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Hand and Eye Dominance in Sport: Are Cricket Batters Taught to Bat Back-To- Front?

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Hand and Eye Dominance in Sport: Are Cricket Batters Taught to Bat Back-To- Front? Hand and Eye Dominance in Sport: Are Cricket Batters Taught to Bat Back-to- Front? David L. Mann, Oliver R. Runswick & Peter M. Allen Sports Medicine ISSN 0112-1642 Volume 46 Number 9 Sports Med (2016) 46:1355-1363 DOI 10.1007/s40279-016-0516-y 1 23 Your article is published under the Creative Commons Attribution license which allows users to read, copy, distribute and make derivative works, as long as the author of the original work is cited. You may self- archive this article on your own website, an institutional repository or funder’s repository and make it publicly available immediately. 1 23 Sports Med (2016) 46:1355–1363 DOI 10.1007/s40279-016-0516-y ORIGINAL RESEARCH ARTICLE Hand and Eye Dominance in Sport: Are Cricket Batters Taught to Bat Back-to-Front? 1 1,2 3 David L. Mann • Oliver R. Runswick • Peter M. Allen Published online: 18 March 2016 Ó The Author(s) 2016. This article is published with open access at Springerlink.com Abstract batsmen 7.1 times more likely to adopt a reversed stance than Background When first learning to bimanually use a tool inexperienced batsmen, independent of whether they batted to hit a target (e.g., when chopping wood or hitting a golf right or left handed or the position of their dominant eye. ball), most people assume a stance that is dictated by their Conclusion Findings imply that batsmen who adopt a dominant hand. By convention, this means that a ‘right- conventional stance may inadvertently be batting ‘back-to- handed’ or ‘left-handed’ stance that places the dominant front’ and have a significant disadvantage in the game. hand closer to the striking end of the tool is adopted in Moreover, the results may generalize more widely, bring- many sports. ing into question the way in which other bimanual sporting Objective The aim of this study was to investigate whe- actions are taught and performed. ther the conventional stance used for bimanual hitting provides the best chance of developing expertise in that task. Key Points Methods Our study included 43 professional (interna- tional/first-class) and 93 inexperienced (\5 years’ experi- Cricket batsmen have a surprising advantage if they ence) cricket batsmen. We determined their batting stance adopt the stance opposite to that expected based on (plus hand and eye dominance) to compare the proportion their handedness (i.e., if right handers bat left handed of batters who adopted a reversed stance when batting (that and vice versa). is, the opposite stance to that expected based on their handedness). The advantage appears to be grounded in positioning Results We found that cricket batsmen who adopted a the dominant hand further from (rather than closer reversed stance had a stunning advantage, with professional to) the striking end of the bat. Findings suggest that cricket batsmen may inadvertently be taught to bat ‘back-to-front’. D. L. Mann and O. R. Runswick are the co-first authors. & David L. Mann [email protected] 1 Department of Human Movement Sciences, Faculty of 1 Background Behavioural and Movement Sciences, MOVE Research Institute Amsterdam, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Van der Boechorststraat 9, 1081 BT Amsterdam, The Netherlands Our hand dominance shapes the way we perform bimanual tasks. This is particularly the case when we use a tool (such 2 School of Sport, Health and Applied Science, St Mary’s University, Twickenham, London, UK as an axe or golf club) to strike a target. When doing so, we conventionally adopt a technique that places our dominant 3 Department of Vision and Hearing Sciences and Vision and Eye Research Unit, Anglia Ruskin University, Cambridge, hand closer to the striking end of the tool. For instance, UK when playing cricket or baseball, we are usually taught to 123 1356 D. L. Mann et al. adopt a ‘right-handed’ or ‘left-handed’ stance that places competitive benefits. As a case in point, an over-repre- our dominant hand closer to the striking end of the bat. sentation of left-handers at the elite level of many sports is Surprisingly, it is not clear why this is the case, and whe- well-established [1, 2], particularly in interactive sports ther doing so provides the best chance of developing skill where players compete directly against opponents [2–4]. in that task. However, a small proportion of the population Brooks et al. [4] demonstrated that close to 50 % of the typically defies this convention and adopts the opposite batsmen playing for the best-performing teams at the 2003 stance to that which would be expected based on their Cricket World Cup were left handed (compared with the handedness (which we call a reversed stance; see Fig. 1a 10–13 % predicted by population norms [5]), concluding