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Training Ground Injury



Willy Dangle

New member
Aug 31, 2011
3,551
Something I don't get.

Gus is complaining about injuries due to our training pitches. We are due to move into our new facilities in just over a years time. Why can't we at the least get a decent pitch or two up and running for this summer and then build the rest as planned. The Amex pitch came together very quickly.

I am sure there is a perfectly reasonable explanation for a thicko like me, but it makes me wonder.
 

dingodan

New member
Feb 16, 2011
10,080
Training on a building site would be very impractical I would imagine.
 


8ace

Banned
Jul 21, 2003
23,811
Brighton
Something I don't get.

Gus is complaining about injuries due to our training pitches. We are due to move into our new facilities in just over a years time. Why can't we at the least get a decent pitch or two up and running for this summer and then build the rest as planned. The Amex pitch came together very quickly.

I am sure there is a perfectly reasonable explanation for a thicko like me, but it makes me wonder.

Putting in the drainage etc could be an issue maybe ???
 

kevo

Well-known member
Mar 8, 2008
9,084
I didn't say the championship.

Fitness is fitness no matter what level of professional football you play at.

Glad to hear you know more about football than a Championship manager.
 


edna krabappel

Well-known member
NSC Licker Extraordinaire
Jul 7, 2003
47,215
The Amex pitch was purpose built, designed from scratch for the rigours of professional football.

The university pitch is just a patch of soil on which grass grows naturally, which happens to have been flattened and cut so that students can play football on it. It probably has no drainage built in and is thus constantly very heavy when the weather is poor as it has been most of the winter. There might be either too much give in it, or not enough, in summer perhaps. Players susceptible to hamstring injuries, for example, are more likely to suffer if they are playing on heavy, muddy surfaces as the effort required to get the legs going is more.

Footballers are pampered beings, and their finely honed bodies are used to playing on decent surfaces. If you make them run around on surfaces that don't suit them, it's probably like taking Ferrari for a spin down a farm track. It'll get there, but it might suffer a few issues on the way with the potholes and the mud.
 

BensGrandad

New member
Jul 13, 2003
72,015
Haywards Heath
The Amex pitch was purpose built, designed from scratch for the rigours of professional football.

The university pitch is just a patch of soil on which grass grows naturally, which happens to have been flattened and cut so that students can play football on it. It probably has no drainage built in and is thus constantly very heavy when the weather is poor as it has been most of the winter. There might be either too much give in it, or not enough, in summer perhaps. Players susceptible to hamstring injuries, for example, are more likely to suffer if they are playing on heavy, muddy surfaces as the effort required to get the legs going is more.

Footballers are pampered beings, and their finely honed bodies are used to playing on decent surfaces. If you make them run around on surfaces that don't suit them, it's probably like taking Ferrari for a spin down a farm track. It'll get there, but it might suffer a few issues on the way with the potholes and the mud.


Very well thought out reply and explanation.
 

KZNSeagull

Well-known member
Nov 26, 2007
19,671
Wolsingham, County Durham
The Amex pitch was purpose built, designed from scratch for the rigours of professional football.

The university pitch is just a patch of soil on which grass grows naturally, which happens to have been flattened and cut so that students can play football on it. It probably has no drainage built in and is thus constantly very heavy when the weather is poor as it has been most of the winter. There might be either too much give in it, or not enough, in summer perhaps. Players susceptible to hamstring injuries, for example, are more likely to suffer if they are playing on heavy, muddy surfaces as the effort required to get the legs going is more.

Footballers are pampered beings, and their finely honed bodies are used to playing on decent surfaces. If you make them run around on surfaces that don't suit them, it's probably like taking Ferrari for a spin down a farm track. It'll get there, but it might suffer a few issues on the way with the potholes and the mud.

During the World Cup, Paraguay were staying at a local private school. In order for them the train at the school, FIFA installed a training pitch at a cost of over R4m!! They trained on it about 10 times.

