Ian King

Forever 59

/by

This weekend, in the rural Victorian (AUS) town of Wonthaggi, athletes will be suiting up, warming up, and putting their best efforts out there in Round 1 of the Australian MX National Championships.  In most years this would just be another season start. However, this event is made more significant because it was at this same round just over twelve months ago that a 20-year-old Queensland-based MX rider paid the ultimate price.

It will be a challenging weekend for all who are connected to the memory of Bradyen’s fatal crash so recently.

Brayden Erbacher’s passing was a tragedy. These tragedies are not restricted to any one sport or individual.  The last fatal accident during competition in The Pro motocross championship was the loss of Andrew McFarlane who passed away after crashing at Broadford on May 2nd, 2010.[1]

All elite-level athletes to varying degrees relate to and share the risk-reward challenge of sport, and have immediate empathy for athletes such as Brayden, their family and friends. But what about the sport? Does the sport care enough to honour the legacy of the athlete in moments such as this?

This article reflects on the way motocross (MX) globally has shown they care, and that Brayden will not be forgotten.  And in sharing this one-year report card on the sport of MX, I trust that it adds to the legacy of the racer.

Many organizations and individuals within the motocross community since that fateful moment on March 7, 2023, have acted in a way that deserves to be recognized.  These include the following.

  • Brayden’s family
  • Motorcycling Australia
  • Rohan Jenkins
  • Hunter Lawrence
  • Sunshine State MX Series
  • The Kilcoy Motorcycle Club
  • The Manjimup Motor Cycle Club
  • Johnny Hopper
  • FIST
  • Thrilla
  • Brayden

NB. If anyone has been overlooked, I apologize – send me anything I have missed and I will update the article.:

Brayden’s family

Brayden Erbacher’s  family bore the grief of losing Brayden Despite this the family had the courage to make statements very soon after:

The below statement was issued through Motorcycling Australia:

“The Erbacher Family would like to thank everyone at Racesafe including the paramedics, first responders and the riders and families that supported us.

“We are beyond proud to call Brayden our son and will be forever grateful for having him in our lives. He is our hero and will be greatly missed.”[2]

The following statement was issued through Channel Nine:

His mother Corinne, issued a statement to Nine News on behalf of the family which paid a loving tribute.

“We are shattered beyond words,” she told Nine News. “On behalf of the family, we would like to thank the whole motocross community for their support today while our whole world fell apart. “Brayden touched the lives of so many, and we were so proud to call him our son.[3]

You will see the family at the MX track every race, impeccably presented in clothing supporting Brayden’s legacy.

Motorcycling Australia

Motorcycling Australia, the official body of the sport in Australia, cancelled the event immediately after Brayden’s crash (keeping in mind the incident occurred in the first lap of the first moto in the MX2 Class), and issued the following statement the next day:

Official Statement on Brayen Erbacher

Motorcycling Australia, our ProMX Management Team and the wider motorcycling family are today united in grief at the passing of ProMX MX2 rider #59 Brayden Erbacher, who passed away as a result of injuries sustained in race one of Round One of the 2023 ProMX Championship.

Season 2023 was to be Brayden’s second year in the MX2 Championship, the pinnacle series for 250cc Four Stroke machines. Although a late starter in racing compared to some, Brayden had come to Wonthaggi from Queensland with his family and his Roo Systems Diesel Tuning Race Team to take on Australia’s best. His first ProMX campaign in 2022 had seen illness prevent him from competing for the full season, but a vigorous and productive off-season on the push bike, in the pool and in the gym had seen him return to full fitness and he noted “head is down, bum is up, plenty of work to be done…!” in anticipation of a full ProMX season in 2023.

Away from racing, Brayden was a likeable, handsome, and creative young man. He enjoyed his fishing, camping, and playing the guitar. In his own words, he liked “to keep things fun but I’m also a determined person and like a challenge.” In line with his cheeky nature, he said his career highlight to date was “beating Dan Reardon in a 125 race” and listed his hero growing up as US champion motocross racer Ryan Villopoto.

He also noted he was responsible for “making the #59 more famous than Dad ever did…”

While the ProMX Championship is the peak of Australian competition motocross, and our racing is close and often fiercely competitive, we are still a very close-knit community where friendships and camaraderie cross all bike brands, events and sponsors. Brayden’s passing has affected us all deeply.

Today we share the grief and sadness of Brayden’s family and reflect on a good life that was well-lived but tragically cut short. Our thoughts remain with his family and friends, but also with our own wider motocross and motorcycling family, our officials, volunteers, staff, partners, sponsors and of course the fans of this brilliant but occasionally cruel sport.

Motorcycling Australia will continue to co-operate with the relevant authorities as the investigation into the circumstances surrounding this incident continue. We have offered unconditional cooperation and assistance in these matters.

Motorcycling Australia is assisting the Erbacher Family and Brayden’s team at this difficult time.

Rohan Jenkins

Rohan Jenkins set up a GoFundMe account within a week after the crash to support the family, which far exceeded the initial target set.[4]

The organiser of the fundraiser, Rohan Jenkins, wrote that ‘Brayden touched the lives of many, but none more so than his loving family. This fund is set up for friends, family, work colleagues and the wider community to support Ash, Corinne, Damon and Ellie during this difficult time,’ he wrote. [5]

<div class=”gfm-embed” data-url=”https://www.gofundme.com/f/brayden-erbacher/widget/large?sharesheet=CAMPAIGN_PAGE”></div><script defer src=”https://www.gofundme.com/static/js/embed.js”></script>

Hunter Lawrence

Hunter is one of two brothers who may well become the greatest MX exports out of Australia. Hunter was 23 years old at the time of Erbacher’s passing, and from rthe same country. The weekend after Erbacher’s passing Hunter dedicated his 250SX East victory in Indianapolis to Brayden:

“We work so hard for these days and I want to dedicate this to a young Australian rider who lost their life recently, Brayden Erbacher – this one is for you buddy,” red plate-holder Lawrence said from the podium on Saturday evening. “I know you are over there keeping me safe on such a gnarly track.

“I didn’t personally know Brayden, but I can only imagine what his friends, family and the motocross industry back home are going through, so this one is for you and for all of your friends and family buddy – you were riding with me out there and kept me safe on a gnarly track. This one is for him.”[6]

Sunshine State MX Series

The Sunshine State MX Series, a series many pro riders use to prepare for the National Series, created a lap of honour for Brayden shortly after his crash, captured in this video.

The Kilcoy Motorcycle Club

The Kilcoy Motorcycle Club honoured Brayden’s memory later in 2023 with the naming of a ‘Memorial Club Championship Trophy’:

The Kilcoy Motocross Club has honoured the memory of club member Brayden Erbacher in its end of year presentation on Saturday, dedicating the Brayden Erbacher Memorial Club Championship Trophy.
Brayden’s family Corrine, Damon, Ellie and Brayden’s partner Emily, were there to present the Trophy which was won by 16-year-old Jet Doyle-Andrews. Jet was the club’s Mini Lites Big Wheel A grade overall champion and junior lites A grade overall champion, and was honoured to receive the award which carries the name of his friend. Brayden’s Mum Corrine thanked the motocross community for their love and support and for keeping Brayden’s memory alive.[7]

The Manjimup Motor Cycle Club

A MX club in the regional area of Manjimup, the Manjimup Motor Cycle Club, located 307km south of Perth in Western Australian, issued a statement post Brayden’s passing askin[8]g “…all competitors and attendees at the first round of the 2023 South West Championship Series to wear black armbands in Brayden’s memory. “For a sport that can bring great happiness and elation, it also comes with times of great heartbreak and sorrow,” the club said.

Johnny Hopper

US social media commentator and off-road racer Johnny Hopper dedicated a show to the legacy of Brayden and US racer Ryder Colvin.

Moto Limited

Moto Limited, ‘a moto-centric group of podcasts dedicated to reviewing Motocross and Supercross in the US and Australia’, remastered a show in honor of Brayden.

“This special podcast is in honour of an amazing human. Brayden Erbacher was one of those people that don’t come around very often. A genuine person that was full of character, always down for a good time, and very respectful. He would give his shirt off his back for anyone regardless of who you were.

Brayden did 5 shows and was an amazing cohost when he was in the studio. He was part of a lot of firsts here at the Moto Limited Show and Show 23 has been remastered as he was the first co-host on the first live show.

My thoughts go out to Ash, Corrine, Damon, Ellie, and the rest of his close friends and Family. I can’t believe he’s gone but he will never be forgotten. Rest Easy Mate.”

FIST

Australian handwear company FIST have produced and sell a glove they call the BRAYDEN59 Glove ‘Celebrating the life of Brayden Erbacher, with all proceeds going to the Erbacher Family.’

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thrilla

Australian BMX, MTB, and MX shirts, pants, accessories, and riding gear company Thrila  have produced and sell a Brayden Tee titled ‘Honour Brayden’, where all proceeds go to the Erbacher Family)

.         

Brayden

It would be remiss to leave Braydon out of the acknowledgement. Brayden’s contribution to his legacy is a combination of the who he was, the connections and impressions he made with and on others, his achievements, and the artefacts he created e.g. Instagram.

This post from younger brother Damon Erbacher gives insight into Brayden’s contribution;

“You were the best big brother and I looked up to you every single day. You guided me through life to this point and for that I’ll always be grateful,” the younger Erbacher said on Instagram.

“I’ll forever be grateful for the time spent with you, you always were my No. 1 role model and the way you carried yourself through life is an inspiration to many … You’ll be missed dearly. You’ll always be my big bro.”[9]

Conclusion

Risk is inherent in sport. This risk involved in sports could be placed on a continuum, however it is a constant. What is perhaps not as constant are the responses of a sport as a community to those times when risk causes loss.  The aim of this article is to acknowledge the impressive way in which the Australian motocross community has responded to the death of one of its riders, both at the time and in the time since.

In my five decades of involvement in a wide range of sports at the highest level throughout the globe, I’ve had the opportunity to witness how sports and sports communities respond to tough times. I have been impressed with the way the sport of MX has supported the Erbacher family and honoured the legacy of Brayden through to the first anniversary of his passing.

Forever 59!

 

References

[1] https://www.fullnoise.com.au/fullnoise-news/queenslander-brayden-erbacher-dies-at-promx-opening-round/

[2] https://www.ma.org.au/official-statement-on-brayden-erbacher/

[3] https://www.theage.com.au/national/victoria/family-shattered-beyond-words-after-young-motocross-rider-dies-after-fall-20230305-p5cpla.html

[4] https://www.gofundme.com/f/brayden-erbacher

[5] https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11856905/Motocross-rider-Brayden-Erbacher-GoFundMe-raises-thousands-mum-friends-pay-tribute.html

[6] https://www.motoonline.com.au/2023/03/13/lawrence-dedicates-indy-win-to-brayden-erbacher/

[7] https://www.mqld.org.au/kilcoy-club-honours-braydens-memory/

[8] https://www.triplem.com.au/story/shattered-beyond-words-tributes-flow-for-20-year-old-motocross-rider-killed-in-victorian-event-213769

[9] https://www.foxsports.com.au/motorsport/motocross-rider-brayden-erbacher-20-killed-in-national-championships-tragedy/news-story/0f3eff35cc188a53ba848d8390e2ed96

Ian King

A score of declining performance

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The 2023 Rugby World Cup performance ranked as the Australian ‘Wallabies’ worst performance in the ten World Cups to date in the competition’s relatively short history. Australia failed to advance out of Pool C, winning only two games and finishing 3rd in the pool.  The commentary from all levels of rugby, both within and outside of Australia, was understandably critical.[1]

Many appeared to be surprised by the result. However, from a trajectory perspective, it was a confirmation of direction. The Australian ‘Wallaby’ results at international level have shown an almost linear decline since the early 2000s. That, in earlier European languages, would be described as a ‘score’ of declining results i.e., 20 years.

Without having access to extensive statistics showing twenty-year time frames for comparison purposes, one could assume such a linear decline is uncommon. If for no other reason somewhere along the way action could be expected to have been taken to halt and reverse the trend.

This creates what could be described as the key question – how does a sporting organization achieve such a long-term, linear decline in performance?

Three variables will be reviewed to demonstrate the long-term trajectory of the Australian Wallabies:

  • World ranking
  • Wallaby Coach’s win-loss percentage
  • Bledisloe Cup results

World rankings

The Rugby world rankings were introduced in late 2003 for the World Cup of that year, and records have been maintained since. The 2004 to 2023 results are shown below and demonstrate a relatively linear decline across those twenty years.

Wallaby Coach win-loss percentages

The win-loss percentages of all Australian coaches dating back to the 1960s, since records were maintained and accessible, are shared below.[2]  One could divide this sixty plus year time frame into two – a rise to the peak in 2001, and a strong linear decline in the subsequent 22 years.

