REGISTER FOR THE OPEN COMBINE (not the FCA one): https://aims.athleticrepublic.
Thursday, February 17, 2011
2011 Combines
REGISTER FOR THE OPEN COMBINE (not the FCA one): https://aims.athleticrepublic.
Sunday, January 9, 2011
Weather & Schedule for Monday Jan 10
Saturday, January 1, 2011
Baseball Pre-season Training
Thursday, November 18, 2010
Are Some Athletes Just More Injury-Prone?
So the news broke yesterday that Greg Oden, the heralded former No. 1 draft pick of the Portland Trailblazers, will miss yet another season. Three years, three major surgeries. First, it was a cartilage injury that required microfracture surgery on his right knee. Last year, he sustained a fractured patella on his left knee. Now, unrelated to the patella, is a new injury to his left knee, also requiring microfracture surgery. This guy was supposed to be the next Kevin Durant, right? Wait, my bad….same draft. That's right…the Blazers PASSED on Durant to get Oden. That's another story. Anyway, Oden was to be a star, and now folks are calling him a bust.
Flip to football, and the same story seems to be playing out for the Detroit Lions QB Matthew Stafford. On Sunday, he just sustained his third shoulder injury in just 2 years. When he has played, he has shown signs of being a great NFL quarterback. But injuries seem to just get him.
Locally, the Arkansas Razorbacks basketball team has its own "injury star." Michael Sanchez, a 6'8" power forward suffered yet another injury to his feet, this time another stress fracture.
We've seen this before. Looking through the past few years, names like Mark Prior, Sam Bowie, Eric Lindros, Yankees can't miss prospect from the 90's Brien Taylor, jump out----stars who have all of the potential but just can't seem to shake the injury bug. Just when you thought they were in the clear, something else comes up. Frustrating.
Then you have the list of folks who had their career cut short by major injuries (Bo Jackson & Gayle Sayers come to mind). These, while tragic and make you also want to ask the "what it coulda been" questions, are not what I want to talk about here. I am curious to know what makes some athletes more injury-prone than others. Let's go through a few reasons:
- TOUGHNESS: great starting point. Are some athletes just not tough enough to handle it? Yes & no. There is a mental aspect of toughness that needs to be addressed. Some folks can grit it out, while others think the most minor ouchie is cause to sit out. If you did a major MRI, x-ray, & bone scan of every professional athlete, not one of them would come back 100% normal. Sports cause wear & tear on the body, and damage will be done. Sometimes you can push through it; sometimes you simply can't go on any longer & have to stop. But there is the physical side of it as well.
- PHYSICAL STATE: genetically, we are all gifted differently. Some of us have the body composition to endure the rough demands of sport; some of us don't. Factor in things like joint flexibility, heredity, bone structure, muscle tightness and you have a wide range of diversity. Can just anyone
- PREPARATION: the way one trains & prepares can have a significant impact on injury rates. It's important to go through a regimen in anticipation of a season, both to correct imbalances caused by injuries and also to make the body stronger & faster. But I have seen training intended for performance actually cause injury. Could it be that some of the oft-injured folks mentioned above are in this category? Maybe. But the problem is that you almost always only find that out after the fact.
- EXTERNAL FACTORS: shoes, training surfaces, climate are all examples of things that can affect the way an athlete's body responds. Again, you won't know what's causing a problem until a problem presents itself.
Today's sport science allows us the use of new diagnostic tools like video analysis, strength & force output measurements, and testing methods. These tools can help us avoid injuries, or in the case of some of the athletes above, help identify things causing the injuries before they get too bad. It's amazing what we can detect nowadays in our training centers. I have been blessed with the opportunity to utilize tools like these to help athletes get over the issues.
I write all of this hopefully to stimulate some discussion. I also write to talk to the critical fan who quickly dismisses an athlete as just an "injury bust." It's not like they are doing this stuff on purpose. Sometimes it's out of their control.
Your turn.
Monday, October 18, 2010
Concussions
- What is a concussion? I will let smarter people than me answer that for you: HeadsUp
- Concussions are a part of any sport. Unfortunately this is true. Anytime you involve contact or collision in a sport or game, there is a risk of a head injury. Just as true: you can injure your head by slipping & falling on the ice....or in a car accident. The key is to do whatever you can to minimize the risk. We accomplish this in life by wearing helmets when riding bikes, or enacting rules to discourage helmet contact.
- Concussion testing for athletes is here to stay. And it's a good thing. This area has grown by leaps & bounds over the last 10 years. What is it? In a nutshell, it means establishing a return-to-play criteria for athletes, mostly after an athlete is suspected of sustaining a concussion. There are cognitive tests, balance tests & a check of physical signs & symptoms. If an athlete passes these and is cleared by a medical professional (in some states it's the law) then they can return to play. A relatively new area of testing is establishing baseline tests on an athlete to determine what is "normal" for the athlete so that if a concussion is sustained, the medical professional can go back & compare the "then & now."
- Focusing on football, aren't today's helmets enough protection? Yes & no. Today's helmet technology helps to absorb the high-impact forces better than ever. But here's where things get tricky, in my opinion. I believe that because the helmets are so good, they allow for some sort of "invincibility" mentality for players, resulting in techniques like leading with the head. Let's be clear here: I enjoy hard hitting football like a lot of people do. There is nothing to get a crowd going like a "great hit." But not when a player actually leads with his head as a weapon. The other aspect of this is improper helmet fitting. It's scary to see how easy the helmets are coming off these days, from the NFL all the way down to youth football. Again, my own opinion here, but I believe that there is not a strong enough push to make sure these helmets are on properly.
Taken from USA Today's "The Huddle"
NBC analyst Rodney Harrison, a former NFL safety who was penalized for illegal hits at several points in his career, said on the network's Football Night in America that the NFL has to do more than fine offenders if it really wants to change the big-hitting culture (Harrison speaks more in the video below):
"I've had plenty of hits like this and fining me $5 or $10 grand really didn't affect me. But I got to a point where they suspended me and I knew the effect on my teammates, the disappointment of me not being out there; not the $100,000 that got taken away from me, but the fact that I wasn't out there. That's what they are going to have to do if they want to change the nature of these hits. You have to suspend guys."
Rodney hits the nail on the head (pardon the pun). These guys can afford to pay fines. Start by suspending players like James Harrison, not only for his hit on Joshua Cribbs yesterday but also for his comments.
Video of hit
This will take a culture change. A culture change that encourages good, safe physical play, but also emphasizing that it's not OK to hit with your head.
Thoughts??
Monday, September 27, 2010
Running Form
Here's the best sprinter in the world exhibiting some great things: hands going "hip pocket to eye socket," torso straight, head still. I can hear you---"He's a straight-ahead sprinter; I'm a basketball player...this doesn't apply to me." I hear it all the time. Even moving 15 feet from point A to point B requires efficiency of movement.
Every athlete involved in the process of moving can benefit from a better running form.
Here's an example of bad trunk rotation moving up & down the basketball court:
Trunk rotating, arms going to cross mid-line......little things like this will lead to inefficient movement which will, in turn, lead to getting up & down the court slower.