Influence of angular position on radar gun peak cricket ball speed measurements

ABSTRACT

The purpose of this study was to determine the agreement in peak ball speed measured using a radar gun and motion capture system then examine the influence of angular position. Peak ball speed was recorded with the radar gun in-line with the ball trajectory (0° offset) and at 5° offsets up to 35°. Agreement between devices was calculated at 0° and for grouped offset bins (0–5°, 10–15°, 20–25°, and 30–35°). At 0°, a strong correlation (r = 0.99) and intraclass correlation coefficient (.984) were observed with a systematic overestimation by the radar gun (1.7 ± 0.8 m/s). The residual speed between devices at the 30–35° offset was significantly different to both 0–5° (p < .001) and 10–15° (p < .001) offsets. The radar gun consistently overestimated peak ball speed up to a ~20° offset and thus can be positioned out of the line-of-throw to avoid obstructions.

KEYWORDS:

• Throwing
• throwing events
• equipment
• performance
• training/conditioning

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).