Curt Schilling
“Schilling said he passed all physical exams when he negotiated his new contract.” How many times have we seen this? The Boston Red Sox are supposed to be a moneyball team, what do you think the physical consisted of, probably an MRI (Might Reveal Injury), a Biodex isokinetic evaluation and some manual muscle tests. Was there any functional testing done? What about medical history? Isn’t the best predictor of future performance past history, especially when it comes to injury. What about biomechanical analysis? You would think with the millions of dollars at stake teams would invest in pre and post biomechanical analysis to track changes over time. We did this with the White Sox in the early Nineties when it was more difficult than it is today. Where does he do his off season conditioning? Professional sports – entertainment or sport. I guarantee you that the preparation of elite Olympic athletes is more sophisticated that what occurs in MLB, NFL and NBA, no stone is unturned and nothing is left to chance.
posted by Vern Gambetta @ 2/10/2008 11:43:00 AM
6 comments
6 Comments:
The question of sport to performer to entertainer
"They are athletes, television performers all at the same time, the same medium that casts them as the unflappable field generals can instantly cast them as its opposite" charles p Pierce, if they begin to compete, act or play in that manner. That is the reason why I did not watch super bowl!
"teams would invest in pre and post biomechanical analysis to track changes over time"
What did you guys do? What do you suggest be done?
Mark Day
Vern-
I really respect your opinions--on this one though I think it is unfair to cast all major sport athletes with the "entertainer" only category. Certainly sports is entertainment, shouldn't it be? Capitalism drives most things, and for better or worse, end product drives ratings, drives revenues etc. I think the majority of athletes in any sport do the most they can to become better at their sport/trade. Yes some don't but I think that there is a percentage of shleps in every profession.
Jeff
Buffalo
Jeff...that is the difference between amateur athletics and professional athletics.
Difference between someone who is trying to get the highest salary and someone who is trying to achieve the gold medal. Can anyone explain that?
Don't mind my interpretation, but I don't think Vern is against capitalism.
Tee Cee
On my "Clearing the kinetic chain in the throwing shoulder" in Vern's rescource section I referenced: The Journal of Arthroscopic and Related Surgery, Vol 19, No 6 (July-August), 2003: pp 641-661. If you pull up the article, you will see pictures of "The 1999 National League All Star starting pitcher and 2001 World Series Most Valuable Player" He clearly demonstrates scapular dyskinesis & mal-position. These are two dependable predictors of future injury, well before any shoulder pain is present. However, there are even precoursors to this. For instance, scapular abduction (ie the scapula is more than 3" from the vertebral column) will often have the precoursor of limited opposite side hip internal rotation. High school guys who don't have access to special video analysis equipment can use this to screen out potential injury.
Athletes Performance needs to get back to coaching and saying the things that a high school coach would tell a kid that is out of shape instead of using an erchonia laser and vibration platform before their spa treatments.
Post a Comment
<< Home