OT: Sports science: Patriots please copy

[Mike the Brit]

Unless you don't read sports news at all, you'll probably know that the English Premier League was won this season by Leicester City. Since there is no draft or salary cap and financial differences between clubs are huge, this is by far the greatest upset in soccer history. At the beginning of the season, the betting odds were 5000-1.

This article makes clear that, though they did not have the money of the big clubs to spend on players, Leicester did everything they could to maximize those they had. In particular, their monitoring of training, use of cryotherapy and attention to diet led them to have the best injury record in the league.

Leicester City: The science behind their Premier League title

My guess is that they are way in front of what is going on in the NFL. Just the size of their sports science staff and the technology they are using seems to show it.

Injuries are inevitable in a violent game like football, but the number of Patriots players with soft tissue injuries (wide receivers with hamstring injuries and so on) tells me that there is a lot of room for improvement.

 

[Simple Jack's Brother]

Unless you don't read sports news at all, you'll probably know that the English Premier League was won this season by Leicester City. Since there is no draft or salary cap and financial differences between clubs are huge, this is by far the greatest upset in soccer history. At the beginning of the season, the betting odds were 5000-1.

This article makes clear that, though they did not have the money of the big clubs to spend on players, Leicester did everything they could to maximize those they had. In particular, their monitoring of training, use of cryotherapy and attention to diet led them to have the best injury record in the league.

Leicester City: The science behind their Premier League title

My guess is that they are way in front of what is going on in the NFL. Just the size of their sports science staff and the technology they are using seems to show it.

Injuries are inevitable in a violent game like football, but the number of Patriots players with soft tissue injuries (wide receivers with hamstring injuries and so on) tells me that there is a lot of room for improvement.

I've been advocating this for quite a while, and especially throughout last season when there seemed to be farrrr too many soft tissue injuries. I understand injuries happen in football, but the soft tissue injuries last year were unbelievable. I would hope that a team as forward thinking as the Pats identify this as a possible area of improvement and attempt to replicate what Leicester City did/do to some extent.

 

[BradyFTW!]

I've been advocating this for quite a while, and especially throughout last season when there seemed to be farrrr too many soft tissue injuries. I understand injuries happen in football, but the soft tissue injuries last year were unbelievable. I would hope that a team as forward thinking as the Pats identify this as a possible area of improvement and attempt to replicate what Leicester City did/do to some extent.

I've never understood how a team as forward-thinking as the Pats generally are could be so clearly not ahead of the curve on conditioning and injury prevention. Especially when Brady's setting such a compelling example in his own right. Hopefully firing the strength and conditioning coach a few months ago is a sign of impending change for the better.

 

[Froob]

So....they cheated?

 

[chasa]

I don't need none of that science mumbo jumbo, The lord takes care of me.

And by lord, i mean tom brady and his magic water that prevents concussions.

 

[Simple Jack's Brother]

I don't need none of that science mumbo jumbo, The lord takes care of me.

And by lord, i mean tom brady and his magic water that prevents concussions.

That was Russel Wilson's magic water ;-)

Tom Brady's just the weirdo acting like eating avocado ice cream is a treat

 

[Simple Jack's Brother]

I've never understood how a team as forward-thinking as the Pats generally are could be so clearly not ahead of the curve on conditioning and injury prevention. Especially when Brady's setting such a compelling example in his own right. Hopefully firing the strength and conditioning coach a few months ago is a sign of impending change for the better.

Yup, i was thrilled when they fired the strength and conditioning coach because nobody on this team seemed to actually be CONDITIONED last year.

 

[DaBruinz]

I've been advocating this for quite a while, and especially throughout last season when there seemed to be farrrr too many soft tissue injuries. I understand injuries happen in football, but the soft tissue injuries last year were unbelievable. I would hope that a team as forward thinking as the Pats identify this as a possible area of improvement and attempt to replicate what Leicester City did/do to some extent.

Yup, i was thrilled when they fired the strength and conditioning coach because nobody on this team seemed to actually be CONDITIONED last year.

