Hamstring Injury Statistics in the AFL and E Book
What qualifies me to write an E Book on Hamstring Rehabilitation?
I was a track coach in the 80’s before starting in the AFL in 1987 and trained some good sprinters and jumpers and so experienced first hand the needs of high speed running.
I was very lucky to work in the AFL for 20 years and to experience the day to day needs of rehabilitation, and in this case hamstrings.
Given this “hands on” practice I learn’t by trial and error. But also I was privy to many experts in this area. I researched every journal, went to conferences and spoke to anyone who seemed to know what they were doing, here and overseas.
From 1997 to 2005 in particular I was able to develop some specific strategies to try and prevent hamstring injuries and also rehabilitate them efficiently and not make mistakes in when to return to competition. Recurrences cause so many long term problems.
I have already gone through this in another article. ( Hamstring Injuries in the AFL. Perception becomes Reality). It involves a multifactorial approach. From core stability to running fast to recovery and load management.
The statistics I achieved validated my plans. I had an average of under 10 games lost per year to hamstrings. AFL has averaged approximately 20 games lost per club per year. My worst year in this block, was one year at average AFL statistics.
Apart from the AFL, I have worked with many elite sportspeople and athletes over this time and continue to do so. I have worked in soccer, tennis and track and field recently and saw the different demands on hamstrings compared to the AFL. This year I also did some work in Volleyball and the equation changes again.
The best way to learn how to do something is hands on. I have done that. But I also have taken an evidence based approach to ths area.
The E Book will have a comprehensive theory section and then some practical programs that can be used for 2/3/4/5 and 6 week programs.
I am sure it will be useful and interesting.
AFL. Grand finals, the draft, salary caps and fitness.
COPY THE LEADER?
Lets do what Geelong did in 2007 to win the flag? Maybe an emphasis on sports specific drills and tackling and actually training hard in pre-season 06/07?
Lets do what WCE did? Run more maybe seemed the message?
Lets do what Sydney did? More recovery/injury management processes and rotations seemed to be it.
Lets do what Brisbane did? Weights and strength seemed to be the message
Lets do what Essendon did? More sprints/buy spikes
After 2000 sprints coaches got gigs in clubs given John Quinns background in Athletics. They looked fast. After Brisbane weights coaches got more work. And so on.
What everyone forgets is that with the DRAFT/Salary Cup most will get a chance. Of course you have to seize the moment. But to say that Brisbane did more weights etc is crazy and quite the opposite WCE did run/run/run…..What is the key is to get a group coming through that is talented and develop them and hang on. Get the place chockfull of resources with massage and medical and fitness and welfare to assist the players. Geelong won VFL GF 2002/NAB Finals 2004/Prelim 2004/One point 2005/On the way in 06 then after RD 3 haywire. Now they have realized potential. Were the Kangaroos on the money this year but that 1% of less resource bit them on the bum? Who knows?
Geelong are well resourced due to their financial recovery and also had players with 5 finals / 2 NAB finals etc etc and an average of 6 years of development. Average age of 25.7 and 100 plus games and most in the 22 to 28…That seems the basic need. And they must have demonstrated they can play in the past.
In a free trade system they just buy teams and staff. So teams like AC Milan and Manchester United and Celtic for example stay on top. There are few cycles. Just get the best of everything.
So it seems that the draft and salary cap will give most clubs a chance at least at glory. At present it seems that the main secret to success is to get good young talent in place and then surround it with resource and keep the good oldies. Then hang on and get it right. The Crows seemed to miss an opportunity last year with unjuries at the end of the year.
So the take home message is to not always copy the leader in training methods. Just follow best practice and develop a team and then hold on for dear life whilst they are in their prime. Following the leader may be the last thing a team should do one year. Copycats ( for want of a better word) fail in sport more often than not.
There are no secrets out there in elite sport. One does not need to look inside AFL to learn about training. In fact it is better not to usually.
Train hard and smart. Learn from history and use sports science and elite methods, but don’t just copy. Sometimes the team that came tenth or sixth might have trained better but were not ready.
Sincere congratulations to the players at Geelong.
loris bertolacci 