This is more an information post...this is an excerpt with the link below:
http://www.thestar.com/sports/raptor...s_feschuk.html
“Alex says to me, ‘All our conditioning is done going forward. We don’t train laterally or backwards,’” McCoy recalled. “Alex said, ‘That’s the first change we’re going to make.’”
The changes the Raptors have made since embracing Catapult technology aren’t merely the stuff of tech-savvy trivia. One of the underplayed stories of Toronto’s first playoff run in six years was that, along with benefitting from the Rudy Gay trade and career-best work from a handful of key pieces, the Raptors were the least-injured team in the league in 2013-14 as measured by man games lost. The previous year, when they won 34 games and finished out of the post-season for the fifth straight year, they were one of the most-injured squads.
McKechnie’s understanding of the Catapult data has been credited, along with some good fortune and various other factors, as a major reason for the reversal. Along with rejigging training protocols to account for the vast amount of lateral and rearward movements, practising with the devices also allows the team to keep an eye on the overall workload being imposed on its players. That information helps coaches determine the duration and intensity of sweat sessions.
“If you monitor the load, you offset fatigue. If you offset fatigue, you massively reduce the opportunity for injury to occur,” McCoy said.
Indeed, while injuries are often portrayed as a matter of luck, good or bad, McCoy said it’s his opinion that McKechnie and other adoptees of so-called bioanalytics are proving that many types of hurt are preventable.
“Soft tissue injuries, like hamstrings and groins, are all preventable,” McCoy said in an interview. “Alex is the first guy I’ve heard say . . . ‘Look, injuries are going to happen. But those soft-tissue, preventable injuries? They’re on me.’ He takes full responsibility. A (Jonas) Valanciunas groin or hamstring? Alex takes full responsibility for that. That’s why those things don’t occur. There’s so many other strength and conditioning coaches that go, ‘I can’t prevent that.’ Well, yeah, you could. If you knew what you were doing, you could prevent those injuries.”
The changes the Raptors have made since embracing Catapult technology aren’t merely the stuff of tech-savvy trivia. One of the underplayed stories of Toronto’s first playoff run in six years was that, along with benefitting from the Rudy Gay trade and career-best work from a handful of key pieces, the Raptors were the least-injured team in the league in 2013-14 as measured by man games lost. The previous year, when they won 34 games and finished out of the post-season for the fifth straight year, they were one of the most-injured squads.
McKechnie’s understanding of the Catapult data has been credited, along with some good fortune and various other factors, as a major reason for the reversal. Along with rejigging training protocols to account for the vast amount of lateral and rearward movements, practising with the devices also allows the team to keep an eye on the overall workload being imposed on its players. That information helps coaches determine the duration and intensity of sweat sessions.
“If you monitor the load, you offset fatigue. If you offset fatigue, you massively reduce the opportunity for injury to occur,” McCoy said.
Indeed, while injuries are often portrayed as a matter of luck, good or bad, McCoy said it’s his opinion that McKechnie and other adoptees of so-called bioanalytics are proving that many types of hurt are preventable.
“Soft tissue injuries, like hamstrings and groins, are all preventable,” McCoy said in an interview. “Alex is the first guy I’ve heard say . . . ‘Look, injuries are going to happen. But those soft-tissue, preventable injuries? They’re on me.’ He takes full responsibility. A (Jonas) Valanciunas groin or hamstring? Alex takes full responsibility for that. That’s why those things don’t occur. There’s so many other strength and conditioning coaches that go, ‘I can’t prevent that.’ Well, yeah, you could. If you knew what you were doing, you could prevent those injuries.”
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