Josh Kennedy: [00:00:00] Welcome back to the Cricket Matters podcast. Today we're talking about the secret to running faster between the wickets. Uh, and I assume James all cricket is they wanna score more runs, right? And it doesn't, uh, you can't always hit boundaries and sixes, so some of that is gonna be running faster between the wickets, right?

So we're gonna talk all about that today. But quickly shout out to, uh, one of our German women, cricketers, kartika. She hit a six. In the first game of the season and five boundaries as well, she said. So, uh, so yeah, well done. Didn't hit a single six last season. First game hits her six also. 

James Breese: And also just to, just to highlight the fact that this ties into her as well, she posted how she's been practicing with some of these drills and she, she, she has shaved from a, she has saved right sea sell sea shells.

No, unlike that. Yeah, that one. She saved N 0.3 seconds on her sprints by changing this technique and this advice we're gonna show today as well. So hopefully you can, guys can all learn from it too and apply it to your game. But you right [00:01:00] Josh. I think the game's cricket all by scoring more runs and I think all of the best and simplest ways for people to score more runs is run better between the wickets, particularly at the club level.

It's either block block block four. There's nothing in between. Yeah. Whereas you look at some of the best, there's not many 

Josh Kennedy: ones and twos 

James Breese: in in club club level. No, they, they don't look, they don't look for them. They're not looking for them In the same way, they're not prioritizing in the same way. But you look at Joe Root and some of the other Kane Williams and some of the best match in the world, they can get boundaries.

But they're also making the scoreboard tick along off good balls. Okay. Yep. But we're talking about speed specific to today, and tactics to increase your speed very quickly. Okay. So I'll start with the story. About two years ago, uh, I shout to Sam Everson if he's listening to the podcast. He called me out for holding the bat in the wrong hand, as as I was like.

Coming in on the non-striker end, I was like, oh my God, he's right. [00:02:00] That's absolutely right. I'm holding on my right as a left hander, I was holding as a right hand in my right hand, which meant my back was turned to the bowler coming in, which may explain why I got man catted last year. Let's just talk about that brief.

So we had that, uh, that element coming in. So okay. Made me realize I need to start walking in and thinking about my non-dominant hand holding in so I can face the bowler as they're coming in, uh, as coming into bowl now. From there, having conversations with Steve James and we're talking about running between the wickets and he, it's something he, he used to be very good at and he practiced a lot, a lot of it with whilst in kit.

And he said something to me, he said, this was a while ago, he said, the best climbs between the wicket carry a bat in one hand. I was like, Hmm, interesting. 'cause let me have a look at how you run. So I did, and I carried the classic bat in two hands going across the body. And it was really interesting because it set us on the path, didn't it, Josh?

Mm. Of looking at running and analyzing, running to s at a very high level, what we know from [00:03:00] sprinting is, is one of the cardinal sins is having your hands go across the body. Yeah. As you're sprinting, because the dispersion of energy is going across instead of forward to carry your momentum to get it quicker.

You'll never ever see an Olympic. A hundred meter runner, Usain Bolt or any of the others running with their hands going across their body. No. It is going in a direction They are moving. Yeah. Right. So why in cricket do we carry the back in two hands going across the body when we know it's slower for ease?

Maybe just put it out there. Comfort you, comfort to it. It's interesting the more you watched it, even at the elite levels, people are doing it now. Mm-hmm. I get it. If you are running a single or two that's comfortable. Okay, cool. We're not doing it. But if we're talking about speed and turning twos into threes or ones into twos.

Mm-hmm. Right. We've gotta think about what we're doing. So this is my hack for you. Start running with a bat in one hand. Okay. Start running with a bat in one [00:04:00] hand. 'cause it allows you to transfer the energy going forwards and not across the body. You may think we're mad, but if you watch the best runners in the between the wickets, that's what they do naturally.

But also there's a study from 2010 that dive into this, didn't it, Josh? To Power Point? It does. Exactly. So we thought, this is anecdotal stuff. Let's say, let's dive into the research, but check this act. Let's share a screen. Look at this bad boy. So for those watching on YouTube. Running between the wickets and cricket.

What is the fastest technique? Right? It's done by Lawrence. A how if I've pronounced his name correctly, and it's from 2010, 15 over 15 years ago. Researchers out there aren't it right now. For those who don't speak research, speak, guess what we've done? We've helped you out here. We've used chat GBT to help us break it down for us, right?

