Lauren Bertolacci. New webpage.
My daughter Lauren is now in Germany playing for the Fighting Kangaroos. Go the Kangas! Anyway, she has started a new site and in between training and playing and learning how to speak German she is working on her site.
So have a look. Soon I will work with Lauren on a few articles that are volleyball specific. She is qualified in Human Movement and thus can talk about her experiences in volleyball and strength and conditioning for volleyball.
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.
HAMSTRING REHABILITATION and RUNNING PROGAMS
The biggest mistake with hamstring running programs is to have more than a 10% increase in speed from running session to session. Whatever the method you use, it is critical that you progress evenly from session to session. The other biggest problem is that because often, at Day 10 for example, the leg feels ok, the athlete gambles. He or she runs at 80% instead of 70% to see how the leg feels and recurs. Thus you have set yourself back longer. So much is written about gym and rehab programs but little advice is provided about running programs. In fact this is the critical area. Thus in a “garden variety” 21 day hamstring rehab one would jog at day 5 to 6 then do that for a few days. Then the next sessions at day 8 or 9 might be strides at 50% speed and no faster.Then this is progressed evenly with 10% increases every second day. Given the short time frame, often it is difficult to go 100% at day 18 as a test, so the program has to be structured to allow the player or athlete to perform fresh and ready on day 21. Again running programs are the number one concern in a hamstring rehabilitation program, and you may use repeat 100m strides or flying 20m or flying 30m. It doesn’t matter. What matters is that you progress to a plan carefully and done gamble. Remember when you go to the casino you can win, but in the end the casino always wins.
AFL Tan running times
I noticed that someone had searched for AFL Tan times on my blog. I even noticed that Brian Cook ( CEO of GFC was sneaking a look around my site when his security company popped up!). Powerful tool the net. Big daddy is always watching. So that stimulated me to say a few quick things about the TAN.
Anyway Tan Times. Funny subject this. I remember that Doctor Bruce Reid won the TAN Run in the late 80’s at Essendon. Not a player. He was training for marathons but had been a nippy rover in his youth. And then in those days with big lists all the guys who were trying out would win but never get to the first practice match. And if you listen to players of yesteryear they all have run the TAN in under 11 minutes. HA.
A player that would surprise as having a good TAN Run at Essendon was David Calthorpe. I know he ran well under 13 minutes at 90 plus kgs and won the 40 m sprint in 1992. That is why he could tag Bradley.
Mark Fraser also did a run in the mid 12’s in 1994 when I was at Collingwood. I saw him do a very easy 4 20 1500 on grass at Victoria Park. Hird didn’t break 13 minutes. Nearly did. Tony Shaw beat Fraser in a double TAN that year but was beaten in one lap. Geelong only ran the TAN once and poor old Lingy had no idea what the Anderson Street Hill would bring. Spriggs won it but geez can’t give the times because I would be divulging IP.
I do know that we packed up one year at Essendon at 17 minutes and were heading home and then Dean Wallis came around the corner. And he was followed by Dwayne Armstrong, Sheeds pet project in the 90’s form the US.
Oscar Kenda was a fitness person at EFC in the 90’s. Gary Moorcroft had run a shocking 16 or 17 minute TAN and Sheeds said he wouldnt draft or redraft him. A few weeks later Oscar ( who teaches at parade) pushed Gary Moorcroft to 15 minutes by running with him and Sheeds was happy and the rest is history. Even if Dean Wallis had run 28 minutes and cut through the Botanic Gardens, Sheeds would have not delisted him.
I even can enter into TAN mythology. I wanted to beat Choco Williams badly in 1995. I bolted up the hill at midfielders pace but at the top was a spent force. By the shrine I considered cremation. Choco bolted past me and I staggered home. Well a few weeks after I ran a tactical race. I stayed just behind Choco all the way and then used my fast twitch power surge to smash him 50metres from home.
