Fig 1The run-up, measuredHover to scrub · space to play · ← → step strikesrun-up · 11 strikes · 3.42 a second
The 33 points Stance tracks; a footmark and a paper tick at each counted strikeGates where each third of the run-up's time ends (for reading only)Run-up mat with a tape from the crease, strip-chart desk, phone on a tripodOne real run-up Stance analysed, anonymised. The bowler stands at the mark, and the first foot-strike comes 0.47 s into the clip. Stance counts 11 strikes in the 3.22 s before the jump, a tempo of 3.42 a second (“rhythmic”; Stance's band for rhythmic is 3.0–4.0). Its trend compares step frequency, not speed: 3 strikes in the first third of the run-up's frames against 4 in the final third, so +33%, “accelerating into crease”. With only a few strikes per third, one strike more or less moves the trend by about a third, and here the standing start keeps the first third light. The strike count, the counts per third, the tempo, the trend and the jump, back-foot and front-foot frames are this run's; the individual strike times are the model's, a smoothed rhythm that reproduces those counts, and the distances are the model's too, illustrative (Stance times this run-up but does not measure its step lengths), with a run-up speed of 5.4 m/s at the gather, inside the 4.8–6.8 m/s range measured for elite fast bowlers. The second run, “decelerating”, is illustrative: the same 3.42 strikes a second overall, but 4 strikes then 3, −25%: the pace leak an average tempo can't see. The gates are drawn for reading only; Stance has no gates, it splits the frames into thirds.
Stance Cricket™Stance Lab · Run-up