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Theory about ACL Injuries for Richt's teams

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3+ years of big injuries. Some injuries are missing but you get the point.

ACL- Polendey (warm-ups), Njoku (Tuesday practice), Patchan (multiple, last vs FSU), Cager(7on7 in summer), Steed(from HS)
MCL- Irvin (practice)

Unknown knees- DJax, Richards, Willis (2016)
Ankles- Rousseau, Walton, Jenkins (2016)
Hammys- Richards, Quan
Elbows-Joe, McIntosh
Hands- Harris, Thomas
Back- Young

I'm not seeing stats that backup game day ACL issues. Now if you want to go with the # of injuries, we can start talking.

2018- Richards, Quan, Polendey, Irvin, Rousseau
2017- Richards, DJax, Walton, Patchan, Harris, Thomas, Young
2016- Cager, Steed (yes that is when it happened), Willis, Jenkins
 
iLoveTDs said:
I guarantee you Felder isn't having them do heavy Oly lifts midweek. It's high rep stuff to stay conditioned - every team lifts during season.

However, hamstring injuries can arise from muscle imbalances. If Felder doesn't have enough focus on the posterior chain/hips, and/or they are lifting incorrectly, then that can definitely cause injuries during performance.

E.g. squat depth - I see athletes all of the time (I was a SC at a juco - diff sport) stop short of reaching parallel or below. This restricts the hips, puts too much activity in the quads (and knees), and can lead to muscle imbalances. I encourage below parallel for many reasons.

Open up the hips, drop into the hole below parallel, and explode out from the bottom. It's not rocket science - and again, Felder knows all of this.

Low rep/high intensity training activates a higher number of fast twitch muscle fibers (think track sprinter, or football).
High rep/low intensity does the opposite (think marathon runner, cyclists).

I do recall reading that Felder's mentor (the head guy at Penn St for many years) was big into using machines, and was biased towards high rep programs. I could be wrong though, and certainly don't want to speak for him.

It would, however, be one thing that explains how we're in such great condition come 4th quarter, but yet can't gain a 3rd and short against Savanah St.

*shrugs*
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This is on point. Was a Trainer for 15 years in San Diego running my own Studio and advising with the trainer to LT.

The potential of Quad imbalance can definitely cause Hamstring issues. Flexibility a factor too. Both Quads and Hamstrings, especially after soreness.
 
Look, I’m willing to stalk Moffitt, kidnap him, and force him to come back! Lol

I was watching the 01 National Championship game, and on two occasions, Vilma was posted, waiting for contact, and both NB’s running back and TE came at him w momentum, and he form tackled and drove them back! That’s how Miami guys used to be built to play. I don’t ever recall this many fluke injuries in my life as a fan.

Our guys are getting pushed. We need to offer Moffitt whatever he wants to leave LSU and come back home. Our S&C has not been the same, since.

Our boys do look bigger, but I’m not seeing the conditioning aspect, and their resistance strength is not there consistently.
 
I’m just not even going to read what you posted just going off the thread title I’m going to call you an artard
 
You guys like to make lists. That's great, but it doesn't prove your point. The correct measure is the rate or % of injuries that occur and how those statistics compare to other teams. Those statistics are analyzed almost constantly and I can guarantee you there is nothing unusual happening at UM or under Richt. It's a violent, contact sport. I think it's great that a lot of you guys have taken up CrossFit and shopping at Whole Foods, and maybe even a little bit of jiu jitsu, but it doesn't qualify you to opine on a major collegiate programs strength and conditioning program. Because when you do, it leads to idiotic discussions like these. And yes, I'm including our Sports exercise science Majors who were too dumb to take real chemistry. And your cute little workout routines, and twisting your ropes, and pushing your tires down city streets doesn't mean you too participate in violent contact activities.
 
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Walsh5 said:
I know this has been talked about a little on the board re: the frequency of ACL injuries for Richt's teams.

Richt: Numerous ACL injuries a fluke

So I was talking to a buddy of mine who works with the team and he mentioned that they do heavy squats and Olympic lifts on both Tuesdays and Thursdays IN SEASON.

