[00:00:00] Josh Kennedy: This is the Cricket Matters podcast, and today we're talking about core strength for cricketers. James, let's jump straight in. Why does core strength matter for cricketers? What's so important about it? Ooh, because it helps you generate 

[00:00:13] James Breese: more force and more power, which in simple terms means you can hit the ball harder, bowl faster, put more revs and more spin on the ball, and throw faster and potentially more accurately.

[00:00:24] How about that? 

[00:00:25] Josh Kennedy: Great. That's absolutely fantastic. So essentially it helps you be more powerful, more dynamic. What about injury prevention as well? Does it help reduce injury? Absolutely. It does 

[00:00:38] James Breese: all those things. It really is. It is the, the powerhouse engine of the body. How about that? Let's use that as a quote.

[00:00:45] Oh, so 

[00:00:45] Josh Kennedy: nice. The powerhouse engine. 

[00:00:47] James Breese: Exactly. Everything stems from the core. It's basically connects the lower part of the body with the upper half of the body. And when you're rotating, which means when batting and hitting and hitting big sixes or [00:01:00] when you're bowling or when you're throwing for rotational sports and all sports from golf, cricket, tennis, everything like that, you know, it is what controls and connects the upper half and lower half and able to transfer weight effectively, right?

[00:01:12] So we spoke on a previous podcast about squat strength tests, right? For cricket and how, if you're going to have strong, powerful, explosive legs. To generate power and force from the floor. Well, that's all well and good. But then it just stops at the hips. Right? From the hips, it then needs to transfer into the core.

[00:01:32] So you need the upper, you know, the central engine working together with the lower half of the body to transfer that power further up the chain. Right. So we've got to have something like that. Try to call me at the same time. So we've got to have this transfer of weight and transfer of power. And the core knits the two together.

[00:01:52] It connects the two, the upper body and lower body together. So if you have got a weak core, it means you're right. You're not going to be as powerful. [00:02:00] You're not going to be able to generate as much force when you are trying to throw or hit the ball. But more importantly, it becomes more injury risk.

[00:02:07] There's higher risks of injury, potentially, from what we've seen. And all the studies kind of lead back into this too. So, strong core doesn't mean having six pack abs. It means, is it working effectively? And connecting the upper and lower body together. 

[00:02:22] Josh Kennedy: Exactly. I was going to say, that's what most people think.

[00:02:24] They see a six pack and they're like, well, they must be, they must be really strong, but not necessarily. Um, and as you say, if it doesn't tie the upper and lower bodies together, then it's really, um, really not working. So how do we assess, uh, core strength? What are some of the tests we use? 

[00:02:40] James Breese: Yeah, so there's two types of thing core stuff we use.

[00:02:43] Core strength and there's core power. We'll do a separate podcast on core power. We want to look at core strength today. Do we have basic core strength? So very, very simply, let's look at the two minute plank, a two minute forearm plank. Can you hold the plank position for two minutes? Right? [00:03:00] That is coming from Dr.

[00:03:01] Stuart McGill, one of the world's leading spine specialists, right? And his work with athletes all over the world. And he says that if you haven't, aren't able to hold and control a two minute plank, you haven't got the muscular endurance to support your lower back. It's as simple as that. So we look at the two minute plank as a standard benchmark for static core strength, which ties into you playing cricket all day, because if your core is weak and doesn't have the muscular endurance.

[00:03:30] It means you're, it's going to affect your posture over the course of a match. Right? So, okay, yes, you could be stronger, but the idea is it's a baseline. Most cricketers we know and seen can't hold the two minute plank. They just can't. It's really hard for them. Or they do it and they're shaking like a leaf.

[00:03:48] It should be effortless, absolutely effortless, right? And that is the whole aspect of that. We want to make sure we can hold a basic muscular endurance and a two minute plank before we do anything. Because if you haven't got [00:04:00] that, well, basic muscular endurance, foundational work is where we're going to start in your core.

[00:04:05] Nothing else. We don't need to go too fancy, but we just need to build this foundational piece first. 

[00:04:10] Josh Kennedy: That's, uh, that's, that sounds good. As you say, you know, it's cricket is generally a long game. So if you struggle to hold a two minute plank and you're shaking like a leaf, then, you know, how are you going to, uh, how are you going to stand up for a full day or 50 overs or, you know, five day test match, who knows?

[00:04:25] Um, the next test, the trunk stability push up a little more complicated and complex this one. 

[00:04:32] James Breese: Yeah, this is a little bit, I'm just pulling up the data and the stuff. Cause again, there's a, there's a blog that goes with this. core strength test for cricketers. So I'm pulling up the stats and the data here.

[00:04:41] So I think let's just quote for quote verbatim. This was developed by some very smart people in the world of FMS, uh, Gray Cook and Lee Burton and their, and Kyle Kiesel, I think from the entire team. So the trunk stability pushup evaluates core stability in dynamic movement, focusing on the ability to [00:05:00] stabilize the trunk during force transfer between the upper and lower body.

[00:05:04] what we were talking about earlier. Right? So what is it? You're going to lie down on the floor and put your arms, stretch your arms up overhead. Okay. If you can see on YouTube, you can see me stretch my hands up overhead. Right? You're then going to bring your four thumbs down, shoulder width apart, men in line with your forehead, women in line with your chin, right?

[00:05:23] With your feet together, pick your knees up, pull your toes up, raise your elbows off the ground. And you're going to try and do a single pushup. Whilst bringing your body up in one singular movement. Sounds easy. Right. It's not. And again, this is what I'm going to encourage you to go to the blog and see there's a video that demonstrates how to do it and what we're talking about here.