And at GFC in 2000 Barry Stoneham was suspended one weekend. We met at the TAN and we took off. He bolted and I tried to keep up. I killed myself but after the Shrine had to let him go. Barry was a low 10 min 3km run and and an ex 400m champ. When I arrived back to the start he turned to me and asked me why I had started so fast. HA. I was about to ask him the same question. I went home and had a good sleep.
I am sure Richmond has got some cracker times because it is a course you can get used to. They seem to have done heaps of TANS over the years. It is funny how many clubs have staff members who often win these races. I think Paul Coburn ( physio) used to smash the course
But the main thing is to always remember when an old AFL player says he ran 12 23 for the TAN make sure you ask for some official data. And all you Essendon and Collingwood guys. I have old old ( dead sea scrolls) records of your TAN times from the 80’s and 90’s. Don’t lie. I don’t respect or trust old footballers who lie.
Health Club 101 in St Albans
Rebecca and Paul Galea own a great gym in Saint Albans Melbourne.
Excellent equipment, great prices and good people.
Make sure you join up. It is worth it.
Healthclub101
101-103 Main Road West
ST ALBANS VIC 3021
Phone: 03 9310 9155
HAMSTRING REHABILITATION AND HEALING
Soon I will publish an E Book on strength and conditioning programs after a hamstring injury. Specifically soft tissue and not back related etc. One area that seems to cause problems is athletes working too intensely too soon after a muscle injury is diagnosed and taking gambles. Jarvinen’s review emphasizes the need for 3 days immobilization to allow healing as a critical phase. Respecting the stages and phases of healing in soft tissue injury is vital. Some researchers categorize these stages differently. From acute ( inflammatory) up to 7 days to proliferation ( 7 to 21 days) and maturation and remodelling ( >21 days).
Not respecting healing dogma is fraught with danger given that means trying to beat nature. Programs in my e book are based on this dogma. And Jarvinen is very clear about the processes involved.
I was lucky to work in the AFL for 20 years and since 1999 till April 2006 I was operating at approximately half the average games lost for hamstrings in the AFL. I coached sprinters in the 80’s and simply spent a lot of time researching and working this area.
HEALING MUSCLE INJURIES
Muscle Injuries: Biology and Treatment: Järvinen
The American Journal of Sports Medicine, Vol. 33, No. 5
This study emphasizes the need to immobilize in the acute phase which as minimum from healing studies should be 3 days.
REST IS CRITICAL IN THE ACUTE PHASE!
Even slight use of the injured muscle in this Acute Phase needs to be avoided according to Jarvinen. He also talks about reruptures at the same site if mobilization is too soon. By resting in this phase less scar is put down.
WHAT HAPPENS AFTER THIS IMMOBILIZATION PHASE ?
PARADOX: Use it or lose it!
The rest in the immobilization phase allows the scar to get some strength. In fact after 10 days the scar is quite strong
After the immobilization phase is over then active mobilization enhances the penetration of muscle fibres into the scar tissue, limits the size of the scar and aligns the regenerating muscle tissue.
“If immobilization is continued past the acute phase (first few days) of muscle regeneration, the deleterious effects become particularly evident during the remodeling phase of muscle healing”
Will Geelong win the AFL Grand Final?
All the indicators say yes for sure.
Not just the fact they are an amazing 4 games clear.
But their age spread is awesome. Warriors and good players centred around 25. Their experience is spot on. And more importantly they have finals experience.
VFL Grand Final 2002
Just missed finals 2003
NAB Cup Grand Final Loss 2004
3 Finals in 2004 and a narrow loss to Brisbane in Prelim
1 point loss to Sydney in Sydney after 3 games in 18 days!
NAB Cup Grand Final Win in Adelaide 2006.
Many of the boys have had 6 to 8 pre-seasons.
They finished 2006 with most players ready to do a big pre-season and off they went.
All points to the right recipe for a win.
Also teams like Sydney and West Coast have been through a few finals campaigns now and in my opinion that may have taken its toll with late operations and interrupted pre-seasons.