To demonstrate this post-2001 decline, a table and graph dedicated to this period is included. [3]

Years Wallaby Coach W-L %age
1997-2001 Rod Macqueen 79%
2001-2005 Eddie Jones 58%
2006-2007 John Connolly 64%
2008-2013 Robbie Deans 59%
2013-2014 Ewen McKenzie 59%
2014-2019 Michael Cheika 50%
2020-2023 Dave Rennie 36%
2023-2023 Eddie Jones 22%

Bledisloe Cup results

The Bledisloe Cup is a completion between the Australian Wallabies and the New Zealand All Blacks that commenced in the early 1930s.[4] It has not always been an annual event, but in recent history it has. It is essentially the outcome of a two to four game series in any calendar year. Australia is blessed with its geographical proximity to arguable the greatest national rugby team in the history of the game in the All Blacks.  Whilst the All Blacks cannot be expected to be the best team in the world every year, they provide a yard-stick for Australia to assess their current status.

The last time the Australia Wallabies won the Bledisloe Cup was in 2002, and that was through a drawn series, allowing the incumbent to hold the title. Therefore, it’s been 22 years since Australia won the Bledisloe Cup.

Most losing periods for the Wallabies in this Cup history last three to five years. The previous longest losing period for the Wallabies covered thirteen years of competition from 1951 to 1978.

Summary

The three variables analyzed demonstrate a relatively linear decline in Wallaby performance over more than two decades. To put simply, no-one or nothing was successful in reversing that trend for over twenty years. That is significant.

The decline on-field success is also being seen in other areas, including declining numbers of registered players, reduced revenues, and reduced TV coverage.[5]

Some suggest there was more than on-field feedback about the need to act:

As far back as April 2010, according to confidential internal documents seen by The Australian Financial Review, Australian rugby administrators were being warned in general terms about the risks of being “blind to decline”, especially the perils of clinging to an “outdated organisational structure”….A litany of other reports followed, yet nothing changed. Today Rugby Australia resembles the last days of the Nixon White House. Yes, it is that bad. [6]

However even the on-field failures appear to have been ignored, such as the 2009 loss to Scotland at Murrayfield, the first loss to them in 27 years. This was the Australian media reaction:

Australia’s first defeat to Scotland in 27 years has been met with a storm of criticism back home – with some commentators predicting the “death of Rugby Union” Down Under…

“The Wallabies are not just the laughing stock of Australian sport. They are also the laughing stock of the international rugby world after suffering their worst loss in decades,” the Sydney Morning Herald wrote.

“This defeat was not as bad as being beaten by Tonga in 1973 but it’s not far off.”

The Australian newspaper wrote that the team’s poor performances were threatening the very support of the game in a country where four football codes – League, Union, Aussie Rules and soccer – are all fighting for fans and sponsorship.

“This Wallabies side will be the death of Australian rugby followers, if not the death of Australian rugby,” The Australian wrote.[7]

So, what did Australian Rugby do during this period of 2001 to 2023?  Changed coaches. Seven coaches in total were used in that twenty-two-year period, with an average coach tenure of a little over three years.  Yet the pattern of decline continued.

Accurately described by this journalist:

… post-2003, we’ve seen a cycle of coaches getting strapped into the coach’s chair and getting ejected out fighter jet style unceremoniously when glimmers of success end up unsustained.[8]

Were these ‘poor’ coaches? No, most of them were hired with resumes that supported their appointments. Were the funds so low in Australian rugby that they were forced to hire ‘cheap’ coaches? No. Many of the coaches hired were amongst the highest paid coaches in the world during their time with the Wallabies e.g., 2008 appointee Robbie Deans on a reported $1mill/year contract;[9] 2020-2023 Coach Dave Rennie reported $1mill/year.[10]

So, the coaches were not bad coaches, and they were not cheap coaches. Yet they all underperformed in the Australian coaching role, and in a linearly declining way.

The question can be asked in reverse – by studying the ‘Golden Age’ of Australian rugby:

The Guardian’s Michael Aylwin pointed out in Unholy Union, that the golden age of Australian rugby from 1979 to 1999.. [11]

Was Australian rugby excelling in the Golden Era peak of the 1990s because of the coaches?

…Then came the golden years 1984 to 2001. Eighteen seasons with an average win rate of 70%…” [12]

Or was there a different common denominator?

Many focus on the coaches, or even the players. What does history teach us?  What action was taken in the 1970s to get out of the last Bledisloe slump that concluded in 1978?

“The early to mid 70s was a particularly galling era. The 1972 Wallabies were known as the “Awful Aussies…” [13]

In the 1970s Australian introduced national programs that became arguably world leading.

In 1974, Marks became the inaugural Rothmans coaching director, with responsibilities for establishing a National Coaching Scheme for Australian Rugby. He remained in the job until 1995, through an unprecedented period of success for Australian rugby.[5] He authored an influential coaching manual, instigated a number of coach and player development initiatives, and served on the first IRB Technical Committee and wrote a Charter of the Game

“What Marks achieved during his twenty-two year tenure at the job has been described with any number of accolades, but in making a judgement on his success you need go no further than the statistics. In the seven year period prior to the National Coaching Scheme, Australia had a 14% success rate over twenty-nine Test matches. By 1992 Australia had won a Grand Slam, a Bledisloe Cup series and a World Cup. Over the 110 Test matches since the introduction of the Scheme, it lifted its strike rate to 61% overall and to 72% in the last twenty nine encounters of that period.”— Peter Meares & Maxwell Howell, 2005[14]

More than one commentator can be found to reference the action taken in the 1970s to resurrect an ailing game in Australia:

Exactly 50 years ago, the Wallabies suffered one of their most notorious defeats – to Tonga in Brisbane. Yet, out of that debacle surfaced a national coaching and skills program that delivered players such as the Ella brothers, Campese and Michael Lynagh, and coaches Bob Templeton, Bob Dwyer and Alan Jones. Ultimately, they led Australia to the top of world rugby in the 1980s and ’90s.[15]

So, what happened to these programs?

“To his great credit, Mr O’Neill [ARU CEO] marketed them [the most talented and best-nurtured ever assembled in this country – and all produced under a pre-O’Neill regime very well] but to his eternal discredit he dismantled the system that produced them. He eliminated the collective system of technical policy … he took rugby out of the AIS, believing that you could buy their expertise whenever you needed it…He took the development of aspiring champions out of the hands of experienced rugby tutors and put them under the control of hacks.”[16]

Dick Marks is suggesting that the Australian Rugby Union killed the goose that laid the Golden Eggs.

Conclusion

The Australian Wallabies have demonstrated a twenty-two-year pattern of decline. Many players have been used. .Seven coaches have been used. The only constant is the Australian Rugby Union.  Dick Marks accurately summed up the declining pattern of Australian rugby in his 2021 book The Descent of Australian Rugby.[17] Even the Australian Financial Review did weighed in on the issue:

Blame years of structural decline in how rugby in Australia is managed and administered. [18]

However, who in the Australian Rugby Union is taking the lessons? And what will the Australian Rugby Union produce now after 22 years of failing to reverse the decline?

Either way, the ARU deserves acknowledgement for providing an impressive case study in a score-long (twenty-year) declining performance model. And for that, all students of sports performance are grateful.

 

References

[1] https://www.bbc.com/sport/rugby-union/67021813

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Australia_national_rugby_union_team_coaches

[3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Australia_national_rugby_union_team_coaches

[4] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bledisloe_Cup

[5] https://www.smh.com.au/sport/rugby-union/weekend-at-bernie-s-why-only-radical-action-can-breathe-life-back-into-rugby-20231026-p5ef5e.html

[6] https://www.afr.com/companies/sport/at-rugby-australia-15-years-of-dithering-must-end-now-20230921-p5e6eq

[7] https://www.aljazeera.com/sports/2009/11/23/the-death-of-australian-rugby

[8] https://www.theroar.com.au/2023/11/04/the-disunion-of-australian-rugby-does-it-really-get-any-worse-than-this/

[9] http://en.espn.co.uk/scrum/rugby/story/73393.html

[10] https://www.smh.com.au/sport/rugby-union/a-rock-and-a-hard-place-rennie-s-1m-contract-under-scrutiny-20200605-p54zrn.html

[11] https://www.afr.com/companies/sport/at-rugby-australia-15-years-of-dithering-must-end-now-20230921-p5e6eq

[12] https://www.theroar.com.au/2023/07/27/golden-generations-how-australian-rugby-rose-from-obscurity-to-greatness-then-killed-green-and-golden-goose/

[13] https://www.theroar.com.au/2023/07/27/golden-generations-how-australian-rugby-rose-from-obscurity-to-greatness-then-killed-green-and-golden-goose/

[14] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dick_Marks

[15] https://www.afr.com/companies/sport/at-rugby-australia-15-years-of-dithering-must-end-now-20230921-p5e6eq

[16] https://www.foxsports.com.au/rugby/marks-questions-oneills-success/news-story/b61ecd2fea9da4788805ca548a78b5ea

[17] https://books.google.com.au/books/about/The_Descent_of_Australian_Rugby.html?id=x6kwzgEACAAJ&redir_esc=y

[18] https://www.afr.com/companies/sport/at-rugby-australia-15-years-of-dithering-must-end-now-20230921-p5e6eq

Ian King

Thanks Tommy

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In a quiet rural cemetery outside of Sulphur Springs, Arkansas, United States, lay the remains of Tommy ‘The Duke Morrison’.  Tommy is considered one of the most tragic stories in top-level US boxing. I believe his journey provides a great roadmap for all athletes especially those at the level where fame and fortune come knocking.

Tommy’s time as a world champion was fleeting. However, it may have been the loss of his right to participate in boxing that may been the thing that haunted him the most.

I just want to pursue my dream. That is to fight. That is what God put me here to do. He didn’t put me here to be a doctor or a lawyer. He put me here to fight.[22]

Tommy’s story deserves telling, both to respect his legacy as well as to serve the athletic world as a lesson on so many lessons.

As an athlete advocate, I feel sorry for Tommy, that the outcome of whatever guidance he did receive was not more successful.  At the same time Tommy is not alone as an athlete that failed one too many tests that life presents as an athlete rises the fame and fortune ladder.

His life lessons can serve many.

Tommy had a rough start to life

Tommy Morrison was born in Gravette, Arkansas on January 2, 1969.[1] His mother, Diana, was Native American (half Ponca and half Otoe) and his father Tim’s ancestry is diversely reported as Scottish[2] or Irish[3].  He was raised in was raised in Delaware County, Oklahoma, spending most of his teenage years in Jay.[4]

His early years were apparently tough.  In a later biography of Tommy, the author said:

Morrison…came from a broken home. He was a secondhand son, passed from here to there, from nowhere to nowhere bound, wherever he would stick. His father was abusive. His mother once beat a murder charge. His brother would spend fifteen years in prison for rape. And Tommy? His mother first made him use his fists when he was five years old.[5]

But having a rough start to life is not all negative. Tommy was a third-generation boxer[6], and the circumstances of his upbringing were conducive to creating a fighter:

Growing up predominantly consisted of alcohol and fighting for Tommy as a youngster. In his own words, Morrison said “There was often a lot of anger and violence growing up, I spent a lot of my time protecting people, mostly my Mother”.[7]

Tommy’s early sporting career

Tommy reportedly started boxing at the age of 10, and by the age of 13 was fighting adults on a fake ID. This suggests he was physically an early mature.

“When I saw him win a Toughman contest in the eighth grade, I knew something special was going on,” said Andy Hudson, his best friend. “Fourteen-year-olds just don’t beat the hell out of guys in their 20s and 30s. ” His mother was not surprised. Of all the boxers in the family, she always considered him to be the most natural.”[8]

However, he played other sports as well. He was offered a college football scholarship but turned that down to focus on his boxing career. [9]

Nearly an Olympian

After high school Tommy chose boxing over American football, and in his first year as a full-time fighter (July 6th 1988) Tommy contested the US Olympic trials, coming in second to Ray Mercer, who went on to knock out all four of his opponents in the 1988 Seoul Olympics and win the Gold Medal.[10]

The Morrison-Mercer fight at the US Olympic selections was won by a split decision and considered a tougher fight than any of the opponents at the Seoul Olympics.

That was perhaps the first major setback in Tommy’s career. You can appreciate that a win at the trials, followed by a possible Gold Medal at the 1988 Seoul Olympics, would have created a different path for Tommy. There is no guarantee the end would be any different, but that is a major path difference – between coming first and going to the Olympics and coming second and not going.

Tommy turns pro

Tommy turned pro in 1988 at 19 years of age, after a very brief but busy amateur career. His amateur record has been reported as 311 bouts, with 290 wins and 21 losses, with 263 wins by KO.[11]

His early pro record was so impressive that he was mentioned in the same sentence as Mike Tyson:

By the summer of 1989, he had amassed a record of 14-0. By now, Morrison had the nation’s fans and journalists questioning: who was this force of nature powering his way through the heavyweight division? The fight on everyone’s lips was Tyson vs Morrison…[12]

The Great White Hope 

Tommy carried the burden of being referred to as another Great White Hope. This is a classic saying in US boxing when a big white man is plying his trade with potential in the heavyweight division.

Tommy was referred to endlessly as another ‘Great White Hope’.

I was impressed with how Tommy handled it, which I understand may be surprising to the reader as most of what Tommy did, I had questions about.

Tom told a Sports Illustrated journalist:

“It’s racist…Second, most White Hopes never make it.” [13]

He wanted to distance himself from this concept.

