raymond verheijen how simple can it be pdf

On the topic of the real world, medical staff often have the sneaking suspicion that the only KPI that matters is keeping in the good books of the manager and doing basically whatever he dictates.

Why do injuries seem to be more prevalent than ever if our professionalism is supposedly improving.

The marketing and finance gurus, who seem to be charge of scheduling games and tournaments without much input from a sports science and medicine perspective, dont seem to have much sympathy for multimillion pound players, as long as there are enough of them to replace those who fall by the wayside due to injury.

The club managers, who can face the sack if their teams dont win enough games, also dont have much sympathy for the national team managers, who are under exactly the same pressure, and vice versa.

It apparently is on the agenda to try to reduce the number of games that a top player is expected to participate in annually, but it is tough to find a solution when clubs have so many important competitions and the national teams also want to use their best players at every opportunity.

One of the most outspoken experts is Raymond Verheijen, who has publicly castigated medical and fitness teams for not doing enough to balance match and training loads in players 1.

Many other sports medicine and science experts in the football world would partially agree with his views (that footballers train too hard and play too often) but would deny his assertion that individual practitioners have the power to easily change these factors.

One of the universal aspects of the football culture is that the manager is all-powerful and virtually-all-accountable.

Part of the all-powerful bit means that if there is a dispute between the manager and a doctor, physio or conditioner that the manager can pull rank and resolve the dispute in his favour.

It is tempting to also suggest that the manager is fully accountable for results and in most cases this is true (i.e.

In the face of results which seem unacceptable (i.e.

This one possibly will wash to an extent with the board and the fans, as there is still a common view that injuries are generally random and therefore out of a managers control.

Although you would expect a rational manager to try to avoid injuries where possible (which would improve team performance), by doing so he might sacrificing a valuable get out of jail card.

To illustrate further, on reading that Manchester United had many injuries 2 in season 2011-12, do you think that the public reputation of Sir Alex Ferguson is more enhanced (that he almost won the league despite a horrendous injury toll) or diminished (that he oversaw a regime where too many injuries occurred) My guess is the former.

Also, it goes without saying that loading is far more complicated (types of training, length, intensity, rest periods, injury layoffs, cycling etc) than a simple linear x-axis.

However, please bear with the reduction of all the complexity to a simple x-axis for the sake of this hypothetical.

With respect to the red curve (team fitness), it is true that to a point, the harder you train the fitter you will become, although at some stage, e.g.

With respect to the green curve (injury rate), if you are unfit you will get a lot of injuries but if athletes train too hard 3-6 (or play too much 7 or often 8 ) they will also get more injuries when compared to more moderate training regimes.

If team performance (blue curve) is a combination of fitness minus injuries 9, then in theory the best zone for overall team performance might be zone 4 on the graph.

However, for a manager operating in the real world, where he may be sacked if his team loses games and he cant come up with an acceptable excuse, zone 5 may be a preferable target, even if it means a detrimental performance compared to zone 4.

Again, it is worth emphasising that in the real world, a good medico would not tend to suggest a blanket reduction of all training, but would look at individual risks for injury and try to set specific training limits for those players most at risk of becoming injury or worsening a pre-existing injury.

From a coaching perspective, the perception of this professional approach may still be that it is an attempt at blanket load reduction (as in the medical staff want to stop me from trainingselecting my players as much as Id like).

How much a staff member wants to try to butt heads with someone who has ultimate power to hire-and-fire may determine how much the issue gets pressed about lowering the training loads of certain players (or rotating the players more often in matches).

It certainly doesnt make you feel any bolder if you hear about some of the high profile EPL team medical staff members who have left their clubs recently, perhaps for standing their ground to the manager about trying to prevent injuries, when maybe those who have yielded more easily still survive to tell the tale.

Raymond Verheijen How Simple Can It Be Pdf