Port are difficult to assess. Hawthorn simply seem inexperienced on paper in finals.
And as we know anyone can pop up.
But Geelong now ticks all the boxes. Mature and ready.
On Grand Final Day they will be 25.5 years of age and 100 games plus experience if this “pretend team played”
Now that seems to be the perfect formula and most of the boys are 22 and above with very few oldies…..
AblettG 14-May-84 23.4 FINALS
AblettN 13-Dec-84 22.8
Bartel 4-Dec-83 23.8 FINALS
Byrnes 7-Apr-84 23.5
Chapman 05-Nov-81 25.9 FINALS
Corey 17-Feb-82 25.6 FINALS
Egan 10-Jul-83 24.2 FINALS
Enright 14-Sep-81 26.1 FINALS
Harley 18-Jul-78 29.2 FINALS
JohnsonD 28-Oct-81 25.9 FINALS
JohnsonS 4-Jun-83 24.3 FINALS
Kelly 29-Dec-83 23.8 FINALS
King 22-Nov-78 28.9 FINALS
Ling 27-Feb-81 26.6 FINALS
Mackie 7-Aug-84 23.2 FINALS
Milburn 15-Apr-77 30.5 FINALS
Mooney 15-Jun-79 28.3 FINALS
Ottens 25-Jan-80 27.7 FINALS
Scarlett 5-Jun-79 28.3 FINALS
Selwood 26-May-88 19.4
Stokes 22-Nov-84 22.9
Wojcinski 18-Sep-80 27.0 FINALS
Hamstring Injuries in the AFL. Perception becomes Reality
If you check my CV, you can see I was co-ordinating strength and conditioning programs at Essendon from 1994 and Geelong from 1998.
Hamstrings are the biggest cause of injury in the AFL. The game goes for 120 mins and has 4 breaks. They will start warming up at 1.20 for a 2.10 game and then rest before running out. Then 1/4 time/1/2 time and 3/4 time. Game finishes at almost 5pm! They kick on the run and also bend over at speed. Just a recipe for injury. Also they have to carry some bulk for contact needs, but still run and run. Thus more hamstrings than soccer and rugby for instance.
In 1997 a group of Essendon coaches, fitness, medical and management people went to the AIS to examine training methods.
With respect to injury management it was an important trip for me. I changed my training methods a lot then.
Proprioception circuit before weights. Screening of biomechanics of players. Core stability screening. Core stability and core strength circuits. Specific unilateral training for the lower extremity. Specific attention to gluteal and hamstring strength work. Lots of running drills and faster running. More individualized training. Full time massage therapists. Full time physiotherapists, Full time training. Databases of loads and education of coaches to manage training loads and kicking loads inseason a bit better. Pre- training meetings to plan training with medical staff.
What I saw in the 1998 was a big drop in soft tissue injury after those initiatives, especially hamstrings.
I had done comprehensive isokinetic testing a few times in the 90;s but this multifactorial approach seemed to work better.
I went to Geelong in 1998 with a brief to reduce injury. I implemented the same initiatives. I used Mark Sayers the biomechanist to screen every player. Employed more masseurs. They did lots of core stability and core strength work. They trained faster. And so on. It really seemed to work. We had a huge drop in soft tissue and hamstring injury rates. There seemed to be some consistent line to all this.
I remember one year getting to round 18 and not having lost a player to hamstring injury, Then fatigue hit with a player and we lost a few games to hamstrings but not many. So all these initiatives as a whole seemed to work. Which one helped most? Now that is a tough question. Massage or core stability or running faster? Difficult! I always lean to fast running in the preparation block as a key.
I was operating at about half the incidence of games lost for hamstring injury relative to the AFL.
But perceptions can become reality in elite sport.
Unsubstantiated media reports of huge soft tissue injury rates and hamstring injury in particular often abound.
Now every club gets hamstrings. One must look at trends and overall rates over years with the same staff in a club.