Needless to say, the school had no need for a state of the art football training pitch and they have not maintained it since, and are back to playing Rugby on it.
 


fosters headband

Well-known member
Aug 15, 2003
5,158
Brighton
I am like supaseagull and found these comments strange.
So when we have these super bowling green style training pitches, do we also have pitches to train on that are similar to some of the grounds that are ploughed up, due to the clubs sharing with Rugby clubs. I understand Blackpool is like this and the pitch is in a terrible state.
Or does Gus then want two squads, one to play on bowling greens and another to play on allotments, home and away squads?
 


Springal

Well-known member
Feb 12, 2005
23,683
GOSBTS
I am like supaseagull and found these comments strange.
So when we have these super bowling green style training pitches, do we also have pitches to train on that are similar to some of the grounds that are ploughed up, due to the clubs sharing with Rugby clubs. I understand Blackpool is like this and the pitch is in a terrible state.
Or does Gus then want two squads, one to play on bowling greens and another to play on allotments, home and away squads?

Theres a difference between 90 mins away on a bad pitch every now and again, to 3-4 training sessions a weak on a heavy university pitch, but then going to a 'proper' pitch.

It isn't really complicated to understand is it? Or do we think he is making up Buckley, LuaLua, Bruno, Bridge injuries....
 

fosters headband

Well-known member
Aug 15, 2003
5,158
Brighton
Theres a difference between 90 mins away on a bad pitch every now and again, to 3-4 training sessions a weak on a heavy university pitch, but then going to a 'proper' pitch.

It isn't really complicated to understand is it? Or do we think he is making up Buckley, LuaLua, Bruno, Bridge injuries....

Well I am getting on a bit now, but it does make me think how players like Frankie Howard, Dave Armstrong, Peter O'Sullivan (all very fast wingers) kept playing on the mud heaps they played on week in and week out, without constantly suffering this type of injury.
 

Springal

Well-known member
Feb 12, 2005
23,683
GOSBTS
Well I am getting on a bit now, but it does make me think how players like Frankie Howard, Dave Armstrong, Peter O'Sullivan (all very fast wingers) kept playing on the mud heaps they played on week in and week out, without constantly suffering this type of injury.

Because I assume there wasn't a lot of differences back then, the problem we have is going from very heavy pitches, to lovely light pitches, back to heavy. Will play havoc with your hamstrings especially if you are a player with quick turn of pace.
 

Munkfish

Well-known member
May 1, 2006
11,860
Surely if you have played football you must know why this is a problem, even if you have just played on a sunday or 5 a side on 3g compared to the old sand rubbish, you can clearly tell the impact it has on your legs and your body.
 


edna krabappel

Well-known member
NSC Licker Extraordinaire
Jul 7, 2003
47,215
Well I am getting on a bit now, but it does make me think how players like Frankie Howard, Dave Armstrong, Peter O'Sullivan (all very fast wingers) kept playing on the mud heaps they played on week in and week out, without constantly suffering this type of injury.

Footballers' general fitness is a lot higher these days. In the 1950s, 60s and 70s, training infamously consisted of a few laps of the pitch and a quick game. Sometimes they'd run up and down the terraces. The advent of sports science means fitness levels are not just better but different and players have very specific routines designed to benefit their exact role, not just so they can run up and down a lot. If you read old football stuff, you'll see players smoking & eating steak & potatoes before matches. That doesn't happen now. "Marginal gains" is how the British cycling team describe their programme- it's about trying to make everything 0.5% better in the hope of gaining an edge over the opposition.

The same principle could feasibly be applied to football. At the top level, their bodies are supposedly on the edge of physical perfection, so it figures that it conversely won't take much to upset that balance, in the same way that if you drop a very expensive new phone, it's more likely to go wrong than a £20 pay as you go Nokia 5110.
 

fosters headband

Well-known member
Aug 15, 2003
5,158
Brighton
Because I assume there wasn't a lot of differences back then, the problem we have is going from very heavy pitches, to lovely light pitches, back to heavy. Will play havoc with your hamstrings especially if you are a player with quick turn of pace.

I just find it strange that we suffer a very high amount of hamstring problems, especially Buckley, who we were told that it was due to him still growing in the early day and not the pitches.
Why don't players like Zaha, Bolasie suffer at the same rate?
 

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