The author of a biography about Tommy was also impressed with Tommy’s stance:

It was inevitable that Morrison would come to be spoken of as a “Great White Hope.” To his credit, he did his best to avoid making race an issue. “It’s kind of sad,” he told the Kansas City Star. “To be honest, it’s a big advantage being white. There aren’t that many white fighters around. But I’d prefer to stay away from that because it’s racist.”[14]

What am I willing to sacrifice to be a World Champion?

In less than a year after turning pro, and at the age of about 20 years, Tommy was faced with what I believe was a career defining moment – do I pursue my goal of being a world champion professional boxer or do I take time away to be a movie star in a Hollywood blockbusting series called ‘Rocky’?

No, not all athletes get asked to detour through a brief Hollywood acting moment. However, all make similarly career-defining questions. The most common is – do I train for the best results in my chosen pursuit irrespective of what I look like, or do I allow my self to be distracted by shiny objects? Even as simple as train to look a certain way at the potential expense of my career?

Now I understand that not all athletes understand the implication of pursuing their visual appearance over performance, and I understand that sometimes it’s the coach overlaying the misguided value that an athlete needs to ‘look’ a certain way to be successful.

There’s more than one athlete who has asked me if they can do more beach muscles, to which I have replied – ‘Sure, when you are retired. Until then we will do the things that matter’.

However, as adults (over 18 years of age) the athlete has to accept the responsibility of their decisions.

Now to be clear Tommy did achieve World Heavyweight Champion status, twice. First in 1993, with the vacant WBO title, that he held for about 4 months and one title defence. The second was in 1986, the IBC belt for 4 months, which he lost the next fight.

Did Rocky V cost Tommy?

Let me ask you – would you have more likely known who Tommy Morrison was if he had been the dominant world champion, or for his role in Rocky V?

Tommy was in an era when success as a heavyweight male boxer was measured against their win-loss record with Mike Tyson. Tommy never got to fight Tyson.

Originally, in the early 1990s, I suggest that was in part because by the time Tommy was getting back into his rhythm post his distractions filming Rocky V, Mike Tyson was heading to prison.

That was strike one.

And by the time Mike got out of prison, Tommy was denied a second shot at Iron Mike for different reasons.

Loose 

By the time Mike Tyson was released from gaol in 1993, Tommy’s career was not necessarily on the up and up. Why? In part because outside of training he was loose. So loose is that the word was his coaching team would try to keep him busy in training because they were not successful in keeping him under control outside of training hours.

The reality was that the boy from Oklahoma was drinking, drugging, and carousing with many, many women. Caton concluded, “he was a womanizer beyond anything I’ve ever known.” [15]

Morrison was notorious for partying, womanizing, and general poor decisions. [16]

He lost his first of two brief World Heavyweight Title belts on his second fight after obtaining it, some say by being out on the drink the night before:

During the build to the fight with Bentt in October 1993, he didn’t take his training all too seriously and… he went to a concert the night before the fight, which is obviously something that fighters just don’t and shouldn’t do, and was drinking beer. Tommy Morrison’s night caught up with him the next day. Nobody was giving Michael Bentt much of a chance but Morrison simply wasn’t ready. ..

How much did that alone cost Tommy?

Tommy Morrison had lost his title and HBO Boxing commentator Jim Lampley was very quick to point out that his $8 million payday with Lennox Lewis was gone as well.[17] [the next fight booking against Lennox Lewis]

That was strike two.

HIV

But all was not lost. Boxing promoter Don King gave Tommy a lifeline to achieve the Tyson fight.

…promoter Don King wanted to give Morrison millions of dollars to fight Mike Tyson in 1996. King knew that the whole world would pay to see the Great White Hope take on the World’s Baddest Man.[18]

Then, in February 1996 – on the eve of the first of three fights under contract with promoter Don King that would have eventually meant a fight with Mike Tyson and $40 million – came the stunning revelation Morrison had tested positive for HIV, probably knocking him out of the ring for good.[19]

That was strike three.

Compared to Magic

Tommy had the opportunity to be the Magic Johnson of boxing. By that I mean they were top athletes in their chosen field when they were diagnosed as being HIV positive, which challenged their future in their respective sports. Even non-sporting people know who former NBA star Magic Johnson is for the way he handled his diagnosis.  He became an advocate for those with HIV. Most non-sporting people have no idea who Tommy Morrison is, in part because of the way he handled his diagnosis. A short time after his press conference announcing his HIV-positive result, Tommy denied he had HIV, and spent the rest of his life – to his death at 44 years of age – maintaining that position.

A difference to Magic was that boxing denied Tommy a license to fight. Magic made a few comebacks to the NBA and played in the 1992 Olympics post his HIV announcement. Things might have been better for Tommy had he too been able to ply his trade. Who knows.

Tommy was understandably affected by the reaction to his condition:

The day Morrison announced he was HIV positive, a sign just outside the Jay city limits that touted his accomplishments mysteriously fell down.[20]

I would walk into a room, and people would be like, ‘Hide the children. Here comes the guy with AIDS.’ That’s very demeaning, and it really hurts your spirit. ”[21]

That’s a tough road for anyone who loses not only their health but also their status. But Magic had been there already, and Tommy could have taken some cues from Magic’s playbook.

Conclusion

Many refer to Tommy’s boxing life and career as tragic. It’s difficult to disagree, however, I believe he also provided a role model – of career-defining decisions that no athlete should be modelling.

In a very lucid moment, in the press conference he announced his HIV-positive test, Tommy said:

“To all my young fans out there, I ask that you no longer consider me a role model. See me as an individual who had the opportunity to be a role model but blew it. Blew it with irresponsible, irrational, immature decisions.”[22]

Sure you could have achieved more, but that sums up the career of most. I believe your life lessons should not be in vain.

Tommy, you were a great role model, and I thank you for that. RIP.

 

References

[1] https://www.okhistory.org/publications/enc/entry?entry=MO034

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tommy_Morrison#:~:text=His%20mother%2C%20Diana%2C%20was%20Native,from%20the%20clan%20Morrison%20ancestry.

[3] https://theneutralcornerboxingdotcom.wordpress.com/2020/04/22/the-duke-the-life-and-times-of-tommy-morrison/#:~:text=Morrison%20was%20also%20a%20talented,City%20to%20begin%20his%20career.n

[4] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tommy_Morrison#:~:text=His%20mother%2C%20Diana%2C%20was%20Native,from%20the%20clan%20Morrison%20ancestry.

[5] https://tss.ib.tv/boxing/featured-boxing-articles-boxing-news-videos-rankings-and-results/72749-book-review-the-duke-the-life-and-lies-of-tommy-morrison

[6] https://theneutralcornerboxingdotcom.wordpress.com/2020/04/22/the-duke-the-life-and-times-of-tommy-morrison/#:~:text=Morrison%20was%20also%20a%20talented,City%20to%20begin%20his%20career.n

[7] https://theneutralcornerboxingdotcom.wordpress.com/2020/04/22/the-duke-the-life-and-times-of-tommy-morrison/#:~:text=Morrison%20was%20also%20a%20talented,City%20to%20begin%20his%20career.

[8] https://www.oklahoman.com/story/news/1993/08/08/morrison-student-of-hard-knocks/62451759007/

[9] https://theneutralcornerboxingdotcom.wordpress.com/2020/04/22/the-duke-the-life-and-times-of-tommy-morrison/#:~:text=Morrison%20was%20also%20a%20talented,City%20to%20begin%20his%20career.

[10] https://olympics.com/en/athletes/raymond-a-mercer

[11] https://theneutralcornerboxingdotcom.wordpress.com/2020/04/22/the-duke-the-life-and-times-of-tommy-morrison/#:~:text=Morrison%20was%20also%20a%20talented,City%20to%20begin%20his%20career.

[12] https://theneutralcornerboxingdotcom.wordpress.com/2020/04/22/the-duke-the-life-and-times-of-tommy-morrison/#:~:text=Morrison%20was%20also%20a%20talented,City%20to%20begin%20his%20career

[13] http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1140300/2/index.htm

[14] https://tss.ib.tv/boxing/featured-boxing-articles-boxing-news-videos-rankings-and-results/72749-book-review-the-duke-the-life-and-lies-of-tommy-morrison

[15] https://commonreader.wustl.edu/c/duke-of-hazard/

[16] https://www.insidehook.com/culture/remembering-last-great-white-hope-tommy-morrison

[17] https://www.sportscasting.com/tommy-morrison-once-missed-out-on-an-8-million-payday-for-drinking-beer-at-a-concert/

[18] https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2007/feb/23/boxing.hiv

[19] https://www.oklahoman.com/story/news/2000/07/30/down-for-the-count-prison-brings-home-cold-reality-for-ex-boxing-champ-morrison/62188292007/

[20] https://www.oklahoman.com/story/news/2000/07/30/down-for-the-count-prison-brings-home-cold-reality-for-ex-boxing-champ-morrison/62188292007/

[21] https://www.brainyquote.com/authors/tommy-morrison-quotes

[22] https://www.brainyquote.com/authors/tommy-morrison-quotes

Ian King

Supercross, Super Injured

/by

As the 2023 Monster Energy AMX Supercross season unfolded it become increasingly apparent that it was going to be a season remembered for its shocking injury toll.  I will specifically focus on the 450cc class, to keep the article as brief as possible. The 250cc class injury list was equal in length to the 450cc class.

Here’s he injured list as of 2 May 2023. These riders missed one or more rounds or failed to complete a round in the 2023 season due to injury sustained in racing or practice:[1]

450SX

  • Eli Tomac – Achilles
  • Colt Nichols – Unknown?
  • Jason Anderson – Neck
  • Cooper Webb – Concussion
  • Justin Barcia – Collar Bone
  • Benny Bloss – Collar Bone
  • Grant Harlan – Shoulder
  • Christian Craig – Hip, Elbow
  • Dylan Ferrandis – Concussion
  • Brandon Hartranft – Back, Shoulder, Hip, & More
  • Scott Meshey – Leg
  • Marvin Musquin – Wrist
  • Bubba Pauli – Thumb
  • Aaron Plessinger – Hip
  • Alex Ray – Finger
  • Justin Rodbell – Achilles Tendon
  • Malcolm Stewart – Knee

The author of this list acknowledged they may have missed a few injuries because the injury list was so long. They have missed at least:

  • Adam Cianciarulo – Concussion [2]
  • Kyle Chisolm – Knee [3]
  • Christian Craig – Hip and elbow [4]
  • Joey Savatgy – Wrist [5]

And in the week following the compilation of this list add the following:

  • Ken Roczen – Knee [6]

In the seventeenth and final round of the season in the 450cc class, 4 of the top 10 riders on points were not available due to injury. That’s 40% of the top 10 points leaders. And  if you add Ken Roczen  who didn’t complete the final round, that 50%.

But even that stat is misleading on the upside, as it only includes those riders healthy enough to be in the top 10 points leaders by the last round.

If we look at the riders who started the season, it’s worse. Using the 20 riders listed on the official series web site,[7]  only the following three (3) riders may have avoided missing 2023 rounds due to injury.

  • Justin Hill
  • Shane McElrath
  • Dean Wilson

Assuming the 20 riders featured were the top 20 riders for 2023, this means 85% (17 of 20) of the 2023 Monster Energy AMA Supercross top 20 lost rounds or their season due to injury.  85%. That’s a huge number, even for a high risk sport. I have not seen or made any comparisons to prior seasons; however I suggest it is a PB – for the wrong reasons.

Many were surprised and shocked, including the riders, and industry experts.

The final stretch in one of the most exciting years of the Monster Energy Supercross Championship is playing out much differently than we had expected … several contenders in the 450 Class are now sidelined with injuries. [8]

These injuries have brought out the armchair experts, submitting their theories as to the cause.

Firstly, you did not need to surprised and shocked. At least not if you had read my blog article on this very topic, warning of the impending injury impact and the reasons why.

Secondly, while everyone is entitled to their opinion, most have no ‘skin in the game’. What if their hypothesis as to the cause of the rise in injury incidence is wrong? There is no price to pay. However, someone in every racer’s team is or should be accountable for ensuring the riders enjoys an injury free career, and it’s obvious they are failing their rider.  Now this is not uncharacteristic in sport as very few athletes enjoy an injury free career for the same reason. I will share my vision for the athlete in this regard.

Thirdly I share another principle I have developed – injuries are predictable and preventable. But only if you can accurately predict them. If an athlete I injured, either they have ignored their advisors warning or their advisor failed them.

And fourthly and finally, what are some key steps a racer can take to avoid the arrival on the injury curse’ in their sport.

I told you so

I was going to name this article this ‘I told you so’. But I felt the perception that I am a smart-arse might leave the messenger targeted and obscure the message. The message is that the rise in injuries in the sport of moto/super ross was and Is predictable, and unless changes are made it will continue as the new norm. It has in most sports for their systemic failure to understand the cause of injuries, and there is nothing about off-road motorbike racing that leads me to believe they will rise above other sports in the similar situation.

Anyway, coming back to my prediction. On 8 Sep 2021 I wrote blog article titled A Lament for the Late Arrivals, where I spoke specifically about the relatively recent embracement of sports including moto/super-cross and the tipping point that has been passed in the relatively recent embracement of messed up popular dryland training methods. The lament was for the price they would pay – specially injuries and performance decrement.

