Training Camp Injuries

[Milktruck74]

I wonder if limiting practice to once a day during Training Camp (is it still Camp without 2 or 3 practices a day?), has had its intended result and reduced the injuries? I haven't heard of any of our key Mocs getting injured before the season. Any reports or takes on the limiting of practices? Devils advocate on this....are there more injuries in the first few games, since the players aren't as prepared????

[lionsrking2]

I wonder if limiting practice to once a day during Training Camp (is it still Camp without 2 or 3 practices a day?), has had its intended result and reduced the injuries? I haven't heard of any of our key Mocs getting injured before the season. Any reports or takes on the limiting of practices? Devils advocate on this....are there more injuries in the first few games, since the players aren't as prepared????

In the old days when kids went home during the summer, worked a job, worked out on their own and showed up the night before fall camp started, two-a-days and marathon practices was the method of catching guys up mentally and getting them in shape at the same time. Not sure it was ever wise but everybody did it so it was accepted practice. Nowadays, I'm pretty sure just about every Division I team in the country has most, if not all, of their kids on campus during the summer, and they're starting camp near ready to go as far as play installation, and having their bodies acclimated to the climate, and in reasonable football shape. Injuries are a residue of poor off-season conditioning and diet, fatigue and lack of recovery time, stupidity or just plain ole bad luck.

[Redbird 4th & short]

In the old days when kids went home during the summer, worked a job, worked out on their own and showed up the night before fall camp started, two-a-days and marathon practices was the method of catching guys up mentally and getting them in shape at the same time. Not sure it was ever wise but everybody did it so it was accepted practice. Nowadays, I'm pretty sure just about every Division I team in the country has most, if not all, of their kids on campus during the summer, and they're starting camp near ready to go as far as play installation, and having their bodies acclimated to the climate, and in reasonable football shape. Injuries are a residue of poor off-season conditioning and diet, fatigue and lack of recovery time, stupidity or just plain ole bad luck.

Good post .... but more on fatigue-based injuries ... which is usually the result of over-training to point of getting less out of your athletes. One of the most important aspects to optimizing performance is allowing for adequate recovery time after certain peakj training periods. Professional trainers who stay current on training methods and what works best know this. The healtiest and most fit athletes are the ones that not only train the hardest, but also the smartest ... which means allowing for adequate recovery of muscles to optimize their development (conditioning and strength) and to help avoid injuries caused by over-training. And there's much smarter ways to teach or determine toughness than over-training someone .. ones that don't put your players at unnecessary risk of injury beyond "normal" football injuries.

Question came up about injury reports .. I said they were usless unless properly and uniformly enforced, which I thought was not truly possible. For purpose of game weeks, I still feel that way. But for purpose of monitoring coaches and strength coaches, as well as their respective athletic trainers, I do 100% believe all sports programs should be forced to track all injuries and then disclose after the season. Programs with an unusually high number of injuries (or certain types of injuries) should be forced to to respond with an action plan design to help themselves reduce those injuries. Thee needs to be some accountability ad action plan for programs who cause their players lots of injuries. I believe more is being done to regulate this from conditioning standpoint to prevent players from the most tragic cases where they die or nearly die on the field from heart related issue due to over-training or lack of monitoring players with heart issues. But more needs to be done across the board.

[Bisonoline]

I wonder if limiting practice to once a day during Training Camp (is it still Camp without 2 or 3 practices a day?), has had its intended result and reduced the injuries? I haven't heard of any of our key Mocs getting injured before the season. Any reports or takes on the limiting of practices? Devils advocate on this....are there more injuries in the first few games, since the players aren't as prepared????

I dont know of a school who does 10-14 days of two a days in pre fall like we did. The ncaa has talked down that practice. You have x-amount of days to get x-amount of practices. They also have rules on how many practices can be in full pads. Conditioning isnt apart of practice anymore. Thats done in a different session.

These guys are prepared. Just a different type of preparation thats not as brutal.

[ngineer]

I would think some kind of statistical analysis has been done by the NCAA in order to back up their new rules on preseason practice. Back in "my day" of two-a-days (plus special teams at night), it is true we needed to get into playing shape more than they need to today. Back then, I worked in a foundry from late May to early August. While it 'toughened me up", it did not nothing for my cardio and wind. However, not having much 'live' hitting in the preseason seems to have impacted the fundamentals--especially with tackling, which includes learning how to get hit and hitting the ground. Being 'in shape' doesn't mean much with regard to broken bones and damaged knees joints. We (Lehigh) lost three starters on our OL in August before the first game and we paid a heavy price with worse offensive season in recent memory. But those injuries were fractures and ACLs and I know of nothing you can do to prevent that from occurring, regardless of the shape one is in.