Biggest bunch of BS I've heard in awhile. Harold Nash wasn't the reason behind all the injuries last year. Especially when you consider that most of them were of the catastrophic variety. Solder. Lewis. Blount. etc. The knee injuries to Mason and Jackson. Let me know when they develop training that prevents knee injuries.

The number of "soft tissue" injuries the Patriots had last year was no different than any other year. Claiming otherwise says you don't know what you are talking about and don't actually follow the injury list that well.

And, let's not forget that injuries in general have been up since the NFLPA pushed through to minimize the amount of hitting that goes on at practices during TC and the number of practices that can occur during training camp..

 

[Mack Herron]

As athletes increase their training and work outs, they are getting bigger and stronger. The enhanced size, strength and weight of a conditioned athlete can reduce certain injuries, but can also place greater stress on the ligaments, cartilage, and bone than a smaller, less well conditioned person. Besides the collisions, skill players are cutting suddenly and at high speed. As far as I know, there is no way to strengthen ligaments. We are seeing greater use of various braces, but it still tends to be confined to the non-skill players (OL). No conditioning or rules gonna help the Welker/Lewis-type ACL, Edelman/Dobson's 's foot injuries, Amendola's groin, etc. Perhaps that is part of the reason BB spreads the cap dollars throughout his roster. Attrition is expected.

 

[ctpatsfan77]

And, let's not forget that injuries in general have been up since the NFLPA pushed through to minimize the amount of hitting that goes on at practices during TC and the number of practices that can occur during training camp..

As an aside. . . . what has happened to the number of injuries (leaguewide) during TC/preseason?

 

[Simple Jack's Brother]

Biggest bunch of BS I've heard in awhile. Harold Nash wasn't the reason behind all the injuries last year. Especially when you consider that most of them were of the catastrophic variety. Solder. Lewis. Blount. etc. The knee injuries to Mason and Jackson. Let me know when they develop training that prevents knee injuries.

The number of "soft tissue" injuries the Patriots had last year was no different than any other year. Claiming otherwise says you don't know what you are talking about and don't actually follow the injury list that well.

And, let's not forget that injuries in general have been up since the NFLPA pushed through to minimize the amount of hitting that goes on at practices during TC and the number of practices that can occur during training camp..

So you're saying that the Pats shouldn't try and introduce new preventive sports medicine? I'm obviously not referring to the catastrophic injuries of Solder, Lewis, Blount, etc.

But the Pats saw plenty of "mild" knee injuries (among other injuries) that may have been preventable through either strengthening or stretching the supporting muscles around the knee. Obviously I'm not privy to the workout routines of the players, but a lot of these mild knee injuries seemed to occur on routine plays.

Sources:
ACSM | Articles
The Prevention of MCL Injuries | LIVESTRONG.COM
The Complete Guide to MCL Injuries


Belichick's response when asked how the high number of injuries could impact the evaluation of the team's strength staff (two days before Nash was let go):

"We evaluate that every year, and that's always part of it," Belichick said. "We go back and look at the previous year, look at historically the information that we have, what the nature of the injuries were, where they happened, what the circumstances were, practice, game, whatever it is and try to find trends or try to find ways based on the testing of the athletes prior to their injuries, whether there was any type of indication that there might be a vulnerability in some particular body part or imbalance or whatever it happens to be. So we're always working on that, continue to do that as much as we can, try to stay ahead of it."

Source:
Report: Patriots fire strength and conditioning coach Harold Nash

 

[FCB02062]

Krafty BoB probably has the ocean state job lot of medical staffs....

 

[mihap]

Source:
Report: Patriots fire strength and conditioning coach Harold Nash

and they done brilliant move by hiring his assisant. So antoehr injury season ahead of us

 

[Biffins]

Unless you don't read sports news at all, you'll probably know that the English Premier League was won this season by Leicester City. Since there is no draft or salary cap and financial differences between clubs are huge, this is by far the greatest upset in soccer history. At the beginning of the season, the betting odds were 5000-1.

This article makes clear that, though they did not have the money of the big clubs to spend on players, Leicester did everything they could to maximize those they had. In particular, their monitoring of training, use of cryotherapy and attention to diet led them to have the best injury record in the league.