I wrote:

I feel for the late arrivals, and I lament the collateral damage they are potentially walking into…. The outcome is increased injuries and decreased performance. The exact opposite to the proclaimed benefits of ‘strength and conditioning’.. Ideally, I should be saving I hope your non-specific (physical preparation) training helps you thrive. That would be nice. However, based on my experience and observations – what I know – if you do what the rest of your colleagues are doing in their interpretation of the best way to train, survive may be a more appropriate term.

The Monster Energy AMA Supercross class of 2023 walked into this collateral damage in this season.

I have a saying –

‘I take no delight in being right about my injury predictions.

I did tell you it was coming, but I don’t take any satisfaction from it. I said from the outset:

I feel for the late arrivals, and I lament the collateral damage they are potentially walking into….

Every athlete should be given the opportunity to fulfill their sporting potential, free from injury

I have been publishing this vision statement for many years now:

My vision is that every athlete should be given the opportunity to fulfill their sporting potential, free from injury.

For two reasons – firstly, performance and career results are inversely related to injury incidence and severity. The less injuries and or the less severe the injury, the higher the performance and career achievements.

I learnt this lesson unequivocally by the early 1990s and used this ‘zero-tolerance to injury’ approach to produce championship and podium outcomes in team and invidual sports.

The second reason I formed this vision was that it’s the right thing to do. Unlike the majority of coaches, I believe we can dominate in sport and provide optimal long-term health outcomes for the athlete concurrently. They are not mutually exclusive.

Other than the occasional regurgitation of my vision claimed by the usual authors unable to create original content, I don’t see many embrace my vision in the coaching decisions.

Which I why I expressed the following in my blog article titled A Lament for the Late Arrivals:

You deserve better. Our profession has failed to deliver safe training, let alone optimal training. Now it’s up to you to be more discerning. Don’t assume. Don’t imitate. Seek answers, dig deeper, objectively question and interpret the cause-effect relationship of what you are seeing and doing. Be more scientific in your review than our profession is.

Your future depends on it.

And not just your sporting future.

Injuries are predictable and preventable.

It appears that everyone has an opinion as to the cause of this injury rise in moto/super cross. And they are entitled to their opinion. What if their hypothesis as to the cause of the rise in injury incidence is wrong? You can’t prevent an injury if your hypothesis as to the cause is off track.

The most common ‘fail’ in injury explanation include:

  • It was a freak accident.
  • It’s just part of the sport.

This is a complete abdication of responsibility and ability to take control and prevent injuries.

Which is why I was shattered when I listened to and re-read Eli Tomac’s explanation for his season ending and championship denying Achilles tendon rupture in the 2023 season:

Basically at a loss for words right now over what happened and how it happened,” he said. “In my mind, it was just a freak deal and a racing situation, you know. I look back, I barely over jumped that tabletop and was just standing up into that ramp and I guess the high g load took a little too much for my Achilles there? I don’t know. I honestly just put it as a freak deal. I’ve over jumped into plenty of other jumps just as hard, if not harder, and have been totally fine before. I guess this stuff happens with racing.”[9]

You might notice some key words that I referred to above, including:

  • It was just a freak deal… I honestly just put it as a freak deal.
  • …a racing situation… I guess this stuff happens with racing.
  • … I don’t know.

I am not surprised he didn’t know what was going on with his Achilles before it tore off the bone. It would have taken a highly competent member in his support team to have provided this information. However, to not understand it better in retrospect – leaves a lesson not taken, and the probability of repeat injury.

He is a great athlete and dominating his class. This is the beauty of human performance. Even the best can be better. And one avenue available to Eli to advance would be to adopt a value-set towards injury more aligned with the philosophy described as the Serenity Prayer:[10]

God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change,
the courage to change the things I can,
and the wisdom to know the difference.[11]

I formed this saying many years ago –

Injuries are predictable and preventable.

However, if a coach lacks the ability to accurately and consistently predict an injury in advance – yes, in advance – then they have no chance of contributing to preventing them.

Let’s use Eli Tomac’s 2023 Achilles tendon rupture as an example.

It’s incredibly unlikely that there were no signs or messages that Eli’s Achilles was in trouble, and about to snap. Appropriate injury prevention screening would have picked this up.

If an athlete is injured, either the athlete has ignored their advisors warning – and that’s rare because why would they hire them only to ignore them? – or their advisor failed them.

Some key steps a racer can take to avoid the arrival on ‘the injury curse’ in their sport

It’s not good enough to be critical without providing at some solutions, so this section touches upon a few key, simple recommendations in the area of dryland training that will contribute to avoiding the collateral damage of mainstream training.

But before we go there let me clarity – my reference to ‘the injury curse’ was facetious. It’s the default go-to used by sports and coaches that want to abdicate their injuries to a source other than one within their control.

I have not seen it used in moto/super cross yet, but that’s only a matter of time…

Here are three simple considerations for racers to avoid injury, including crashed caused by training induced physical imbalances.

 

  1. Tissue length and tension.

I’ve been championing stretching and tissue manipulation for injury prevention, rehab and optical performance for decades. Then along came the abolition of stretching. I liken the attempts to scare individuals to avoid stretching to the many periods in history when reading or specific books were banned.  I suggest stretching has been pillared for the same reasons – because those who drive this paradigm stand to lose out (commercially) in the event you discover the benefits of stretching. Don’t became a victim to this. Stretch. Including static stretching.

As for tissue manipulation, the popularization of foam rollers is by the same interest attempting to ban stretching. Despite the economic gain for others of selling you a foam roller, the roller is innate. It can’t interpret your tension and adapt its work to address this. Whilst I do not suggest throwing out (or burring) your form roller, keep in mind it is just one of many modalities available to you to lower and monitor your tension levels. I suggest including some input from a competent human being e.g massage therapist or similar health professional with good hands and a sharp understanding of optimal tension.

Tip: If you spend more time on your bike than you do lengthening and softening your connective tissue, you will become an injury statistic.

  1. Reverse the damage of your sport before you seek to replicate it.

It shatters me to see athletes, including now off-road racers, performing ‘sport specific’ dryland training, especially strength training. A key principle I have developed and teach is that the primary goal of strength training in the first instance is to reverse any inappropriate adaptations that occur your specific sport. Let’s take the landing from jumps.. Let’s imagine that the calf and Achilles tendon increase in their tension and reduce in their length over time due to repetition of absorbing the G-forces in landing. Let[s pretend that if you don’t reverse this adaptation they become shorter, and weaker, dysfunction and inhibited, and finally experience a tear or worse a complete rupture. Actually we don’t need to ‘pretend’. That’s what happens and Tomac’s 2023 injury is a classic example of potentially failing to prioritize this ‘reversal’ work in dryland training.

Tip: Yes, you can do so-called ‘performance enhancement training’ by doing so-called sport-specific training – however if this is contributing to performance decrement because it is making the sport specific adaptations worse, you are creating performance decrement. On the other hand, if you enhance your muscle function by reducing negative sport specific adaptations through injury prevention/rehab training, you are going to enhance your performance. Sounds counter-intuitive but that’s my perspective.

  1. Challenge every adaptation.

 All training results in an adaptation. Is this adaptation truly serving you as a racer? I divide training into two simple categories – specific and non-specific. The only specific training is playing your sport, so that means when you are on the bike. All other training, no matter how much lip-service any gives that it is ‘sport specific’, it is not. It will give you specific adaptations. The only question is whether those specific adaptations will transfer to your riding.

Many athletes get a warm feeling from the muscle mass and strength increases from strength training. In part because of the social rewards placed on ‘getting buffed’, and in part because it gives them a feeling of being a warrior. There is no correlation between muscle mass and or non-specific (gym) strength that trumps optimal technical and tactical development. More likely, you will see a decline in technique if your dryland adaptations contest skill execution e.g., if you develop leg imbalances in the gym, which most do even if they are trying not to, you will load inapproachably over jumps and increase crash frequency. Just one of many examples.

Tip: Critically analyze, and in a futures sense, the adaptations your dryland training is and will give you, and question it’s transfer. If you a getting big and strong because of low-self-esteem, read a self-help book. And remember this – most of the current crop of riders leant to ride well before adding dryland training, after which they will experience a higher frequency of crashes and related injuries (because of the imbalances ij their dryland training).

Conclusion

I did intend to keep this article brief, however as I wrote my empathy for the athlete, in this case the racer, took over, and I sought to give a bigger lifeline.  (Lucky we restricted the focus to 450cc class injuries, and only over the one season!)

I don’t take any joy in saying ‘I told you so’, but it was quite ironic that what I wrote about 2021 came to be manifested within two years.

There are ways to train that can reduce a racers crashes and subsequent injuries, however it will take a fresh look at the options. Simply following the herd will not avoid this rising phenomenon of injuries that will be blamed on anything and everything other than the actual cause.

As an athlete you are not expected to solve all the problems and challenges of a long, injury free career by yourself. However, as an individual sport athlete the onus is on you to ask the right questions, and to appoint guides who have the best answers. That is you burden. Those appointments can make or break your career.

And if injuries do occur take the lesson. Avoid writing it off as a ‘freak accident’ or ‘that’s what happens in racing’.  The injuries will occur in conjunction with a crash so don’t rush to assume the injury was caused by the crash. The injury might have caused the crash. In the same way an equipment setup can cause crashes (e.g., inappropriate sag setting or similar placing too much weight on the front tyre and front washouts occurring more frequently), inappropriate body set up (e.g., imbalances in your musculoskeletal system) can cause crashes. If you don’t fully understand what causes crashes, you may never unlock the code of body-bike relationship and miss an opportunity to ‘tune’ the body in the same way your suspension mechanic tunes your bike to avoid you crashing.

Your physical coaches KPI (Key Performance Indicator) should be a reduction in crashes and injuries ahead of an increase in non-specific performance (VO2 max or load displaced in the gym or the size and strength of your muscles).

In my five decades of helping athletes fulfill their potential in a wide range of sports and in diverse countries through a double-digit number of Olympic cycles. I have seen that despite the challenges faced by athlete due to adopting misguided but dominant paradigm-based training programs, many athletes seem to want to cling onto the ego attachments of their choices. Others want to conform.

My hope is that you can do what the truly best I the world athletes do. Feel no desire to be like everyone else and find a way to train in a way that is best for you. This will need you to be willing to be different, and to make your own mind up. This alone will reduce your numbers of competitors. That’s the way of top performance. There are a few at the top so far ahead of the rest. There is a reason they are there, and you need to scratch below the perceptions to understand what sets them apart. Look beyond your sport for the best clues.

 

References

[1] https://www.vitalmx.com/forums/moto-related/current-2023-injury-list

[2] https://motorsports.nbcsports.com/2023/04/26/adam-cianciarulo-aaron-plessinger-detail-injuries/

[3] https://www.fullnoise.com.au/fullnoise-news/the-emergency-department-2023-ama-supercross-championship-round-7-arlington/

[4] https://motorsports.nbcsports.com/2023/04/10/christian-craig-timetable-for-return-uncertain-after-glendal-injuries/

[5] https://www.vurbmoto.com/joey-savatgy-injury-update-2/

[6] https://mxvice.com/injury-update-ken-roczen-10/

[7] https://www.supercrosslive.com/riders/450

[8] https://www.swapmotolive.com/2023-supercross-late-season-injury-updates-championship-changes/features/kickstart/

[9] https://www.vurbmoto.com/eli-tomac-on-future-after-achilles-injury-in-denver/

[10] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serenity_Prayer#:~:text=It%20is%20commonly%20quoted%20as,wisdom%20to%20know%20the%20difference.

[11] https://uscatholic.org/news_item/commentary-how-i-discovered-i-was-wrong-about-the-origin-of-the-serenity-prayer/

Ian King

The Way of the Physical Preparation Coach

/by

The following is an abridged version of The Way of the Physical Preparation Coach.

Introduction

The content is written for those who seek a higher level of mastery of my approach to physical preparation. Several concepts deserve discussion at this point.

I seek not to teach you what to think, but how to think. Therefore, I choose not to use the word ‘system’ in describing my approach. Instead, I chose the word ‘philosophy’, and believe this is more accurate.

I have divided this book in to five sections. Each section is devoted to key philosophies as they relate to the ‘being’ or ‘thinking’ of a physical preparation coach, although I stress these divisions are arbitrary.

This book is about philosophies that I have arrived at. I trust they serve you as well as they have served me.

Part One – Professional Philosophies for the Physical Preparation Coach

Only results matter.

It doesn’t matter what you, another person, textbook or research article thinks/claims should happen as far as the training outcome – all  that matters is what is happening, what was the outcome. Value this above all else and respond accordingly, with no attachment to your prior perceptions where the message is to the contrary.

Do no harm.

The aim of physical preparation training is to improve the body in whatever specific way the athlete/client seeks. It is your responsibility to understand the impact of the training you provide, and ensure it does no harm. If in doubt, seek guidance or assistance. This may involve referrals to other health care providers.

Do the least amount of training needed to get the result you want.

Seek to identify how little you need to do to achieve your training and competitive results. This approach is less draining on the athlete’s recovery ability and reduces the wear and tear on the body.

The goal of a training session should be to do the amount that will result in the best improvement into the next workout of the same kind, not to do as much as one can.

The underlying deciding factor in how much to do in each workout should be found in the answer to the question ‘What amount done today will give me the best improvement into the next session?’

I don’t know.

