Josh Kennedy: [00:00:00] This is the Cricket Matters podcast, and today we are talking about why you should fix pain first before changing your technique. So obviously, James, uh, you are in the cricketing world much more than I am. Uh, do you see people, well, you, you definitely see people in pain. Um, do, do people go after trying to fix technique rather than looking at why they're in pain first?

Is that what you found in your experience? 

James Breese: Lots. And it's happened again just this last week. Yeah. Where I was overhearing. A parent, a father with his son, with another coach, explained to me that he ha his son has back pain when he's bowling, and as a result they're trying, trying to change his technique to alter around the back pain.

And I couldn't say anything at the time, and I wasn't gonna say anything at the time because he's in the middle of a session. But it's the wrong way to look at it. The pain. Pain in the body [00:01:00] is your body's response to crying out for help. That's a very simple way to say it. You shouldn't have pain. Right?

A lot of people just accept it. They think it's normal. Particularly the older cricketers we work with, they, oh, I've got, I've got this pain in my shoulder's. Pain is back. It's always been there. It's nothing. No. Why? 

Josh Kennedy: Yeah. This is something that we've talked about with Perry, our good friend, Dr. Perry Nicholson, for years, and it like pain is your body's last response.

So essentially. There's been something going on for a long while. Your body's been dealing with it. Maybe, you know, tightening something up or changing the way you walk, move what, whatever that is. And then pain is, its last, last thing to go, hang on. I need, I need something to change here because, uh, this thing's going wrong.

So pain. Pain is your body's final response, basically. Exactly. 

James Breese: So we need to work out why first things first. Why is your body in pain? Okay. Is it a a simple fix? Is it a difficult fix? Right? Wherever it is, we [00:02:00] shouldn't be thinking to address technical issues first, because you're in pain. We need to address the pain side of things first because pain alters your movement, right?

It alters the way you walk. It alters the way you run. It alters the way you move. But more importantly, it alters the way you bat, it alters the way you bowl. It alters the way, way you throw the ball. I'm a great example. I have a grade three separation of my clavicle for, I broke my clavicle many years ago, right?

I, which means my, uh, my pec peck miner is hanging on like a thread half a time. It's holding your shoulder in for day life, basically. Yeah, it is. So when I throw the ball, I'm gutted. Like I used to have a gun arm until I. Did this snowboarding. Right. And it really hurts. I had to choose when I throw the ball and when I do it, it hurts like hell.

Right? It absolutely I had to place that pain when I'm throwing that's, that's a, a thing I ain't gonna fix. Right. It's just there, but it alters how I do things. I. Right. [00:03:00] So what happens now in cricket when they're batting or when they're bowling, if you have back pain, for example, right? Your body is gonna try subconsciously to avoid you going into a position where you are in that pain, which means your arms could change.

Position your, but you could fall off a little more to the side. Your legs stride could shorten. We don't know. It could alter in so many different ways. 

Josh Kennedy: You might not be able to run as quick, et cetera, et cetera. There's so many, so many things isn't there? 

James Breese: But No, but the idea is pain alters movement, but alters movement in terms of technique at the same time too.

So if we don't address the technical issues, the pain first, and you keep playing through pain, it can cause major issues long term with your technique. Right? What I mean by that is it's you're gonna develop bad habits and we're seeing it, I've seen it with recently with a pro player, okay? Where he was [00:04:00] extending his, his, his lefthanded back, right leg right, extending it as he was playing the cover drive in front of him.

What we found out was he had major pa hip pain. His, his, he wasn't able to, to flex and go into the shot and play the shot properly. 'cause the body's going, Nope, that hurts. Stop. So he got outta pain. But guess what he ended up doing for a long time afterwards? He ended up playing that same way. So his, his body, he had got used to the most control side of things.

You got used to the idea of extending that front leg as you played the cover drive. Which is a terrible position at a pro level, which means you are always gonna nick off. You are always gonna cause issues. So they had to retrain the brain how to get out of those bad habits. And that is a really important aspect, right?

If you are in pain, that affects your technique. If you get out of pain and it's better, you keep on doing what you're doing, it affects your technique long term, and you have to retrain the brain to go back to the old default patterns. Back at the start. [00:05:00] 

Josh Kennedy: Yeah. You don't wanna be ingrained in bad habits, do you?

No. That's all you wanna get out. You wanna get outta pain as quick as you can, obviously. Exactly. Wants to be in pain. 

James Breese: Absolutely. So we've gotta get outta pain, right? And we've gotta make sure it doesn't affect our technique. So if we're in pain and playing in pain, we need to be mindful of how much it impacts the changes in technique that we're trying to do for good or for bad.

And that's really, really important here. Now. So like the idea is, look. 

Josh Kennedy: But people want to continue to train. That's the problem though, isn't it? Yeah, I know. It's everyone. It's like runners, triathletes, 

James Breese: they want due through pain. They don't realize the damage they're doing. But you know, you are essentially playing HaBO, having a flat tire, right?

So you can drive on a flat tire, right? But at some point it's gonna cause major damage. Okay. And I think that's a good way to think about it's, if you are in pain, right, you may not be a problem straight away. It happens long term. The body always finds a way to [00:06:00] adapt and it alters your motor control patterns, which means it's gonna impact your technique.

And that's the last thing we're gonna do. Particularly if you got a good technique. Well, if you've got bad technique, well guess what? It might make it better. Who knows? Right? Right. We gotta fix a flat tire. We've gotta fix a flat tire before we start doing anything else. And again, a lot of players I've seen.

And whilst working with other people, don't communicate that they're in pain to their coaches for fear of not being in the team. However, when things go wrong and you start to analyze it from a pain perspective, a movement perspective, you ask them, Hey, look, is there's something wrong with that show? I got a kid let you a couple weeks ago.

Who came to me and I could see him playing inside out all the time. And I was like, mate, there's something not right here. Not right here with your back shoulder, it looks like it's off. Lemme do a couple of screens. You go, well before you do, I'm in pain. It's been hurting for the last two months. Right? So there you go.

That's an example of how it's affected his batting. [00:07:00] He's playing inside out. And no matter what we did there, because we could have drill and drill as much as we possibly can, he ain't gonna do it because he's gotta fix the shoulder problem first. 

Josh Kennedy: Absolutely, absolutely. Get yourself out of pain first.

Guys. It's vitally important so you don't ingrain those bad habits. 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 cricket matters.com/train. And remember, our goal is to make you a better cricketer.