Look, I'm no S&C guru and I'll take a back seat to those who know more than I do... but isn't that a little much to be squatting so often in season? That seems a lot even for the offseason. Do muscles have enough time to recover before game day? Even an idiot knows that strong muscles are what keep joints stable and aligned... if they're compromised on game day, could those fatigued muscles from our 'in season' S&C program (that came from Georgia) be a significant catalyst for potential injuries?

What do you guys think?
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I actually am a S&C guru. I have a BS in Exercise Science, and did my Master's in ExPhys with a concentration in Strength and Conditioning here at UM - we have one of the best strength and conditioning education programs in the country: https://sites.education.miami.edu/e...-conditioningfitness-entrepreneurship-m-s-ed/

Heavy squats and Olympic lifts in season is correct.

If you're curious, you should look up what's called Periodization. This is the concept of creating a long-term strength and conditioning program for athletes - in this case, collegiate athletes. Every coach worth their weight knows this concept and this is practiced across all levels of all sports now by coaches who know what they're doing (this is something Swasey never did).

You find when the season starts and work your way backwards to when first workouts are. You can then parse the block of time you have into mesocycles and then further down into weekly and individual workouts with a few defining goals, characteristic of each block.

In the beginning, 4-6 weeks of training should be spent on learning technique, unilateral exercises and different loading schemes to activate core musculature and establish a neuromuscular "base" for training, with general metabolic conditioning at the end.

After that, the next block of training should focus on hypertrophy, with distinctly hire volume in this phase to promote muscle growth and improve conditioning.

After that, with these bases created, the focus is on strength, where the intensity (percentage of 1RM) goes up significantly (85%+) with lower reps to make the athletes stronger.

The last phase should focus on power and sport specificity, which is strength with a time component. The best way for us to load this concept is with Olympic lifting, which should have been gradually getting heavier and heavier throughout the season, from learning technique to now, where the athlete should now be capable of lifting extremely heavy loads explosively with good form. This should make sense: Now that we are in season, we should be at our most explosive, with a base of technique, conditioning, and strength - we want the athlete to be the most powerful and explosive at the start of the season and to maintain that power as best we can through the season.

ACL injuries are unrelated to heavy Olympic lifting if proper periodization has been implemented throughout the workout regimen.

However, non-contact ACL tears are on the strength coach and there should be a heavy emphasis during training on hamstring work, particularly knee-flexion biomechanics (hitting the hamstring through knee-flexion like leg curls as opposed to high hamstring work through RDLs). This squat and Olympic lifting work can create a huge imbalance where the quads are overdeveloped, so proper caution should made to make sure the hamstrings and posterior chain are getting enough work.
 
iLoveTDs said:
Unless you are on steroids, squatting 3x's a week (in a high intensity program) is unnecessary and can slow progress, and even lead to injury.
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This is wrong as a general statement. Most of the freshman absolutely should be on a linear progression of squatting 3 days a week during off season training. As long as their caloric and protein intake is sufficient, and they are getting ample sleep, a 48 hour recovery window is perfectly sufficient.

I started a linear progression on squat, bench, standing press, and deadlift 4 months ago. Started at 185lbs for 3 sets of 5 on the squat and increased the weights by 5lbs every workout (M, W, F). I'm now squatting 405lbs for 3 sets of 5 and continue to squat 3 times a week and increase by 5lbs every workout.

At some point, the linear progression will stop and the frequency of heavy squat workouts will slow down though.
 
Heals85 said:
I think you may have figured out the problem with these ACL tears and it is not what people are saying. If Felder does indeed pattern some of his S&C after his mentor at Pedo State that might be the issue. Its a given Felder is teaching proper form and depth on the squat but if he is using a lot of machines in his program that could be the issue. Machines have their place but machines don't require your body to stabilize anything. Free weights help strengthen your stabilizing muscles and help strengthen your ligaments and tendons. If we are going heavy on machines it is to the detriment of the players ligaments and tendons getting stronger.
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Felder does not teach proper squat technique. Pretty clear from any of the lifting videos that have been put out.

These guys should be doing a low bar squat with a fairly horizontal back angle. Felder has them putting the bar up on top of their traps, which forces a more vertical back angle and a shorter moment arm between the mid-foot and the hips. This results in a squat (even if at proper depth) that utilizes the quads much more than the hamstrings and the glutes. This sort of technique certainly could lead to an imbalance between the quads and the hamstrings, which could lead to ACL tears because the hamstrings are a huge contributor to preventing too much forward motion of the tibia relative to the knee when under stress.

