent bowling.
Two honest cautions. First, these are professional bowlers, mostly young men bowling far more than any club cricketer, so the numbers above are not targets or limits for you. Second, the acute-to-chronic workload ratio behind many “danger zone” charts is now strongly disputed. Statisticians have shown that the way it is usually calculated creates misleading links with injury, and a 2020 review concluded there is no evidence it should be used to manage training loads. That is why this tool shows plain weekly totals, uses soft wording, and never gives you a risk score. The core message survives the debate: build up gradually, keep your bowling consistent, and be careful after breaks.
Plan your preseason with the cricket preseason planner, and read cricket fitness after 35, strength training after 35 and collagen, joints and tendons.
Sources
- Christie et al., International Journal of Sports Science and Coaching: bowling volume and injury risk in elite South African fast bowlers (summarising Dennis et al. 2003)
- Dennis, Farhart, Goumas and Orchard (2003), Journal of Science and Medicine in Sport 6(3):359–367: bowling workload and the risk of injury in elite cricket fast bowlers
- Orchard et al. (2009), American Journal of Sports Medicine: fast bowlers show up to a 3–4 week delay between high workloads and injury
- Hulin et al. (2014), British Journal of Sports Medicine: spikes in acute workload are associated with increased injury risk in elite fast bowlers
- Orchard et al. (2015), British Journal of Sports Medicine: fast bowling workload patterns and tendon, muscle, bone and joint injuries
- Lolli et al. (2019), British Journal of Sports Medicine: mathematical coupling causes spurious correlation in the acute-to-chronic workload ratio
- Impellizzeri et al. (2020), International Journal of Sports Physiology and Performance: acute:chronic workload ratio, conceptual issues and fundamental pitfalls
- Cricket Australia: youth pace bowling guidelines
This tracker is a planning aid for general education. It is not medical advice and cannot predict or diagnose injury. See a physio or sports doctor about any pain, especially low back or side pain in a bowler.
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