One well informed scribe said I had been sacked from Essendon for too many hamstrings! Just weird . I left. Simple. This type of ‘waffle” often becomes the norm in the media. On TV and radio. Raw hard data was never accessed. Then “JO BLOGGS” starts saying the same thing. Oh well!
The crazy part of all this was that a representative from a Monash University Hamstring Injury Research group had spoken to me about how they had noticed I had a consistent low rate in Hamstring Injuries and how interesting that was. Oh well. All history now!
More importantly the take home message is to use a multifactorial approach to hamstring injury prevention and rehabilitation. Make sure you have ticked most boxes. I will soon be putting some information out on a strength and conditioning program for hamstring injury.
SOME THINGS ( JUST A FEW!) THAT NEED TO BE COVERED FOR PREVENTION OF HAMSTRING INJURY.
1. Core Stability. Is the inner core functioning properly?
2. Core Strength: Has the athlete got sufficient strength to cope with the forces required in fast sports.
4. Pelvic Stability: Is the athlete unbalanced or does the athlete have a weakness in gluteus medius for example.
5. Overstriding: Is the athletes running technique a disaster? Combined with lack of pelvic stability do they over-stride and tire the hammies out.
6. Hamstring and Gluteal Strength: Does the athlete lack the abilty to switch the glutes on or have little strength both concentrically or eccentrically or the whole lot?
7. Lower back problems; Do they exist? Gluteal referred problems?
8. Previous history of injury.
9. Has the athlete prepared themselves for fast running and adapted to high eccentric loads in pre-season.
10. Is the athlete fit enough? Can they last?
11. Is the athlete too tired from training?
12. Has the athlete trained hard the day before and is doing fast running today and thus will be more prone to injury?
13. Are you too old?
AND SO ON AND SO ON.
That is why there is no cookbook recipe to preventing hamstrings.
Just need to keep ticking those boxes
Lauren Bertolacci comments on Womens Volleyball in Australia
August 09
Germany
I’ve arrived, I’ve settled in and I’ve trained. And I love it. The environment and atmosphere among the girls is one of hard work and with a central goal in mind. Everyone us positive and pushes each other at training. The group a a general rule is quite young, and big. Our middles are fast, and both us setters play a similar game. I’m really looking forward to this season and I think I will take a lot from it. The level isn’t as big a drop from France Pro A as i expected, and I think a lot of that is due to the attitude of the girls here, its still a very fast, powerful and skilled game.
Just to clear a few things up, I’ve been reading and hearing a lot of negative things about the new Australian womens program, or lack of it. OK, so the program isn’t the AIS, there is no full time training just yet, the group of girls selected is a totally fresh and unexperienced group, and the AVL was on occasions a little bit scrappy. But lets put this into perspective hey. The program broke down at the end of 2005, there was no full time training anymore, and the girls that were there, only three were playing overseas getting that training somewhere else. A camps based program was put together, and a team selected for world champ qualifiers. A massive effort and with a few things against us, we lost to Taipei in a very close match and didn’t progress. 2006, there was no FIVB tournaments, and thus pretty much no program. We are in a phase of rebuilding now, it happens, you can’t be at the top of your game forever, players retired, moved to beach, and it leaves holes in a team. To say that we are not heading in the right direction now is totally wrong and unfair. We are not as strong a the team of 5 years ago, I don’t dispute that. But this group, including the new head coach, is trying to build a new culture in womens volleyball, and you have to start somewhere. That is now, the AVL was a success, especially considering it was in its first year and every team was a new group thrown together who hadn’t played together before, and in my opinion, put on a decent show. We are heading in the only direction we can, and that is forward. Right now this group needs positive people behind it, its young, inexperienced, but has a passion for the game and to build a new and successful program. You can’t ask for anything else at this stage, and we will prove we can do it. The program will build from here, hopefully into a fulltime one, and womens volleyball in Australia will follow and progress into a much bigger force, that younger players will aspire to be involved in, and we will grow from there. I don’t argue that we have gone backwards in previous years, but from here, the only way is up.
loris bertolacci 