Josh Kennedy: [00:00:00] Welcome back to the Cricket Matters podcast. Today, we are introducing the Complete Cricketer Performance System. James, have you got milk in your tea? I have now. Thank you. Which is actually coffee. Oh, is it? Oh, you said you were getting a tea. Throw me, throw me off track. Just making sure, because we're about to start recording.

You're like, ah, I haven't got milk. Um, anyway, good. Excellent. Right. The Complete Cricketer Performance System. What is it? Uh, so can you do it in like a 30 seconds sum up? What, what is it? 

James Breese: Yeah, very simply every cricketer on the face of this planet wants a default of improving their technique. However, they don't know that there are multiple factors that influence technique.

So why do we jump to technique first when actually there's other areas they should be addressing and we've narrowed it down to five pillars. How about that unscripted? That's nice. 

Josh Kennedy: Love it. Love it. Right. Yes, as you said, indeed, we have narrowed it down to five pillars. So what is, let's, let's break them all [00:01:00] down, talk through them.

What is pillar number one? 

James Breese: Yeah. Okay. So before we define the five pillars, we need to understand that each of these things influence technique, whether you're batting, bowling, or fielding, it makes no difference, right? They're all going to influence it. Now we can say about how they influence it, but the point is we need to assess it.

So. This is just a top level looking at thing, a top several like 40, 000 foot overview of the whole thing. We assess each of these in depth and we'll start sharing more about these in the coming podcasts. But the point is, they all influence technique. So it starts with health. We always go to health first because no matter your age, Health comes first.

Without your health, you have absolutely nothing. Right? So what do we look at health? Well, there's multiple factors depending on whether you want to go down the basic What we can do is coaches type stuff or looking at a clinical version as in the doctor's level Well, they look at blood [00:02:00] work. They look at Heart rate.

They look at all these different other factors that go into it. But the point is health comes first. So for us The key thing for us is can they breathe properly? Now you may think i'm crazy, but can they breathe properly? Are they overweight? Do they carry too much body fat? All right. Those are the things and do they have a good low resting heart rate?

Because if you don't, guess what? They're all indicators of potential metabolic syndrome, metabolic diseases, cardiovascular diseases, that infl impact your ability to perform at the highest levels. Guess what most amateur cricketers have? They have an Resting heart rate? High resting heart rate. They're overweight, they can't breathe.

Right, so If they can't breathe, let's just put it into context. I know for a fact they can't rotate properly. If they can't rotate, how are they going to play the pull shot? How are they going to be able to stop going into lateral flexion and falling away when they're bowling? All right, [00:03:00] so they're already precursors for me to fix it.

So we need to address it first. If you're going to perform better, you've got to be fit, healthy, and ready to go. So that's our health aspect on the, uh, in the first pillar. 

Josh Kennedy: Absolutely. Pillar number two. I actually, before we go on to pillar number two, this is probably, these are things that people have probably never thought about because, you know, obviously if you want to improve your tech, your batting, you go straight to technique.

Right? Or you're fielding, or bowling, whatever it is, straight to technique, you wouldn't even, most people wouldn't even consider addressing these, uh, these elements. 

James Breese: Yeah, exactly. So, this is So what is number two? Number two is literally movement. How well do they move? Right? How well do they move? You may think I'm mental, Ed, we move all day long.

But there's certain categories and abilities to move. I'll give you an example, right? How is your movement in rotation? Is it restricted by your breathing, like [00:04:00] we just said earlier? Can you get your hands up over your head? Can you touch your toes? Can you squat down in a very simple way below, parallel, and touch your fingers to the floor?

These are all simple things, but if you can't do these things efficiently, These are what we call basic motor control screens. And if you can't move properly, well, how do you expect to do it at high pace when the ball's coming down to you 80 miles an hour and you want to smash the ball on the ground?

The movement restrictions act as a handbrake to performance. I think that's really important. 

Josh Kennedy: Yeah, as you said, rotation is a massive one, isn't it? Neck, shoulders, T spine, hips. 

James Breese: Ankles. Yeah, like, literally, the rotation. Yeah, yeah. It comes from the ground up. Most bowlers I know have terrible ankle dorsiflexion.

They want stiff ankles. But they do sort of a restriction of mobility, which impedes performance, impacts the knee. Because again, we're talking about pain and talks in [00:05:00] terms of movement, we're screening for pain during this, this phase as well. And if you're in pain, what's the first thing we've got to get you out of?

Because pain impacts your technique, right? And that is, it just goes down to it. So there are certain screens we look at. From top to toe, can they move efficiently at baseline level? Then we go to cricket as specific assessments later on down the line. And that's, that is important because it precedes, in our opinion, athleticism, which is pillar number three.

Josh Kennedy: Exactly. And athleticism itself breaks down into a, into a few categories as well. So it encompasses strength, power, agility. Speed, cardio, all of it goes in there, right? In that bucket. 