In very simple terms. So what they found was running a single. Right. They [00:05:00] compared running the bat with one hand and two hands. They found the average time was 3.110 seconds with one hand, 3.165 seconds. In the other hand, that's essentially 0.1 of a second, okay? Mm-hmm. If we're, if we're like rounding up.

Difference. And that's about 15 to 20 centimeters, right? Mm-hmm. That's the difference between a runout and not a runout in some respects. Yeah. So that was interesting. That was on one, but they took the study a bit further, right? And they looked at what is the optimal way of running between S for twos. So they found one hand plus turn, strong side turn right was a turn time of 2.318 seconds, which means it's quicker to the strong side.

They found that two hands with a weak side turn was the worst way of doing things. Mm-hmm. Right Now, two hand plus strong side was a good term. What I'm annoyed at is they didn't compare one handed running with a weak handed handed side turn. Yeah. Where, where [00:06:00] would that, that's the thing probably between 

Josh Kennedy: somewhere between two handed and two hand strong and two handed weak, wouldn't it?

I would think. 

James Breese: Yep. So again, we look at the key insight from this is that turning on your strong side while holding the bat in your strong hand is consistently faster, saving it to N point, N point nor eight seconds, N 0.1 seconds over the slowest technique per turn, right? Mm-hmm. So anecdotally we see, I've seen this now in club cricket and speaking to some of the boys and getting a try out.

They find it really hard to turn on their weak side. Mm-hmm. Okay. This, this is something we've seen anecdotally now as well, is that a lot of people need to practice turning to the weak side 'cause they always favor the wrong, the dominant side. Now tactically, this is a big problem because a lot of people turn blind to where the fall's gone on the pitch.

Okay, so what this kind of allows us to do, this idea of approach of running with a bat in one hand, not only it encourages good sprinting mechanics, right? It's proven to be faster, okay? Mm-hmm. But it's [00:07:00] encouraging a better tactical awareness when playing, because when you're running between the wickets, you need to turn to the side, the ball is gone to give you an open view of where you're looking at.

Right, because if you turn blind, that's when all sorts of run apps come. Yes, we can talk calling between the wickets and you could have good calling. That's a separate match altogether. But if you turn blind, you're putting yourself into harm's way already. So by running in, in between the wickets and with a bat in one hand, what this allows us to do, it allows us to easily like a relay switch hands.

Efficiently to turn to the side the ball is facing and take better control and ownership of running between the wickeds. So it's faster and it allows to be more technically astute with what we're doing. That is the research, and that is what we found out across the lines of, um, of what we're learning by working with people.

Also practically and learning out all our work [00:08:00] from working in sprinting over the last few years. Isn't that right, Josh? Mm-hmm. 

Josh Kennedy: What does strength come into it as well though? Because what if you're not strong enough to run with the batting one hand between the wickets? Is that a thing? Great question.

James Breese: So let's look at the women's game. So a lot of, a lot of the women need to work in their strength. Okay. It's just, it's just, it's just a, a fact. We we're seeing it time and time again. So there is a point where. Men as well, but a lot of women will struggle to run with the bat in one hand 'cause they're physically not strong enough.

Their grip is not strong enough, so it's something they need to work on. Again, we talk about gripping so many other podcasts and how it impacts batting technique, but it impacts sprinting, um, technique as well. So, absolutely right. I'm not gonna say everybody should go out there and run with a bat in one hand straight away.

They should do it if they're strong enough. Yeah. Okay. That's the first thing. It's something they're not strong enough. You should ultimately. Be running with the bat in one hand. Yeah, exactly. They need to start working on it. So again, if you be aware of it, awareness is the first [00:09:00] stage of anything that we try and do with people.

So how aware are you of your running style? Do you run with the bat in two hands? Do you run with one hand? And if you can't run it with one hand, if. Well, that's a, that's a technical running floor. Mm-hmm. That we need to be fixed. It sometimes is, means get stronger to do so. So simple insights. Again, we're not talking about sprinting all the time, getting fitter.

We're talking a quick mini tactical change with your technique to allow you to sprint faster into wickets, but be more open-minded to what's happening around you in the game. 

Josh Kennedy: And there you go. Absolutely. We've got, uh, got a lot of our cricketers trying it out now, plus we've also worked on the strength first as well, so they are exactly strong enough to carry the bat in one hand as well, which is, uh, which is an important thing.

Uh, well, let us know if you, if you give it a try, how you get on and if you get a little bit quicker, get any more runs. Um. Write a yeah, email us, comment on the, on the podcast and, uh, let us know how you're going. 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 [00:10:00] matters.com/train.

And remember, our goal is to make you a better cricketer. I.