This week brings all the excitement of a new season for junior cricketers with opportunities to play at school, club, county, and often across multiple age groups. BUT… is that a good idea so early in the season?
If, I was suddenly offered a last-minute free place in this week’s London Marathon, would I accept it? I might if I had trained for 3 months or more, but otherwise you would think I was mad to say yes. Yet, why is it, we think that young cricketers can go out and throw and bowl high volumes of balls at full pace without thought for whether they have done enough training to build up the capacity of their body to cope with an activity they might not have done for 6 months?
I am a physiotherapist, who has worked with young cricketers for over 30 years and every year, about 3 weeks into the season I receive too many calls from parents and coaches telling me about a young pace bowler with low back pain. At least 50% of these will have a stress fracture. These are not necessarily serious injuries, and with the right treatment heal up just fine, but they take on average 3-4 months to do so. The season is over before it begins!
To make sure that does not happen, young cricketers need to follow a few basic principles.
The England and Wales Cricket Board have directives for junior pace bowlers that limit how many balls they can bowl in a spell and per day for each age group. They also suggest that pace bowlers, bowl no more than 4 times in every 7 days and no more than 2 days in a row.
CLICK HERE FOR THE ECB DIRECTIVES
From the table, you can see that an u15 player can bowl 6 overs in a spell and no more than 12 overs per day. If we do those 4 times in the week (2 net sessions and 2 games) it will add up to 288 balls in week 1. That sounds a lot …. unless we have built up to that volume over the winter.
Let’s go back to the marathon training plan. Most suggest at least 12 weeks of gradually building up the mileage avoiding sudden spikes in volume to avoid exceeding the capacity of the bones and tendons. Cricket is no different. If we subject the lower back bones to repeated actions such as bowling, sprinting, kicking, throwing, serving, high jump, and other overhead activities, the bone becomes “bruised” and reacts to the stress applied by starting to adapt and get stronger – providing it has time to do so. It can take several weeks for this new bone to mature enough to withstand the demands of high-intensity activities.
To safely return to bowling, we need to consider the training done in the last month. Most winter net sessions are in groups and facilitate kids bowling around 30-50 balls on average per session. That’s a long way off 288! A lot of winter nets also stop during the Easter school holidays, so kids who were just building up a bowling tolerance, then stopped.
So, what can we do? Children are excited to be playing, yet we can see they might not be ready. Injuries are caused not just by doing too much too soon. If that were the case, how do we explain how some kids pick up more injuries than others? There are other none sport-related risk factors for injuries that affect their capacity to cope with a spike in activity such as viruses, poor sleep, stress and not getting enough energy intake in their diet or limiting certain food groups.
1. Don’t add in every available session in week 1 – start with 2 sessions in week 1 and then add another in each week so there is a gradual build-up
2. Make sure kids warm up before throwing and bowling. If you want some ideas, check out the Ready 4 Cricket programme for videos on how to do a cricket specific warm up and why.
3. Set many balls they bowl per session. If they haven’t bowled at all in the winter start at 3 overs (18 balls) for the first 2 sessions at 50% effort off their normal run up. Then add another over per session gradually getting up to full pace over the first few weeks. If they have been doing winter nets, how many times a week? Based on that figure, and provided they didn’t stop over the holidays you can do around 10% more than the average volume bowled in recent weeks.
4. Reduce the intensity/pace – Jogging is not done at the same intensity as sprinting and is less demanding on the body. Suggest children run in at 50% speed but still off their normal length run up to maintain momentum into their action and bowl at 50% in nets for the first few sessions. We know that in a match, they will bowl hard but at least the intensity varies over the week.
5. Encourage them to bowl quality over quantity. Have a focus on the number of balls they can bowl in a certain area or get them to work at their slower ball or swinging the ball, so it is not just about how fast.
6. Build up their capacity to cope – Get some early nights – good quality sleep helps repair any niggles, and reduces the risk of injury but it is also when we get stronger and convert new skills learned to the memory bank, so kids will buy into the benefits once they understand they will play better.
7. Increase energy intake – growing kids often play multiple sports per day and need much more to eat and drink than we realise. Bone health is related to low energy availability from not eating enough for what you do. Make sure they eat a good breakfast with protein in it such as a glass of milk and eggs on toast. Send them to school with an extra sandwich filled with a good protein source such as chicken, cheese, or tuna. School lunches often don’t fill sporty kids up, so they snack on food that doesn’t give them the fuel they need for sport. Have a healthy snack ready after school for before nets.
NO CHILD SHOULD HAVE LOW BACK PAIN DURING SPORT
If any sporty child complains of low back pain, the most likely reason is that a small bone in the lower back has become bruised from a sudden new or higher volume of activity. It is more common in kids who play several sports where the seasons overlap, such as soccer and cricket, and in those going through a growth spurt. At the first sign of any back ache, stop the child from doing any activities that cause arching of the lower back (throwing, kicking, sprinting and bowling, gym) for 2 weeks to allow the bone to play catch up. Have a coach check out their action and then gradually build the activities back in more slowly, watching for any recurrence of pain. If the pain does not settle or is present at rest, there is a chance that the bone has developed a small hairline stress fracture and you should take the child to see a health professional with experience in treating younger athletes as very few adult therapists are trained to see children, especially cricketers!
To learn more about reducing the risk of injuries among junior cricketers, subscribe to the course Ready 4 Cricket programme for parents, coaches, and players. This includes a booklet about how to help your child understand why making some small changes will help them perform better and help them to reach their potential in sport
This material is the experience and opinions of Angela Jackson, and no liability can be given for the content or how it is used. It is for single use only and must not be used, copied, or sold except without the express permission of Angela Jackson Physiotherapy