James Breese: Yep, exactly. So if you look at our performance pyramid, we're probably looking at Layer 2 and Layer 3 for this. So we're looking at strength and aerobic capacity, which is the baseline levels.

Do they hit minimum standards here? And then we can look at Layer 3, power, speed, anaerobic capacity, and agility. Those are the things we're looking at. Can they hit [00:06:00] these baseline markers and levels within this athleticism pyramid? So, if you can't, guess what? If you're not strong enough, you're never going to be able to hit the ball hard.

You're never going to hold the bat hard. You're never going to be able to bowl fast. If you're not powerful, guess what you can't do? You know, you can't throw fast. It, it, it covers so many remits here. But the point is, your athleticism impacts the ability for your technique. And, again, I'll use young women coming through the academies at the moment that we're seeing, is they're not strong enough, right?

Because they're growing as well. It doesn't mean they're bad human beings. It's because they're going through life's changes. They're growing quickly. But we're seeing lots of parents buy them bats that are too big and too heavy for them. So, not strong enough, too big a bat impacts technique. And that's a good example, a simple example, of what we're seeing time and time again.

So, again, health, movement, athleticism, they kind of all come into one, [00:07:00] but we want to look at each one individually, which leads into pillar number four of mindset. Because I think this is one of the quickest things you can do to improve your technique. It's how you approach the game. Lots of players, particularly bettors I'm working with, don't know how to watch the ball.

Which again, people think I'm mental by saying this. Well, I am watching the ball. Are you really seeing the ball? Are you watching the ball? What's your process in between facing balls? How do you switch off? How do you remove stress? How do you reduce anxiety? It's all down to mindset. But again, your health impacts your mindset.

Your way you move impacts your mindset. Your athleticism and your ability to recover quickly in cardio impacts your mindset to make better decisions because cricket's a game of decision making. And then we've got pillar number five, which I think, and you can probably agree with me here, Josh, and come in because you're, you're the better expert on this now.

Nutrition is the hardest thing to fix of all, but again, it impacts your [00:08:00] technique 

Josh Kennedy: hugely, hugely. It's, um, the most, uh, the most emotive one and the one that people find the most difficult to, to correct, right? Because we all have our likes and dislikes and. Little habits that we like to, to cling on to, but those little habits may not be the best in terms of your, for your game, right?

You know, fueling, you know, you might be someone who, I don't know, off the top of my head, never eats breakfast because they want to save the calories or something. I, you know what I mean? In terms of like, oh, I can't, I can't have that for breakfast because I, you know, I want those calories later on for my lunch or whatever, whatever it is.

But if you are playing a game. You might need to fuel for that game. So breakfast might be really important and it probably is really important. So that's just, you know, one basic example, right? 

James Breese: No, exactly. So again, these are all components that people talk about, but they don't do. That's a big difference.

We're talking [00:09:00] about, yeah, I should do this. I should do this. Create some habit trackers. Let's see actually how much of this stuff do you do, right? To improve your technique. And again, particularly, nothing highlights the need for addressing these five pillars more than working with older cricketers.

Because life has got in the way. And you really have to work on these things, laid down, particularly the health movements part side of things. Like, I think the default one for all of us is health and movement. You own that, then the athleticism bit comes easier afterwards. Right? And I think that's what people are missing out on, and I say the older cricketers, because guess what I'm seeing with most of the young kids?

They have the same movement issues and restrictions as the older cricketers and senior cricketers. Because that's how life has taken them. Sitting on the, sitting on the, on the phones, playing tech next, you know, a neck text, not text next or, yeah, tech is the one, whatever it's called. Something like that.

whatever it's called this. Yeah. But again, younger cricketers, having the physical capabilities of [00:10:00] and dysfunctions movement, dysfunctions and patterns as the senior cricketers. And we're trying to highlight this awareness now around, particularly among coaches, because you can't coach everyone the same way.

If they have movement dysfunction. Yeah, 

Josh Kennedy: no, absolutely. And as you say, if you focus on health and movement, they all stack on top of each other, nicely back. So by the time you get to attrition, you've got a lot of good building blocks already in place, makes it easier to address if there are any issues. So could you just then sum up what is the complete cricketer performance system?

James Breese: So the Complete Cricketer Performance System is our framework of how we work with every cricketer that comes to us, whether it's batting or bowling. We address the five pillars. While simultaneously addressing technique because these five pillars of health, movement, athleticism, mindset, and nutrition Impact your technique, but we all want to work on techniques.

That's the fun stuff. So we're still working that that's a central theme We're working alongside [00:11:00] these other five pillars to help make the complete cricketer Which hopefully you make some play better, score more runs, take more wickets Enjoy the game and last longer, whether it's in the game or whether they're a senior cricketer working long term.

So, how about that? 

Josh Kennedy: That's absolutely fantastic. Thank you very much. That is it for today. Please don't forget to rate, review and subscribe. And if you would like our free training plan, then go to cricketmatters. com forward slash train. And remember, our goal is to make you a better 

cricketer.