Soccer players in particular have issues with muscle imbalances between the quads and the hamstrings (i.e., over strengthened quads) that lead to a lot of ACL tears and other knee issues in general.
 
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AlphaMarshan said:
I actually am a S&C guru. I have a BS in Exercise Science, and did my Master's in ExPhys with a concentration in Strength and Conditioning here at UM - we have one of the best strength and conditioning education programs in the country: https://sites.education.miami.edu/e...-conditioningfitness-entrepreneurship-m-s-ed/

Heavy squats and Olympic lifts in season is correct.

If you're curious, you should look up what's called Periodization. This is the concept of creating a long-term strength and conditioning program for athletes - in this case, collegiate athletes. Every coach worth their weight knows this concept and this is practiced across all levels of all sports now by coaches who know what they're doing (this is something Swasey never did).

You find when the season starts and work your way backwards to when first workouts are. You can then parse the block of time you have into mesocycles and then further down into weekly and individual workouts with a few defining goals, characteristic of each block.

In the beginning, 4-6 weeks of training should be spent on learning technique, unilateral exercises and different loading schemes to activate core musculature and establish a neuromuscular "base" for training, with general metabolic conditioning at the end.

After that, the next block of training should focus on hypertrophy, with distinctly hire volume in this phase to promote muscle growth and improve conditioning.

After that, with these bases created, the focus is on strength, where the intensity (percentage of 1RM) goes up significantly (85%+) with lower reps to make the athletes stronger.

The last phase should focus on power and sport specificity, which is strength with a time component. The best way for us to load this concept is with Olympic lifting, which should have been gradually getting heavier and heavier throughout the season, from learning technique to now, where the athlete should now be capable of lifting extremely heavy loads explosively with good form. This should make sense: Now that we are in season, we should be at our most explosive, with a base of technique, conditioning, and strength - we want the athlete to be the most powerful and explosive at the start of the season and to maintain that power as best we can through the season.

ACL injuries are unrelated to heavy Olympic lifting if proper periodization has been implemented throughout the workout regimen.

However, non-contact ACL tears are on the strength coach and there should be a heavy emphasis during training on hamstring work, particularly knee-flexion biomechanics (hitting the hamstring through knee-flexion like leg curls as opposed to high hamstring work through RDLs). This squat and Olympic lifting work can create a huge imbalance where the quads are overdeveloped, so proper caution should made to make sure the hamstrings and posterior chain are getting enough work.
Click to expand...

Proper squats do not result in over-development of the quads. Building a strength program around low-bar squats and standard deadlifts will engage the posterior chain more than enough to avoid quad over-development.
 
As per Ryan Flaherty that worked with many pro athletes, USA track and field, and now works at Nike: Non contact knee injuries are almost always due to weak a VMO as well as tight hips and ankles.
He said he “gets these monsters out of college that can squat a house but have the vmo strength of 13 year old gymnast”.
 
Canes1968 said:
Proper squats do not result in over-development of the quads. Building a strength program around low-bar squats and standard deadlifts will engage the posterior chain more than enough to avoid quad over-development.
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I knew it was only a matter of time for the Rippetoe clergy came around. Building a collegiate football strength and conditioning program around powerlifting is a terrible idea. I'm not against deadlifting nor posterior chain development in the slightest, and it is a great tool particularly in the strength phase, but low bar squatting is not the "proper" way for an athlete to squat. It's one way, sure. But sport-specificity and neuromuscular recruitment efficiency trumps absolute load. Always.
 
pacusmc said:
As per Ryan Flaherty that worked with many pro athletes, USA track and field, and now works at Nike: Non contact knee injuries are almost always due to weak a VMO as well as tight hips and ankles.
He said he “gets these monsters out of college that can squat a house but have the vmo strength of 13 year old gymnast”.
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There's some truth to this. Poliquin is also big on VMO strengthening and I do it with my athletes as well.

The last 20 degrees or so of extension at the knee, the tibia actually articulates on the femur and rotates in, "locking" it in place. The VMO aids in this process. So having a strong VMO can aid in stability of the knee joint and should be trained accordingly.
 
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