[00:05:49] But that's in one foul swoop tells us if you have a dynamic core control and stability in your core, right? Can you connect the upper and [00:06:00] lower body together? Because if you can't, There is a leakage. There's a weak kink in your armor. You can't transfer power effectively. So when all the batsmen I know at the moment and all of them try to hit the ball harder, you're gonna struggle Sorry Do all the technique and range hitting and practice in the world But if you can't connect connect your weak legs your weak chicken legs Like I see a lot of cricketers have toy cricketers might your chicken legs here now, right with a weak ass core You will never be able to hit the ball harder before we even look at technique, right?

[00:06:33] Josh Kennedy: So what does a poor score or test result in a trunk stability push up, um, indicate more often than not? Poor core stability. 

[00:06:43] James Breese: They lack it. High risk of injury, potentially, as well? High risk of injury, yes. What's the data? The data is huge, actually. Because there's actually so much data on this, because the FMS has been doing this for 20 odd years.

[00:06:54] So it shows that People who score this poorly have significantly higher risks of [00:07:00] lower extremity injuries, right? It's a quote from 2012. In female athletes, the lower trunk stability push up scores call it with increased risk of hip instability and knee injuries due to weaker core stability. How about that?

[00:07:14] Josh Kennedy: There we go. How about that? Knee injuries, yeah. Yep. I see a lot of, again, knees, hamstrings gone, etc. It all relates to the core. All relates to 

[00:07:23] James Breese: the core. Yep. Yep. It is a simple test that is done badly. Now, if you see people do it, you'll tend to see their back comes up and then their hips come up. No, we want this.

[00:07:39] We want to come up with one, a one solid piece, boom, up like that. Straight up like this. All right. And for us at cricket, it's pass or fail. Can they do it? All right. The actual proper test, there's a few of the scoring criteria, but we know that the best athletes can do this. And it's a standard thing. And because of the higher risk of injury in cricket, particularly lower back pain and the need to build [00:08:00] and requirement for generating force at all four movements, we need to sort of look at core stability.

[00:08:07] So you put the two together, do they have the static core strength, muscle endurance, right? From the two minute plank and put it together with a trunk stability pushup to see how it does it. I am yet to see a female cricketer we've worked with able to do this. 

[00:08:22] Josh Kennedy: Hmm. Yep. It is tougher female. Some of them can do the plank.

[00:08:26] James Breese: Say 

[00:08:26] Josh Kennedy: again? Yeah, I said it is tougher for females, uh, to do that as well, you know, less upper body strength, but I think it's more important. 

[00:08:32] James Breese: Yeah, I think it's way more important. 'cause a lot of the females we're seeing at the moment is that they're struggling to generate power. Um, they have, they're lacking upper body strength, particularly in the forearms and grip and also using batter are too heavy for them.

[00:08:44] I was talking to this, the other guy with, with Toby and Steve James. We like talking about the other day how like they're struggling to generate power because bats are too heavy, but they also haven't got the forearm and grip strength to be able to do it. But combine that with the core strength, there's power leakages, power leakages all the way.

[00:08:58] So it's the same sort [00:09:00] of thing. I'd say it's very, very important for female athletes to have this dialed down because they're higher risk of ACL injuries. 

[00:09:07] Josh Kennedy: Okay. So quickly, before we wrap up, I have failed the plank test. What are some exercises I can do? 

[00:09:15] James Breese: Hold the plank more often. I think that's a good way to put it.

[00:09:18] Practice, get practicing it. Just literally. So in very simple layman's terms, if you fail the 2 minute plank test, you've got to start working on holding the plank. Build it up. So if you did a minute, okay great, hold it for 40 seconds, consistently do 3 sets of that. Consistently. Then build it up and do 3 sets of a minute.

[00:09:34] So you're doing it more than just a minute each time, and then build it up slowly. So that's one simple way of doing and training the core. Another one we like doing side planks. Yep. Side planks. You can start doing that too. It helps tying it into it. My favorite thing is the moving plank, which is the farmer's carry, heavy farmer's carry.

[00:09:52] All right. So you can carry, carry a kettlebell or dumbbell in hand and walk, walk back, switch hands, do it again. Very simple, but highly [00:10:00] effective. Right. And very practical. So you've got that. And if you struggle with the trunks to push up, Well, it's a bit more complex, right? I think that's the best way to describe it.

[00:10:10] So a lot of anti rotation work. 

[00:10:13] Josh Kennedy: It is, but you're looking at anti rotation, bird dogs, pallof presses, cable work, cable work is great. 

[00:10:20] James Breese: Cable work is a big thing. Maybe some arm strength, upper body strength too, because you're lacking here. So that's why we look at the push ups sometimes in coordination with all this.

[00:10:30] But again, it's coming to teaching the body how to use it as one unit. So what we see is, and some of the younger athletes you have to teach with is how they use the body and create what we call intraabdominal pressure. And also to learn how to use pressure to help generate more force. So it teaching to knit the body together.

[00:10:49] To see strength as a skill. We've gotta teach body people how to use it as one unit as opposed to individual body pieces. 

[00:10:57] Josh Kennedy: Cool. Could you just wrap up the key points from this [00:11:00] podcast, mate? 

[00:11:00] James Breese: Yeah, sure. Unique, strong core, both dynamically and statically. Try the two tests out. Go to the blog. We learn more about it.

[00:11:09] Read about it and try them out. If you're struggling to do this and your goal is to become more resilient to injury, hit the ball harder or ball fast or put more revs in the ball. Core is the thing you need to be doing at home on your own where it matters. 

[00:11:22] Josh Kennedy: Absolutely. There we go. Thanks very much. That is it for today.

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