I don’t know how to design a program for anyone – until I receive more information from/about that person. I combine my knowledge, experience and intuition with their knowledge, experience, and intuition – then we have information to create a program.

Transfer is far more important than specificity.

Whilst the principle of specificity is important, it is not as important as the principle of transfer. This principle reinforces training that, irrespective of its apparent specificity, transfers more effectively to the specific event.

Flexibility can be trained and expressed statically or dynamically, or a combination of both.

As with any physical performance, there is debate and misinterpretation of how to train for what is seen to be the way it is expressed.  Those who have been misled down the road of over-exaggeration of the role of specificity may see flexibility being expressed dynamically and conclude that this is the only way to train it for that event. This is not so. Remember, transfer of training effect is more important than apparent specificity.

There is very limited correlation between what can be lifted in the gym and the scoreboard.

The only sports where how much weight you can displace in the gym are fully correlated with success are the lifting sports themselves – power lifting and Olympic lifting. From there the correlation slides downhill quickly.  There is no place for justification of the success of the sports strength program based on the amount of weight lifted in the gym when there is no relationship between the two. Rather, the focus should be on the scoreboard.

A model of optimum movement in speed relevant to the athletes’ needs is needed.

The physical preparation coach should have developed a model of movement that is considered in a general sense optimal for each type of speed used by each position of athlete and use this as a guide on which to move the athlete towards.

Fatigue masks fitness.

When people judge performance of an athlete or team in a mixed energy system or endurance-based sport, they are seeing the work capacity. When the work capacity is low, the most common and erroneous knee-jerk reaction is that they are ‘not fit enough’, and the response is to do more endurance-based training.

The training effect is optimized when it is considered as a combination of training and recovery.

The training effect that happens to your body is not simply a product of your training. If combined with recovery, you can achieve a far greater result than the impact of training alone. In fact, the short-term impact of training is to reduce the work capacity of the body. It is the recovery from this that results in potentially rebounding to levels of work capacity in excess of your prior levels.  A new baseline.

Two major focuses of physical preparation coaches are injury prevention and performance or function enhancement. I believe injury prevention to be more important.

When training an individual, first seek to remove or reduce their injury potential, then shift the focus to performance/function enhancement. This does not mean that one needs to be done before the other is worked on. They can be trained concurrently. Simply prioritize injury prevention initially and ensure that any concurrent performance/function enhancement training does not interfere with the injury prevention focus and progress

Part Two – Personal Philosophies for the Physical Preparation Coach

Detach from the outcome.

This final point or mantra reinforces that we should not get attached to the way we do things today. If we find a better way tomorrow, we should feel no attachment to the limitations of our current way and be willing to replace any aspect of our thoughts or actions with more effective thoughts or actions.

When the student is ready the teacher will appear.

This is a fantastic little saying, but it is more than just a sentiment. I have seen the difference between situations where a person is interested, and where a person is truly committed to being a student. If you have a burning desire to learn, you will ultimately find a teacher appearing.  You may be surprised to know how many potential teachers are watching you, waiting to see you show the commitment to learning from them that warrants or motivates them to want to avail themselves as your teacher.

Trust your intuition

I don’t know the answers to how to train – at least I don’t know as much as the individual I train does. Between my abstract ‘scientific’ knowledge, my empirical observations (you know, those secondary to research!), my willingness to form a hypothetical potential cause-effect relationship – only then, when married with the individual’s information, can I even go close to individualizing a training program!  And even then, it is nothing more than an educated guess based on experience and my ability to draw out the information from individuals who in most cases don’t know or understand how they could possibly have the answers!

Part Three – Business Philosophies for the Physical Preparation Coach

Physical preparation coaching is a service-based profession.

Whilst it may seem a simplistic concept, that physical preparation coaching is a service-based profession, I believe the implications of this connection are often overlooked. The upside of being a service-based profession is that if you are suited to be a service provider, you can achieve great self-fulfillment and receive high financial rewards. The downside of being a service-based profession is that if you are not service oriented you may not achieve great self-fulfillment or receive high financial rewards.

The degree of giving you put into every service and product will be evident to the receiver.

It is a very subtle point, but the end results can be massively different – between just doing a job, writing a program – versus taking as much love and care you can in the shaping of a client’s program, in the focus on and achievement of exceeding their expectations.

I see physical preparation being more an art than a science, and in that reality, the provision of our services, the shaping of a program, akin to an artist creating a fantastic result from raw products. Like a fine sculpture from a block of marble. Or a beautiful painting from a collection of different paints and a blank canvass.

The number one marketing method you should use is word of mouth.

One of the reasons I believe you need less marketing in exclusively service situations is based on the proviso that you provide such a truly outstanding benefit to your clients that they become raving fans, telling all they can in totally committed tones about the ‘need’ for others to do as they have done – see you and receive similar benefits.

Yes, you can (and do) sell!

I am amazed at how many physical preparation coaches have the initial mindset ‘I can’t sell’ or ‘I am not very good at selling’ or ‘I am not a salesperson’.  I thought I was the only one who (used) to think that way! Whatever the cause of this belief, the response is the same – you can and actually do sell already anyway!

Competition comes from a lack mentality.

You can choose to operate your business with a mindset of competition, or in a class of your own. When you choose the mindset of competition, you fall into comparing yourself with another business/person, and this is an act of the ego.

Your business/profession does not define you.

Leading a balanced life begins with an understanding that you are not what you do to create income or seek fulfillment. You are you, and at this point in time that is how you are spending a lot of time. But how you currently spend your time does not define you. That is unless you choose it to do so. And I recommend you do not.

Busy is not optimal!

There is a perception in the business world that if you are busy (in business) you must be successful. My philosophy is counter to that. I believe that busy is undesirable. The people in business who I pity the most are those who lead the busiest lives!  Even highly paid busy people are just highly paid rats in the rat race!

Part Four – Financial Philosophies for the Physical Preparation Coach

Your beliefs about money will determine how much you receive and or retain.

No matter how much you strive for or desire a life without financial hardships, if you have limiting beliefs about money, your ability to create/attract income and or your ability to effectively retain that money will be limited by these beliefs.

Ideally, before you go and work in exchange for money or build businesses with the intent to create income and or profit, you should become intimate with your beliefs about money.

True abundant living can and needs to come before money.

The most effective path to creating more money in your life begins with losing the feeling of lack. If you strive for money from a position of ‘I don’t have enough’ or similar lack or scarcity perspectives, you will always feel this way.

This lack mentality can impede the flow of money to you, and may also leave you in a constant search for more. When is more enough?

Physical preparation coaches don’t need to be poor!

I have sensed a belief or perception with physical preparation that being a physical preparation coach means you need to forgo financial success, because we are little more than a community service. Granted the recent history of this industry has been volunteer-based, but those days are gone.

You don’t have to remain poor because you chose to be involved in physical preparation as a coach!

Financial offense is how you play the game to obtain money.

The analogy of money as a game is something we as physical preparation coaches can relate to.  Financial offense is the way we play the game of money and life to obtain money. The way you obtain or attract money is a direct reflection of your values on your worthiness to receive money.

Financial defense is how you play the game to retain money.

The analogy of money as a game was established in the prior chapter.
Financial defense is the way we play the game to retain money. As a custodian of money, you are responsible for the way you manage it. If you give it all away, you didn’t want it. The way you handle money once you have received it is a direct reflection of your values on your worthiness to have money.

Part Five – Spiritual Philosophies for the Physical Preparation Coach

Spiritualism versus religion.

The concept of spiritualism should not be seen to be the same thing as religion.  Religion can be described as adherence to and belief in a collection of beliefs, values and rules.  Spiritualism rises from the concept of the spirit, which Deepak Chopra describes as the source of all creation, and is not limited to the bounds of any one religion, nor does it typically contain as many constraints in perspective.

The concept of universal laws.

Universal laws involve ways of describing and defining outcomes or cause-effect relationships that affect all persons at all times, have always done so and always will. They can be considered ‘generalized principles’. The only variation is how they are labeled, described, or defined, but the concepts are the same. They are considered immutable, and applicable to all, irrespective of whether a person accepts or recognizes them. They relate human’s lives and actions to the universe and provide guidance for all.  The well-known spiritual writer Deepak Chopra (1994) describes these laws as the process by which the un-manifest becomes the manifest.

Spiritualism, universal laws of the universe, and the physical preparation coach.

It has been my experience in coaching physical preparation coaches to greatness that has forced me to confront and better understand the things that stand between each of us and our greatness.  There are many ‘keys to success’, evidenced by the number of texts on this topic. My goal in the following pages is to draw on aspects of spirituality that I believe can assist in addressing some of the common and foundational limiting beliefs and beliefs in habit in physical preparation coaches.

I have seen high achievers in other endeavors use all avenues available to them to fulfill their potential, spiritualism being one of them. I encourage you to investigate and master all of these areas on your path to fulfillment.

Conclusion

This content, as you now know, went far beyond the professional, technical know-how of being a physical preparation coach. It covered areas that truly touch upon every aspect of you, as a person, as well as a coach.

My approach to education is based on this holistic belief that building up only one part of you, such as professional development, is not optimal. Rather, it is far more effective to build balance in your knowledge and abilities, to best fulfill your potential.

I have also learned first-hand many of the factors that hold us back, as physical preparation coaches, from fulfilling our potential.  Between my own personal experiences and the lessons, I have been taught by the coaches in the KSI educational programs over the years, I am all too aware of the human frailties that turn the ease of succeeding into a struggle..

Whilst the mainstream chooses to teach professional smartness, I seek to teach each of the five areas covered in this book – professional, personal, business, finance, and spiritual development.

This holistic focus is just one of the unique features of our program. For everything you were exposed to in this book is integrated in the KSI educational programs at a higher level.

I trust you have benefited in one or more ways from studying this text, and should our paths cross, I look forward to learning of your movement towards fulfilling your potential in physical preparation.

What others have said about The Way of the Physical Preparation Coach

I read the The Way of the Physical Preparation Coach – what a book!!! I think this is my favorite title of yours and I’m now going back through it taking some notes as there is so much wisdom in there.

In particular, I really valued the philosophical nature of the book. I liked that you included the core values of a Physical Preparation coach from your perspective.

I also really valued the holistic nature of the book and the time spent on the spiritual side of the philosophy.  I have been very curious about other perspectives and practices and had previously read the Tao Te Ching (which was very interesting to read, but my understanding was very limited!). Since reading The Way, I’ve just finished listening to the Tao of Abundance audiobook (which had been frequently referenced in The Way), which I must say is life-changing for me. It was fantastic. It has resonated and impacted me so much, that I’m starting to incorporate some daily meditation and also practicing reframing how I view the world (Eg. Life is a gift and acceptance of what is experience).

So in essence, I just wanted to thank you for producing such a great piece of work. It’ll be a resource to base my career around and a reference that I’ll continue to come back to. Cheers!— Mathew I., AUS

This book takes you ‘behind the scenes’. An amazing insight into the thought processes and philosophies Ian has learned and created in over two decades of physical preparation. The philosophies and methods contained in these chapters have changed the way many people train and perceive training around the world. The wisdom is timeless, powerful and provides life changing opportunity to the reader! –Mike Pimentel, USA

I was able to spend 13 hours of travel from Australia to Los Angeles last week reading Ian’s latest book, time really did fly! I received so much value and insight from reading and will receive more value each addition read. The first page of the first chapter (the training process) is incredibly profound, spoken from so much experience. The words on that page alone are worth the book’s investment! This book takes you behind the scenes of Ian’s thinking – it’s an amazing insight into the thought processes and philosophies Ian has learned and created in over two decades of physical preparation! –Mitchell Kochonda, AUS

Hi Ian, I read “The Way of…” and enjoyed it immensely. Mitch said you don’t sell many of these and now I know why; very few people are ready for such a holistic philosophy on life. Covering the 5 areas you do, allows readers to access to your philosophies on all aspects of a person not just one or two. I would say that your book is a practical guide to philosophy for people with physical pursuits. I found the book of great value and I’m also glad you inserted the references to other books you found valuable, as I can now chase these to read also. A great book; congratulations!!—George V., AUS

I was so touched by the concept you share in ‘The Way’ book. You did a fantastic job compiling all of that great stuff. Everyone should operate in that way! –Sandy Riedinger, Beverly International

The Way of the King Coach is a distillation of Ian King’s philosophies applied to achieving success as a Coach in Physical Preparation, while simultaneously achieving balance in life.

This is a fantastic works ó more of a treatise that will enlighten you to new ways of thinking, new ways of doing and new ways of learning. If you have been seeking answers outside of the traditional sets and reps approach, you will be pleased with the wisdom of the Master. These are powerful words and thoughts from the voice of over 20 years of on the field experience, that has resulting in Ian achieving the highest level of personal and business success.

Ian suggests you choose your mentors with care you will learn the truth from those who have accomplished what they teach, and Ian is the Master in the field of physical preparation and teaching abundance in building your business and achieving balance in life. If you have wondered how you can become successful in physical preparation, how you can earn more money, how you can attract clients that you can’t wait to train – then you need to read this book!