for further explanation). Therefore, comparing the perfor- that left-handed batsmen benefit from a negative fre- mance of those who adopt a conventional versus reversed quency-dependent effect [2, 6, 7] because opponents are stance provides an ideal opportunity to better understand less accustomed to competing against left-handed batsmen which approach might best support the development of and therefore are less adept at bowling to them (leading to expertise. poorer bowling strategies and accuracy). Crucially, this The examination of skill in sporting activities provides frequency-dependent effect would benefit anyone who bats some of the best evidence for the influence that handedness using a left-handed stance, irrespective of their actual hand can have on the development of motor expertise. In par- dominance. ticular, the highly competitive nature of elite sport ensures Although there is a clear association between left that small technical advantages can often afford significant handedness and success in sport [1, 2], this may be A Left-handed Right-handed stance stance BC 10 10 1 1 Odds Ratio (Log scale) Odds Ratio (Log scale) 0.1 0.1 Reversed stance Conventional stance Dominant front eye Dominant back eye (dominant top hand) (dominant bottom hand) Fig. 1 Cricket batting stances and their influence on achieving hand placed further from the striking end of the bat (shown in lighter expertise. a Demonstration of conventional left-handed (left) and shading/grey) is the dominant hand. b Odds ratio comparing the right-handed (right) batting stances. When adopting this conventional proportion of professional and inexperienced batsmen who use a stance, the dominant hand (shown in darker shading/red) is placed reversed or a conventional stance. Error bars show 95 % confidence lower on the handle so it is closer to the striking end of the bat. When intervals. c Odds ratio comparing the proportion of professional and adopting the reversed stance, a person who is right-hand dominant inexperienced batsmen who bat with a dominant front or dominant will adopt a left-handed stance, and a person who is left-hand back eye. Error bars show 95 % confidence intervals dominant will adopt a right-handed stance. In the reversed stance, the 123 Hand and Eye Dominance in Bimanual Hitting 1357 masking a more pervasive advantage afforded to some who (e.g., optometrists) sometimes alter a batter’s stance to play left handed. We have noticed that a surprisingly high ensure that the dominant eye has a clear view of the ball. It proportion of seemingly left-handed batsmen in the sport of could be that those with their dominant eye as the front eye cricket adopt a reversed stance during competition; that is, are conferred an advantage because it ensures the dominant they use a left-handed stance yet are actually right-hand eye has an unobstructed view of the oncoming ball [9] dominant. For those familiar with cricket, left-handed (dominant-eye explanation). batsmen such as Brian Lara, Chris Gayle, Clive Lloyd, The aim of this study was to determine whether a reversed David Warner, David Gower, Adam Gilchrist, Alistair stance provides an advantage in the development of expertise Cook, Justin Langer, Michael Hussey, Mark Taylor, Kumar in a bimanual hitting task. We did so in the sport of cricket by Sangakkara, and Matthew Hayden stand out as being some testing the batting stance plus hand and eye dominance of 43 of the greatest batsmen of the modern era. What appears to professional (international or first class) and 93 inexperi- have been largely overlooked (both by most people enced cricket batsmen. We hypothesized that the reversed familiar with the game and by previous studies of hand- stance would offer a specific advantage in batting above and edness) is that, while each of these players bats left handed, beyond that available to left handers as a result of frequency- they all bowl with their right hand (i.e., they bat using a dependent effects. We show that batsmen have a stunning reversed stance). If those players were to have benefitted advantage if they defy convention and adopt a reversed from using a reversed stance, then we would expect to find stance, and that the findings are supported by a significant they possess a specific advantage (reversed-stance advan- over-representation of modern-day international batsmen tage hypothesis) above and beyond the negative frequency- who bat using a reversed stance. The results imply that most dependent effects available to all left handers. Moreover, a cricket batsmen are taught to bat ‘back-to-front’ and call into reversed-stance advantage should also be evident for those question the manner in which other bimanual motor actions who are left-hand dominant yet bat right handed. In sup- are taught and performed. port, other modern-day greats such as Michael Clarke and Inzamam-ul-Haq bat right handed yet bowl with their left hand.
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