Measuring workload in bowlers 

As a physiotherapist and keen cricketer, Adam Daniels APAM is well aware of the injuries that young cricket players can get. 

‘I had stress fractures in my lower back as a teenager, through cricket. 

‘It got me into physio and it led me to do research on lumbar bone stress injuries,’ Adam says. 

Bowlers are especially susceptible to these injuries, with the spine subjected to high forces. 

Adolescent players, around the period of peak growth, and taller, faster bowlers are at the highest risk of injury. 

And once a player has sustained an injury, the recurrence rate is very high. 

Fast bowling generates large ground reaction forces and substantial rotational and compressive loads through the lower spine. 

These forces place considerable stress on vulnerable structures in the lumbar spine, making lumbar bone stress injuries common in fast bowlers. 

Many elite Australian fast bowlers experience this injury at some stage during their career, often first occurring during adolescence. 

Adam’s recent study found a lifetime prevalence of 31.4 per cent and a seasonal prevalence of 16.3 per cent among youth bowlers. 

Adam completed a Master of Medical Research at Griffith University in 2024, with a focus on incidence and risk factors for lumbar bone stress injuries in youth cricketers, and is now expanding his research in this area with a PhD at Griffith University, aiming to understand the relationship of workload to injury and ultimately develop a real-time injury prediction and prevention system. 

‘One of the major limitations in the research over the past 30 years is that we haven’t had a reliable way to measure bowling workload. 

‘My first study relied on logbooks – players had to count how many balls they’d bowled, record it in a diary and estimate the intensity. 

‘It’s not great science; it’s not a proven way to measure workload. 

‘And kids aren’t going to do it right.’ 

Seeking a way to better understand and measure bowling workload, Adam went looking for a wearable sensor that could track bowling activity in real time. 

With no suitable off-the-shelf option available, he and his team developed a watch that detects when a player bowls and estimates the ball speed. 

They are also working to develop additional metrics that better capture spinal loading. 

The research prototype, iX Cricket Research Pro, is currently being used for his PhD project, the Bowl Safely Study, involving 300 young cricket players. 

‘We’re understanding their risk factors and how they relate to injury, while measuring workload with wearable tech,’ Adam says. 

At the same time, a commercial version of the watch is in development through Adam’s startup company iX Cricket, which will target young cricket players. 

‘They’re the high-risk group, in terms of getting this injury. 

‘But this is not just a tool to prevent injury. 

‘It’s also a tool to help them train smarter and perform better while reducing their injury risk. 

‘Giving them access to data at training means they can understand their bowling speeds and set targets for each session, including speed and intensity zones.’ 

Adam says that in the future, this market will expand to include professional organisations, elite players and cricketers internationally. 

While Adam’s pitch to the judges and audience during Physio Pitchfest wasn’t successful, he says the feedback received from the judges was incredibly helpful, especially as the fledgling company moves towards raising money to continue development. 

‘Commercialisation is important but research and development is the priority. 

‘I’m very committed to not releasing this product until it’s been validated through research. 

‘This is a product built off science, built off research, built off validation. 

‘It needs to meet those standards before we commercialise and potential investors need to understand that. 

‘We don’t want to enter the market with a product that doesn’t deliver on what it’s designed to do,’ Adam says. 

A more comfortable strap for ankle work 

The Clover Strap allows users to complete ankle and leg exercises more comfortably.

Physiotherapist Julie Sheahan APAM, who owns a physiotherapy practice in regional Victoria, first noticed the problem in clients completing the GLA:D program for knee osteoarthritis. 

Patients with swollen ankles or fragile skin were having issues with the standard approach used to twist the resistance bands around their ankles. 

She tried a variety of alternative approaches – wrapping sheepskin around the ankle before using the bands, using ugg boots to protect the ankles, using zip-up ski shoes and commercially available ankle straps, but nothing had quite the right configuration. 

Her next option was to design her own. 

‘I bought the webbing material and D-rings and velcro and made our own strap to tie around shoes,’ Julie says. 

Once she was happy with the prototype, she started looking for a way to get it made, quickly realising she would need to go offshore to get an affordable product. 

‘I worked with a company to develop the strap and we went through about three or four different iterations until I was happy with it. 

‘We’ve been trialling it now in our clinic since 2021 and everybody loves them,’ Julie says. 

‘It’s normal for our clients now and we haven’t had any complaints of ankle pain. 

‘And the bands are really robust.’ 

Julie says a key benefit of the Clover^® Strap – so named because it has four D-rings arranged like a clover leaf – is that clients can move up to heavier resistance bands as the bands are attached to the strap via a carabiner rather than the ankle. 

The foot fits into a U-shaped cup and the Velcro straps are wrapped across the top of the foot to secure it. 

D-rings are positioned on both sides of the ankle as well as on the front and back straps and it can be used for both seated knee flexion and extension exercises as well as standing hip adduction and abduction exercises, pulling on the strap and shoe rather than on fragile skin. 

Julie has recently obtained a fully registered trademark for the Clover strap and is in the process of rolling it out beyond the doors of her clinic, initially to physiotherapists and exercise physiologists who offer the GLA:D program to their clients. 

‘The Clover strap will be sold to physios who can use it in their clinics and then onsell it to their clients. 

‘There are over 400 GLA:D clinicians in Australia so I’m going to be marketing directly to them.’ 

She is also keen to bring GLA:D on board to endorse the product and hopes that eventually she will be able to market it to users in other countries offering GLA:D. 

And it’s likely to find wider use beyond the GLA:D program, including in paediatrics, neurology and gyms and rehabilitation facilities. 

‘The Physio Pitchfest judges said to me, “Don’t limit it to GLA:D because there’s applications here for paediatrics.” There are so many applications.’ 

Julie says Pitchfest has sped up the rollout of the Clover strap due to the interest shown by delegates at APASC25 as well as the judges’ feedback. 

‘I know that it has worked in clinic and I have a lot of faith in the product but to see other people’s reaction was incredible. 

‘They loved that it was simple and cost-effective and asked where they could get them.’ 

She is working on final details – such as resistance bands with the carabiners already attached, pricing and packaging as well as a website – and hopes to launch to GLA:D practitioners by May, if everything goes to plan. 

In the meantime, she is considering the cost of trademarking it internationally and taking it to the world. 

‘I’m super excited to share this with our GLA:D colleagues worldwide,’ Julie says. 

Visit the Clover strap website for more information.