Trends, theories, and science have their place and use. Most coaches are blinded by theories or depend on trends to prove their own credibility or reason for program design and or methods of training they employ. Ian shows you why using your intuition, humility and having a long-term focus on the clients needs (ahead of your own) will ultimately provide the greatest impact on the success, injury-prevention and improved health of the athlete or client you work with. This approach will translate into your own personal and business success, with your clients referring you more business than you can handle!

If you are open to being inspired, to learning why great achievements take time and how personal development can create more income in your business, then the The Way of the King Coach will offer many avenues to pursue, and new ways of thinking that will set you apart from the rest of the pack!—David, USA

I was elated to read in Way of the Physical Prep Coach that you intuitively banned music from your training sessions with athletes. I felt the same way but you’re the first to discuss this that I’ve read. On the rare occasion that my local gym had sound system issues and cut it off, I’ve had my best workouts ever. Smoother technique, better energy replenishment between sets, better focus….I’m not sure my clients appreciated it when I told them there’d be no music in my facility though!! –Scott, UK

This is an excellent work! A master works in fact. As I read this book, I gain a greater understanding of the breadth of Ian’s mastery in that he can reduce complex topics and ideas to simple, short sentences. Ian, I congratulate you! There is nothing like this in the market in relation to Physical Preparation! –Darren, CAN

Ian does it again – another must have book for all physical prep coaches, trainers and those who want to get into the industry! It’s an excellent read and consistent with all his material. Read this book and understand why Ian’s approach to physical preparation leads the way!–Miguel., USA

Ian King

Rugby’s Holy Grail – Beating the All Blacks

/by

New Zealand is the most successful national team in the international history of rugby.[1]  Every national team seeks to test themselves against the Gold Standard of world rugby, the New Zealand national rugby union team known as the All Blacks.

And Australia is no different. In fact, as they are such close neighbors, the rivalry may be at its peak between these two countries.

The Bledisloe Cup is a rugby union competition between the national teams of Australia and New Zealand that has been competed for since the 1930s. The frequency at which the competition has been held and the number of matches played has varied, but as of 2016, it consists of an annual three-match series, with two of the matches also counting towards The Rugby Championship. New Zealand have had the most success, winning the trophy for the 46th time in 2017, while Australia have won 12 times.[2]

For more than 80 years Australian rugby has pitted itself our nearest neighbor and the most successful team in world rugby history – the New Zealand All Blacks.

To date the win loss record between these two teams is very uneven, with over two-thirds of the games being won by the All Blacks.[3]

Playing Venue

 Played Won by

Australia

 Won by

NZ

 Drawn Australia points NZ points

Australia

 83 26 51 6 1270

1675

31% 62% 7%
NZ 74 15 58 1 924

1623

20% 79%

1%
Neutral 5 2 3 0 115

92

40% 60%

0%

Overall

 162 43 112 7 2286

3413
    27% 69% 4% 40%

60%

In summary, historically speaking, Australia has about a 30% chance of beating the All Blacks when playing at home (Australia), a 20% chance of winning when playing them in New Zealand (away), and a 40% chance of beating them when playing on a neutral venue. I suggest this last statistic is influenced by the fact that the ‘neutral venue’ games are typically ‘dead rubbers’ – in other words, they don’t matter as much to the Kiwis, as they have already won the series.

The 1980s – A decade of adversity for Australia

Despite the advent of the World Rugby Cup in 1987, when Australian’s want a true assessment of where they are at, you can always look to the trans-Tasman series.

It was 1980 and the All Black’s 24th tour of Australia resulted in Australian dominating with wins in two of the three Test matches and retaining the Bledisloe up. [4]

The Australian Wallabies toured New Zealand in 1982, losing two of the three Test matches against the All Blacks, who regained the Bledisloe Cup from Australia. Australia had held the Bledisloe Cup since 1979.[5]

In 1983, in the single Bledisloe Cup game that was played in Sydney, New Zealand prevailed and retained the Cup.[6] In 1984 during the 25th tour of Australia by the All Blacks, the touring team won thirteen of their fourteen games, including two of the three tests against Australia, retaining the Bledisloe Cup.[7]

In 1985, another year where the Cup was contested in only one Test, New Zealand achieved a narrow win on home soil.  In 1986 Australia took back the Bledisloe Cup winning two of the three Test matches on New Zealand soil.[8]  1987 saw a return to a single Test to determine the Cup. New Zealand convincingly beat the Wallabies 30-16 on Australian soil. [9]  The 26th All Black tour of Australia in 1988 resulted in New Zealand retaining the Bledisloe Cup – again. And the score lines were amongst the worse for Australia during that decade. [10]

1988 30 July Concord Oval, Sydney Australia 9–30  New Zealand
16 July Ballymore Stadium, Brisbane 19–19
3 July Concord Oval, Sydney 7–32

The 1990s – A decade of dominance 

It was 1990 and New Zealand rugby was on a roll. During the second half of the 1980s New Zealand rugby were dominant. At provincial level they won the South Pacific Championships every year of its existence.

At the national level, the All Blacks seemed invincible.  They experienced their longest unbeaten streak in Test rugby of 23 Tests from 1987 to 1990, with one game being drawn and the rest victorious. [11]  For four years between 1986 and 1990, Australia was unsuccessful against the All Blacks.[12]

This changed on the 18th of August 1990 at Athletic Park, Wellington.

Date Venue Score Winner Competition
18 August 1990 Athletic Park, Wellington 9 – 21  Australia 1990 Bledisloe Cup
4 August 1990 Eden Park, Auckland 27 – 17  New Zealand
21 July 1990 Lancaster Park, Christchurch 21 – 6  New Zealand
5 August 1989 Eden Park, Auckland 24 – 12  New Zealand 1989 Bledisloe Cup
30 July 1988 Concord Oval, Sydney 9 – 30  New Zealand 1988 Bledisloe Cup
16 July 1988 Ballymore Stadium, Brisbane 19 – 19   draw
3 July 1988 Concord Oval, Sydney 7 – 32  New Zealand
25 July 1987 Concord Oval, Sydney 16 – 30  New Zealand 1987 Bledisloe Cup
6 Sept 1986 Eden Park, Auckland 9 – 22  Australia 1986 Bledisloe Cup

This was a turning point in the belief for Australian rugby. After half a decade of non-dominance, this result signaled a new decade, one in which they would win many times, including two Rugby World Cups.

We had a turning point against New Zealand in 1990 in the last Test of the tour and from that moment the group knew they had an opportunity or at least the goods to match it with New Zealand on any given day and that was what we built on.[13]

One of the ‘memorable moments’ of that game was described as follows:

The third Test is still implanted in Australian minds. There was only one try scored, and that was by Kearns, who surged over the line and stepped into history as he invited Sean Fitzpatrick to ‘two barbecues’ with a typically Churchillean two-fingered gesture. The 21 to 9 victory ended a 50-match and 23-Test unbeaten sequence for the All Blacks. They showed that New Zealand could be beaten by positiveness and determination.[14] [15]

Another media article put it this way:

The third test, however, would be somewhat of a turning point for both teams. Australia won 21-9, thanks to five penalty goals by Lynagh, but also to that memorable try by Kearns and the even more memorable ‘celebration’ afterwards (see clip below).  The win gave a young Wallaby outfit some real belief as they halted the All Blacks’ record run of victories – 50 games and 23 tests.[16]

Another great example of the shift in self-belief by the Wallabies towards the All Blacks was when back rower Sam Scott-Young took up blowing kisses and winking at the All Blacks as they performed the haka.  In 1992 the Wallabies won the series with incidents such as this part of the fabric.

The Wallabies had gone from a team in fear of the All Blacks and expecting to lose, to a team that respected rather than feared them and expected to win.

Post 2000 – The decline and drought

In 2001 Australian won the southern hemisphere Tri-nations. The only times it has won it since have been 2011 and 2015, which were World Cup Years. In World Cup years the competition is shortened so that each nation only plays each other once, not the usual twice.

August 2001 was the last time the Wallabies have won a test match against the All Blacks in New Zealand.  (Australia hasn’t won a Test match at Eden Park, Auckland, since 1986)

2002 was the last time Australian won the Bledisloe Cup. In a best of two Bledisloe series, Australia retained the Cup with a single win of 16-14 win in Sydney.  That was the fifth year in a row holding the Cup, and the last year as the end of 2022. That’s twenty (20) years of failing to secure the Cup.

Looking at the team photo from the 2002 Sydney Bledisloe match, about half the team spent a lot of their career in my care. Many of them retired soon after.

On November 12, 2005, the Australian scrum was so savaged by the English scrum during a Wallaby tour game that the game ended with uncontested scrums. English prop Andrew Sheridan appeared to ‘deadlift’ the Australian scrum off the ground, and they were marched backwards distances rarely seen in Test rugby.

In the lead up to the 2017 Bledisloe Cup series, Australia Wallaby Coach conducted higher volume training months to ‘prepare the team for the games against the All Blacks. 

Cheika suggested the Wallabies’ sub-standard displays against Scotland and Italy was in part due to their higher training workloads in camp.

“If we didn’t do it over these three weeks and start that, it’ll be too late for later on,” he said. “Maybe that’s taken some of the edge off some of our performances because we’ve been going hard at it. [17]

How effective was this?

The first Bledisloe Cup game was played in Sydney, a great advantage for the Wallabies. They could get off to a first up win as you would expect from a home game, and in the best of three series they had two home games (played in Australia).  This is a recipe for a successful series.

In the first Test in Sydney the All Blacks scored 54 points in the first 48 minutes of play…

If Australian rugby fans needed any further reminding of the poor state of the game in this country it was provided by the All Blacks, who destroyed the Wallabies 54-34 in their Bledisloe Cup encounter in Sydney.

The final score line flattered the Wallabies, who were outclassed at the Olympic stadium by the All Blacks, with the World Cup winners taking their foot off the pedal after they led 54-6 early in the second half courtesy of eight tries…[18]

Here are some unenviable records created by the 2017 Bledisloe Cup results:

* It was the most points the All Blacks had ever scored against the Wallabies;

* A crowd of just 54,846 spectators, the lowest ever for a Bledisloe Cup match at the Olympic stadium, were witnessing one of the Wallabies’ worst performances [19]

* The 2017 loss made it 15 years in a row of New Zealand winning the Cup, the longest unbeaten run in the history of the Trans-Tasman competition.

The Wallabies went on to lose the second Bledisloe Cup game in Dunedin the following weekend, although the score was closer at 35-29.

The third game, a dead rubber, was played in Brisbane, with the Wallabies winning the game 23-18. The media and Australian rugby public did their best to see hope in this result.

Twelve months later, how was that fitness focus working? The following is the one of the headlines from the first match, in Sydney on Saturday 18th August 2018.

All Blacks dismantle stunned Wallabies with clinical second-half display[20]

Bledisloe disaster as All Blacks thrash Wallabies 38-13 in Sydney[21]

It was 6-5 to Australia at half-time. The second half score was 7-33 in favor of the All Blacks.  Interesting, especially in relation to the yearlong focus on ‘fitness’.

The second and deciding 2018 Bledisloe Cup game?

Bledisloe Cup: All Blacks thrash Wallabies 40-12 in Auckland[22]

That made it sixteen (16) years since Australia won the Bledisloe Cup.

Keep in mind this was after the June tour series by Ireland in Australia, where the Wallabies lost the series 2-1.

The rhetoric and blame-game hasn’t stopped. Former Wallaby coach Bob Dwyer jumped on the bandwagon in 2018, following yet another year of dismal Bledisloe Cup performances, the fourth year of Cheika being in charge.

‘They’re not fit enough’: Dwyer takes aim at Wallabies players, not Cheika

World Cup-winning Wallabies coach Bob Dwyer has pointed the finger at Australian players and not under-siege coach Michael Cheika, claiming in the wake of another embarrassing defeat to New Zealand that they are not fit enough.

The fallout has continued from Australia’s 40-12 loss to the All Blacks at Eden Park, which completed their 16th consecutive Bledisloe Cup series defeat, and the attention has now been turned onto the players’ condition.

Last year in June, Cheika put his foot down and stated publicly that players’ fitness was not where it needed to be. He put his men through brutal fitness sessions in the lead-up to the Rugby Championship but, like this year, they were unable to knock off the world’s best team.

Even as recently as Sunday, the day after the Wallabies’ sixth loss from seven Tests, Cheika reiterated his view that fitness levels were superior to 2017.

“[Fitness] still can improve but I think it’s better,” he said. “It’s about the key moments and reacting mentally with urgency to shut those situations down.

Dwyer is a former coach of Cheika’s at Randwick and considered a mentor, for him.  Bob knows all about pressure on national coaches. Unlike Bob, Michael doesn’t have the physical preparation program that Bob had between 1988 and end of his (second) tenure as Wallaby head coach.

There is a great saying in the Australian workers vernacular:

A poor tradesman blames his tools.

The solution – transplant New Zealand Coaches in Australian

It would appear from the last two decades the Australian rugby solution for the challenge of beating the All Blacks was to hire New Zealand coaches.

Is this an effective strategy? We don’t have to speculate. We have three former high level New Zealand coaches who have been transplanted into Australia during the last twenty years.

In 2006 Mitchell became the first ever coach to coach an Australian provincial franchise. John Mitchell coached the All Blacks for about two years between 2001 and 2003, with an 82% win loss record. Not bad, but not good enough for the New Zealand expectations, thus his relatively short tenure.