Leicester City: The science behind their Premier League title

My guess is that they are way in front of what is going on in the NFL. Just the size of their sports science staff and the technology they are using seems to show it.

Injuries are inevitable in a violent game like football, but the number of Patriots players with soft tissue injuries (wide receivers with hamstring injuries and so on) tells me that there is a lot of room for improvement.

Reading that article, these guys seem eons ahead of the NFL and especially the patriots. GPS vests to monitor run speeds and pulling players out of practice if data shows they are over-exerting themselves? jeez. Cryotherapy ice chambers right after a game or practice? Warm-up sprints and harmstring exercises at the end of a game or exercise to allow muscles to cool off slowly? jeez. Read this quote

"Leicester's players also complete a daily questionnaire on an iPad. They are asked how their bodies feel after the previous day's training so if several make a similar complaint of slight muscle soreness in their quadriceps, for example, the team can adjust the session next time to avoid a similar problem."

Can you imagine a player complaining about a minor niggle in the macho culture that is the NFL. And then these minor niggles explode into full blown injuries. This requires a culture change as well as technical/scientific change. These guys are using custom built machines (custom built by their club, not for soccer in general) to gain marginal advantages. Beetroot shots and other stuff probably evokes a laugh from everyone but Tom Brady who has a similar diet at his home already.

We need to hire Licester's head physio!

 

[fair catch fryar]

BUT, do they eat avocado ice cream?

 

[PP2]

-135 degrees for 4 minutes?

 

[Kontradiction]

Isn't this why the Pats made a change to the strength and conditioning coach this past offseason? They seem to be aware that there was an issue in that department. Injuries are understandable but the sheer amount of them that ended up sinking the 2013 and 2015 campaigns were simply inexcusable.

 

[letekro]

That was Russel Wilson's magic water ;-)

Tom Brady's just the weirdo acting like eating avocado ice cream is a treat

Maybe it is? I mean, I don't really like green tea, but green tea ice cream is delicious.

 

[Simple Jack's Brother]

Reading that article, these guys seem eons ahead of the NFL and especially the patriots. GPS vests to monitor run speeds and pulling players out of practice if data shows they are over-exerting themselves? jeez. Cryotherapy ice chambers right after a game or practice? Warm-up sprints and harmstring exercises at the end of a game or exercise to allow muscles to cool off slowly? jeez. Read this quote

"Leicester's players also complete a daily questionnaire on an iPad. They are asked how their bodies feel after the previous day's training so if several make a similar complaint of slight muscle soreness in their quadriceps, for example, the team can adjust the session next time to avoid a similar problem."

Can you imagine a player complaining about a minor niggle in the macho culture that is the NFL. And then these minor niggles explode into full blown injuries. This requires a culture change as well as technical/scientific change. These guys are using custom built machines (custom built by their club, not for soccer in general) to gain marginal advantages. Beetroot shots and other stuff probably evokes a laugh from everyone but Tom Brady who has a similar diet at his home already.

We need to hire Licester's head physio!

100% agree. I think part of the biggest problem that you mentioned is the culture. Guys simply won't reveal an injury if they consider it "minor" or something they can play through. I understand that there are plenty of examples of guys being able to push through an injury and recovering, but many, many times, a small muscle strain can turn into a full blown multi-week injury if guys keep trying to play through it.

Love the part about the player wearing GPS trackers at practice to see if they're over-exerting themselves. That's something I think this team could benefit from immensely, especially when August rolls around.

 

[DarrylS]

Source:
Report: Patriots fire strength and conditioning coach Harold Nash
and they done brilliant move by hiring his assisant. So antoehr injury season ahead of us

How do you blame training staff, for all those injuries?? This board has gone through this before, in Football you have a lot of injuries, ... not sure if you understand how the Patriots work, it is based on next man up and meritocracy, so if the new guy was ready he assumed the position.

When Mike Woicik was here, considered one of the best all time, we had injuries also.

My theory, not in the NFL's interest, is that when a team plays an 18 or 19 game season that ends in February, there are always a disproportionate number of injuries the next year for that team, as the body has a shorter time to recover..