In his five seasons with the Australian provincial team the Western Forces in the southern hemisphere Super Rugby completion his best result was 7th place, and I estimate his win loss ratio at about 20%.

Next came Robbie Deans. Robbie Deans won two Super rugby championships with the Canterbury Crusaders and on that basis became the first non-Australian coach of the Wallabies. In his five or so years as Australia’s national coach, Deans achieved a 59% win-loss ratio.

Next came Dave Rennie. Dave Rennie won two Super rugby championships with the Waikato Chiefs and on that basis became the second non-Australian coach of the Wallabies, only seven years after Deans had departed.  He achieved a 36% win loss record over his three years.

I’d conclude that this solution failed.

Conclusion

Statistically speaking Australian must win a Bledisloe series sooner or later, and every year passing makes this sooner.

Will the so called ‘Golden Era’ of rugby return?

During the late 1980s and throughout the 1990s an Australian player pool was developed that produced what became known as the ‘Golden Era’. It was not the first golden era, but it was the last.

So, what happened that left Australian rugby devoid of golden eras?

When success is created, greed arrives.  I witnessed this firsthand during the mid 1990s when Queensland rugby established itself as the best provincial team in the world.

I witnessed this firsthand in the late 1990s when the Australian national rugby team won its second Rugby World Cup.

Individuals were given or sought to take credit:

Coach Rod Macqueen and Captain John Eales lead Australia through a golden age of Australian Rugby. [23]

“From a sport that was really living on the smell of an oily rag, we became profitable, we held every trophy possible,” O’Neill said.  “It was a remarkable five year period – a purple patch, a golden era that hasn’t been repeated – sadly.”

Let’s be clear – the success of the late 1990s and early 2002s was borne out of period and efforts and systems where neither of those individuals could take any credit for.

The following quote is relevant:

Success has many fathers; failure is an orphan.[24]

Individuals and organizations sought to benefit financially from the success.  Put simply, I believe Australian rugby killed the goose that laid the golden egg.

The 1990s was a Golden Era – not just 1999-2001, where the Australian rugby union team full of players developed in a national talent identification program the likes never seen before in world rugby during the prior decade.

Former Australian National Coaching Director Dick  Marks summed this up very accurately:

“But … the greatest inheritance of all … (was) the 1996 squad of Wallabies, the most talented and best-nurtured ever assembled in this country – and all produced under a pre-O’Neill regime… It is not hard to be seen to be doing a good job when you inherit the best team in history.” [25]

Even an article from published out of Japan more accurately described the build-up that resulted in the peak of 2000 (followed by the immediate decline):

… we take a closer look at the two-time World Champions to give our Japanese fans some insight into the history of Australian rugby, its Golden Generations of the 80s, 90s and early-2000s…[26]

Perhaps if Australian rugby had the character of Canterbury Rugby Union (the Crusaders) there would be more hope to have held on to the greatness that was created in Australian provincial (Queensland Reds followed by the ACT Brumbies) and national (Wallabies) rugby during the 1990s.

But it didn’t.

In my opinion the game was so abused in Australia during the late 1990s/early 2000 period by those who sought to turn its beauty into power that the recovery period has been extensive.

When will Australian rugby experience another ‘golden era’?   Time will tell!

—-

This article is formed with extracts from the book ‘You Can’t Do That! Lessons from a lifetime of helping rugby players, teams & coaches’.

 

References

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rugby_union_in_New_Zealand#:~:text=New%20Zealand%2C%20commonly%20referred%20to,Ground%20on%2015%20August%201903.

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bledisloe_Cup

[3] History of rugby union matches between Australia and New Zealand, Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_rugby_union_matches_between_Australia_and_New_Zealand  (with percentage added)

[4] 1980 New Zealand rugby union tour of Australia and Fiji, Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1980_New_Zealand_rugby_union_tour_of_Australia_and_Fiji

[5] 1982 Australia rugby union tour of New Zealand, Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1982_Australia_rugby_union_tour_of_New_Zealand

[6] Bledisloe Cup, Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bledisloe_Cup

[7] 1984 New Zealand rugby union tour of Australia, Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1984_New_Zealand_rugby_union_tour_of_Australia

[8] 1986 Australia rugby union tour of New Zealand, Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1986_Australia_rugby_union_tour_of_New_Zealand

[9] Bledisloe Cup, Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bledisloe_Cup

[10] 1988 New Zealand rugby union tour of Australia, Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1988_New_Zealand_rugby_union_tour_of_Australia

[11] New Zealand National Rugby Union Team, Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Zealand_national_rugby_union_team#Overall

[12] History of rugby union matches between Australia and New Zealand, Wikipedia,

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_rugby_union_matches_between_Australia_and_New_Zealand

[13] Rusty, 2015, Win over All Blacks sparked ’91 campaign,  Qld Reds 30 Oct 2015, http://www.redsrugby.com.au/News/NewsArticles/tabid/581/ArticleID/16873/WIN-OVER-ALL-BLACKS-SPARKED-’91-CAMPAIGN.aspx

[14] Phillip Kearns, Hooker, Wallaby #681 http://www.aru.com.au/wallabies/TheTeam/HistoricalWallabiesPlayerProfile.aspx?pid=763

[15] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EiIZ_BZNiUA

[16] Roberts, R., 2010, A RWC Retrospective: 19911 vs. 2011, Green and Gold Rugby, 7 July 2010, http://www.greenandgoldrugby.com/a-rwc-wallaby-retrospective-comparing-1991-to-2011/

[17] Wallabies not fit enough for Test rugby, Stephen Moore says, ESPN, 24 June 2017, http://www.espn.com.au/rugby/story/_/id/19724368/wallabies-not-fit-enough-test-rugby-stephen-moore-says

[18] Bledisloe Cup: Wallabies thrashed by All Blacks 54-34 in series opener in Sydney, ,ABC News, 19 Aug 2017, http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-08-19/bledisloe-cup-all-backs-thrash-wallabies/8823162

[19] Bledisloe Cup: Wallabies thrashed by All Blacks 54-34 in series opener in Sydney

,ABC News, 19 Aug 2017, http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-08-19/bledisloe-cup-all-backs-thrash-wallabies/8823162

[20] Morgan, C. 2018, All Blacks dismantle stunned Wallabies, Telegraph, 18 Aug 2018, https://www.telegraph.co.uk/rugby-union/2018/08/18/australia-vs-new-zealand-bledisloe-cup-live-score-updates/

[21] Worthington, S., All Blacks thrash Wallabies, Fox Sports, 19 Aug 2018, https://www.foxsports.com.au/rugby/bledisloe-cup/follow-all-the-action-as-the-wallabies-v-all-blacks-in-bledisloe-i/news-story/2bd3de728bf9d52916f0660813b8f2b6

[22] Worthington, S., Bledisloe Cup: All Blacks thrash Wallabies 40-12 in Auckland, Fox Sports, 19 Aug 2018, https://www.foxsports.com.au/rugby/wallabies/bledisloe-cup-live-coverage-of-all-blacks-v-wallabies-test-in-auckland/news-story/77e62317ed71a3dc0e509e5247324d33

[23] https://www.legendsunderglassframing.com/product-page/the-golden-age-of-australian-rugby-ru35

[24] https://www.quora.com/Who-said-Success-has-many-fathers-but-failure-is-an-orphan

[25] https://www.foxsports.com.au/rugby/marks-questions-oneills-success/news-story/b61ecd2fea9da4788805ca548a78b5ea

[26] http://en.rugby-japan.jp/2021/10/20/green-and-gold-rugby-a-brief-history-of-the-wallabies/

Ian King

The western world’s blind spot to global physical preparation publications

/by

From their commencement in 1978 the American National Strength Coaches Association (NSCA, later changed to National Strength & Conditioning Association) produced very helpful and welcome articles on physical training (mainly strength training). However, one thing stood out at least during the period up to 2000 – referencing of non-US writers was sparse to say the least.

I asked around in the US as to why and the best explanation I could get as to why was that they felt that the non-US research could not be ‘verified’.

I don’t believe it was that simple, however that’s a discussion for another day. Let’s just say there were many nations that have been ahead of America during the modern history of our profession in the area of studying and quantifying physical preparation. And when the US stepped up its game the focus was narrow i.e. strength-centric. And I believe this disregard for non-US training publications created  a blind spot for in this profession.

A recent article highlighted this phenomenon.[1] The polite and helpful comments by a reader shed light on this. Full credit to the article author contribution, however it did reflect what I believe is the western world’s professional blind spot. And provides us all with an opportunity to make amends, to dig deeper and appreciate the origin and history of training theory and methodology globally.

I share this enlightening exchange below:

Reader Interactions – Comments

Anders Lindsjö

DECEMBER 14, 2022 AT 12:06 PM

Thanks for a very good article that hopefully will help coaches to use VBT in the future

REPLY

Giorgio

DECEMBER 14, 2022 AT 5:18 PM

Stepping off a low platform and immediately rebounding was in use in Germany and Poland ten years before Verkhoshansky experiments…

REPLY

Kim Goss

DECEMBER 14, 2022 AT 6:35 PM

Thanks for the comment. Can you give me a published, dated reference from researchers in those countries that I can research to compare their work with the classical plyometrics (i.e. shock training) from Yuri Verkhoshansky’s? I’ve never seen anyone challenge Verkhoshansky’s claim that he was the creator of classical plyometrics. Fun Fact: Dr. Siff told me the East Germans had teams of researchers translating the work of Russian sports scientists such as Professor Verkhoshansky.

REPLY

Giorgio

DECEMBER 14, 2022 AT 10:32 PM

It all begins with a statement by Tadeusz Starzynski, Polish jumping coach, in his “Le Triple Saut”, Editions Vigot, 23 rue de l’ Ecole de Medecine – 75006 Paris, 1987. On page 120 of this publication Starzynski states :
“La plyometrie est connue depuis longtemps et pratiquee dans l’ entrainement des triple sauteurs polonais depuis 1952”

REPLY

Giorgio

DECEMBER 14, 2022 AT 10:43 PM

Continuing my research, I found an old German manual, author Toni Nett, dating back to 1952.
The title was “Das Ubungs und Trainingsbuch der Leichtathletik”, Verlag fur Sport und Leibesubungen Harry Bartels, Berlin Charlottenburg 5, Fritschestrasse 27/28. In the section dedicated to the triple jump, the exercises using depth jumps with rebound appear

REPLY

Giorgio

DECEMBER 14, 2022 AT 10:56 PM

Already in 1962 Mr. Tadeusz Starzynski had published a manual on the triple jump, where he presented the methodologies already used for a long time in Poland (including depth jumps with rebound).
The title was Trojskok, Seria popularnych podrecznikow lekkiej atletyki, pod redakcja Jana Mulaka, Sport i Turystyka, Warszawa 1962.
This publication is in my possession and I can send you a copy.

Kim Goss

DECEMBER 15, 2022 AT 8:03 AM

This is why I played it safe and used the title “A Brief History….” “Rather than “The Brief History.” 🙂

The goal of the article was to recognize a few of those Iron Game pioneers who helped with the evolution of athletic training – I’m sure I left many other deserving individuals out.

With what you’re presenting, we could say that Verkhoshansky did extensive research on depth jumps and helped popularize this form of training in sports other than track and field. That said, your references are intriguing.

In “Supertraining,” the athletic fitness textbook Verkhoshanky co-authored with Dr. Siff, there is an extensive reference list. However, even though Verkhoshanky was a jumps coach, there are no references to the publications you listed. How could he have missed this?

This information will come in handy next time I write an article about plyometrics.

Kim

P.S. Thanks for the offer to share a copy. First, I’ll see if I can find those references through my resources first.

REPLY

Giorgio

DECEMBER 15, 2022 AT 10:39 PM

There’s more : Track Technique – The Journal of Technical Track & Field Athletics, Fred Wilt Editor, no 17, September 1964 Heinz Rieger, Training of Triple Jumpers. The article was translated and synthesized by Gerry Weichert from no 8 issue of “Der Leichtathlet” dated June 6 1963. Rieger was coach of the ASK Vorwarts Club in East Berlin ( former DDR).
Several Depth Jumps exercises are presented in this very old article.

Giorgio

DECEMBER 15, 2022 AT 11:19 PM

Track Technique – The Journal of Technical Track & Field Athletics, no. 20, June 1965
Heinz Kleinen, Winter Conditioning and Training for Triple Jumpers
Translated by Jess Jarver from no 4, January 28 1964 issue of Die Lehre der Leichtathletik, published in Berlin, West Germany
Several depth jump drills in this article.

REPLY

Giorgio

DECEMBER 15, 2022 AT 11:27 PM

In short, in Poland, West Germany and East Germany, Depth Jumps with rebound had already been known and practiced for a long time

REPLY

Kim Goss

DECEMBER 16, 2022 AT 2:09 PM

Good stuff! I’ll be sure to refer to this material in future articles I write about plyometrics when appropriate.

It also could be argued that gymnasts practiced depth jumps long before Verkhoshansky published any of his research. Again, the best compromise seems to be that Verkhoshansky popularized applying many training methods from track and field to other sports. Oh, and that he had a better publicist! 🙂

Thanks again for the references!

REPLY

Giorgio

DECEMBER 17, 2022 AT 3:58 AM

I would like to point out that the Germans, during the execution of the depth jumps, used mats, precisely because of the very strong impact on the ground, very similar if not equal to the “shock” method (and we are in 1950 – 1951).

 

References

[1] Goss, K., 2022, A Brief History of VBT: Iron Game Pioneers Who Revolutionized Athletic Training, Simplifaster,  https://simplifaster.com/articles/history-vbt-pioneers-revolutionized-training/

Ian King

The English rose and a coaching challenge

/by

On the 11th March 2023 in his first year and 4th game as head coach of the English national men’s rugby union team, Stephen Borthwick set a record. But not the kind of record anyone would want or celebrate. At the spiritual home of English rugby, Twickenham, his team was beaten 10 – 53 by France.

·       England 10-53 France: Steve Borthwick’s sorry side concede their most points EVER at Twickenham in Six Nations[1]

·      England suffer historic humiliation after France’s Twickenham tour de force[2]

·      Post-Eddie England humiliated by France in record Six Nations thumping[3]

·      France humiliates England in record 53-10 win in Six Nations[4]

The game result also came with some unenviable records:

  • A record loss for a home game;
  • The third highest loss deficit in English history in any game;[5]
  • The worse deficit for England in Six Nations history.

The 53-10 scoreline in England’s devastating home defeat to France in the Guinness Six Nations has made the record books for all the wrong reasons.[6]

So, Stephen has a challenge.

Let’s go back a bit in time.

In late 2015 the English Rugby Union hired their first foreign coach in Australian Eddie Jones,[7] replacing Stuart Lancaster. Lancaster had achieved a 61% win/loss record in his four-year, one world cup cycle tenure.[8]

Eddie rewarded this decision in 2016 with an unbeaten record and a Six Nations title.  He also became only the second coach to achieve an unbeaten year record. Eddie backed it up with another Six Nations title in 2017. He achieved a third Six Nations title in 2020,[9] and led the team to the finals in the 2019 World Cup where they were defeated by South Africa.

Jones achieved the title of the most successful English coach ever over his seven year stint finishing with a  73%.[10]

So, what’s that got to do with Stephen Borthwick and the latest ‘record’? Everything.

Some infer that the slump is because Eddie has left, such as this heading:

Post-Eddie England humiliated by France in record Six Nations thumping[11]

I suggest there is potentially a different perspective to this story.

At England Eddie Jones joined that small list of ‘first year winners’.  That creates a new challenge. Some say there is only one way to go from there – down. I like to think there are two. Stay winning, or decline.

Eddie took the former path for his second season, and then took the latter path for the following two seasons.  There’s a story behind that (you can read more about that in my upcoming rugby book), but for now I’m going to stay focused on Stephen Borthwick’s predicament.

The following tables depicts England’s annual Six Nation’s results under Eddie Jones.

Table 1 – Eddie Jones’ England’s 7 Year Six Nations Ladder Results

You can see three phases here- the decline from 2016 peak to 2018, and then the recovery from 2019 into a new peak in 2020, followed by a further decline into 2022.

However, the Six Nations tournament is only part of the picture. The annual win-loss results may be more informative.

The following charts shows this pattern.

Figure 1 – Eddie Jones’ 7 Year English RugbyWin-Loss Stats

Stephen has a challenge. He has been left with downward momentum by his former mentor and predecessor. Will he successfully overcome that challenge?

Some doubt it such as this journalist:

Hopeless England suffer their most humiliating day and worse is to come.[12]

What do you think?

~~~~~~~~~

If you’re a rugby fan and interested in my experience with rugby union specifically over the last 40 years, you might be interested in a book I’m currently writing. Send me an email (info@kingsports.net) or post a comment on this blog and I’ll ensure you’re the first to know about the completed book once finished.

 

References

[1] England 10-53 France: Steve Borthwick’s sorry side concede their most points EVER at Twickenham in Six Nations

[2] England suffer historic humiliation after France’s Twickenham tour de force

[3] Post-Eddie England humiliated by France in record Six Nations thumping

[4] https://www.lemonde.fr/en/sports/article/2023/03/11/france-humiliates-england-in-record-53-10-win-in-six-nations_6018971_9.html

[5] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_England_national_rugby_union_team_records

[6] https://www.rugbypass.com/news/a-list-of-england-rugbys-heaviest-defeats/

[7] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eddie_Jones_(rugby_union)#:~:text=Jones%20was%20named%20as%20the,end%20of%202023%20World%20Cup.

[8] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stuart_Lancaster_(rugby_union)

[9] https://www.sixnationsrugby.com/history/roll_of_honour/

[10] https://www.independent.co.uk/sport/rugby/rugby-union/england-eddie-jones-record-six-nations-b2239811.html

[11] https://www.smh.com.au/sport/post-eddie-england-humiliated-by-france-in-record-six-nations-thumping-20230312-p5crd7.html

[12] https://www.independent.co.uk/sport/rugby/rugby-union/england-france-score-result-six-nations-b2298855.html

Ian King

A lament for the late arrivals

/by

In the modern history of athletic preparation, there has been growing consideration for physical preparation. What the Americans call ‘strength & conditioning’. It may not be accurate to suggest that physical preparation is a new concept. The interpretation of the stories of the Greek athlete Milo of Croton from 6th BC gives support to a longer history.

However physical preparation has changed a lot in the forty-plus years during my professional involvement in sport.

A review of literature review reveals that track and field and then American football led the way in embracing physical preparation during the last century, especially the American version of physical preparation where ‘strength training’ dominants, literally and figuratively (i.e. in the title – strength… and then conditioning).

As surprising as it seems to the younger generation these were the only sports up until about 1980 in the US and 1990 in Australia that fully embraced the American interpretation of physical preparation.

Post 1980 (North America) and 1990 (Asia Pacific) a new wave embraced the American interpretation of physical preparation. Power and mixed energy sports such as most field sports e.g. rugby union, rugby league, Australian Rules Football, to name a few Australian based sports.

I call this the second wave.

Post 2000 there was a third wave that involved sports such as swimming. Some may suggest that swimming embraced strength training earlier – not based on my experiences working with both US and Australian-based swimmers. Let’s just say the discussions in the national team environment, that I was party to, were not favorable in the direction of strength training for swimming. I did not see any real acceptance of this until post 2000, and I include observations of coaching protocols as well as the content being shared at the annual Australian Swim Coaches Association (as it was known then) conventions.

Post 2010 there was a fourth wave that involved sports with great balance and less direct relationship with swimming e.g. surfing, off-road motorcycle racing. I call these the late arrivals.

There is I suggest a pattern to the sequence of acceptance by sports of the American influenced ‘strength and conditioning’. From sports where strength training plays a bigger role through to sports where strength training plays a lessor role.

Table 1 – Four waves of sports that embraced physical preparation.

Phase USA Australia Sports
1 – Early embracers <1980 <1980 Track # field, American football
2 – >1980 >1990 Power and mixed energy sports e.g. rugby, Australian Rules
3 – >2000 >2000 Diverse medium sports e.g. swimming
4 – Late arrivals >2010 >2010 Displacement, balance and more coordination-based sports e.g. off-road motorcycle disciplines

©King, I., 2021

Put simply, there is a reason they are late arrivals. And therefore, blind acceptance and embracing of methodology applied in all other sports has even more potential downsides the further along the continuum you go.

I feel for the late arrivals, and I lament the collateral damage they are potentially walking into. To see they feel, they are being more ‘professional’ by the mere act of ‘going to the gym’ and embracing the same training values as their predecessors sports is hurtful to watch.

There is a reason certain sports were later to the ‘strength training’ party, and if you fail to respect that and fail to reflect and consider more optimal ways, then these sports will pay the biggest price of them all. And I suggest it is happening.

Firstly, if the lessons of the last century of strength training for sport were made available. However, they are not.

Let me give an example. There would be very few swimming coaches in the Australian high-performance environment alive and coaching today who were around in the 1960s when Australian swim coaches began their initial flirtation with strength training. They learned certain things and reacted appropriately, pulling back from this modality, in at least the way it was being done. I base these observations on personal discussions with the late John Carew. I doubt too many if any of the current Australian elite swim coaches have had such discussions. The lessons have been lost.

The outcome is increased injuries and decreased performance. The exact opposite to the proclaimed benefits of ‘strength and conditioning’. A great example of this is Australian rugby, where it’s been nearly 20 years since Australia beat the New Zealand All Blacks for the cherished Bledisloe Cup, and the nation has sunk to a historic low world ranking of 7th in recent years. There are reasons for this, and a big part of this I suggest is the misguided off-field training resulting in decreased performance potential and increased injury incidence and severity.

It’s tough to beat a nation where the players may be more culturally and genetically suited to the game when your off-field training is letting you down.

Secondly, it may also be fine if strength training for sport, the American way, has evolved well past the programs used for American football. However, I suggest they have not.

Again, in anticipation of challenges to my last statement, let me give you an example – a golf scholarship athlete at a Div. 1 US NCAA college given the exact program as the American football team at the same college – post 2010…

Many American football players do not run far, do not touch the ball and so. If you are not playing American football and conduct your off-field training in a way that is heavily influenced, you will pay a price. And I suggest that is happening.

However how many were around in the 1970s transition to the 1980s in physical preparation to know from a personal/ professional perspective what had transpired in the formation of the American interpretation of physical preparation. Not many. The lessons have been lost.

All athletes want to play, and some want to play at the higher levels. In this pursuit, they seek additional and ‘new’ ways to train, to gain confidence they are ‘on track’ e.g., training like ‘all the other pro’s’.

I feel for the late arrivals, and I lament the collateral damage they are potentially walking into. There should have been a better message for you by now, however there is not. Tread carefully.

Ideally, I should be saving I hope your non-specific (physical preparation) training helps you thrive. That would be nice. However, based on my experience and observations – what I know – if you do what the rest of your colleagues are doing in their interpretation of the best way to train, survive may be a more appropriate term.

You deserve better. Our profession has failed to deliver safe training, let alone optimal training. Now it’s up to you to be more discerning. Don’t assume. Don’t imitate. Seek answers, dig deeper, objectively question and interpret the cause-effect relationship of what you are seeing and doing. Be more scientific in your review than our profession is.

Your future depends on it.

And not just your sporting future.

Ian King

Still hamstrung, after all these years

/by

The story goes that back in about the 1970s two high level bodybuilders agreed to a sprint race, and during that sprint race they both tore hamstrings.

This story entertained many, however I took a more serious lesson from it.

Combined with my observations of the shift in posture from the 1960s to the 1970s bodybuilder and took into account that the clients I served displaced further and faster that the average bodybuilder, alarm bells were ringing.

The development of the Lines of Movement Concept (especially the hip vs quad dominant component was a direct response to my concerns about injury potential from muscle balance.  As was the introduction and innovation of bodyweight and unilateral exercises into strength training in a way that was considered unconventional at the time (however since 2000 have become the backbone of the so-called ‘functional training’ movement). [1]

Or you can learn about it second hand, however I suggest the power of the message may have been diluted in these versions.

That’s just not my biased opinion – that an observation of the direction of injuries globally.

So in the 1980s I  committed to ensuring the muscle imbalances evident from mainstream strength training trends would not be part of the life of athletes I worked with.

Decades later I look back with confirmation that my Zero Tolerance approach to injuries, especially soft tissue injuries, has been successful.

Successful for athletes that I have worked with during the past four decades. However, the message, even with the concept being republished endlessly by others, has not been successful.

It appears humans are still struggling to prevent simple yet debilitating injuries such as hamstring strains.

These soft tissue injuries are predictable, preventable, unnecessary and non-productive.

Recently at an off-road motorcycling competition I observed a rider enter the pits prematurely and heard him declare he has torn his hamstring.  I was more than intrigued, mixed with the usual compassion for the athlete.  He had torn his hamstring on a motorbike?

As a student of injury prevention, not only did I provide care and guidance over the next hour, I tested my hypothesis as I typically do with a series of questions to the rider.

My conclusion – just another victim of mainstream training paradigms. He was buffed. Anyone male would be proud of the physique he had developed. But stretching? No, not much of that. I checked out his all-important quads and they were rocks. They looked great.   A real Men’s Health model candidate. However, the rest of the body was suffering for the training outcome he had produced – especially the hamstrings.

At first he was keen to tell me had been tight all is his life. That was shut down quickly with his – and to his credit – acknowledgement he had not done much to change this.

Then he went down the path of ‘I am a rower and that is why I am tight’. That was shut down quickly when I raised some of the elite rowers I had worked with, and that I had failed to observe tightness as a common theme in rowers.

Once we got through the excuses and the defense mechanisms and got to hear how he trained – there were no surprise. He had absorbed the current paradigms of training and was just another victim of the times.

There is no shortage of statistics on the extent of hamstring injury; Here are a few collated by Eirale C. and Ekstrand (2019)[2]:

  • Epidemiological studies assessing sports constantly rank hamstring injuries as one of the most prevalent factors resulting in missed playing time by athletes.[3] [4] [5]
  • Hamstring ‘strains’ account for a substantial percentage of acute, sports related musculoskeletal injuries with a prevalence of 6 to 25%, depending on the sport. [6]
  • Hamstring strains are far more common in positions in which sprinting is more often required.[7] [8] [9]
  • A survey of the UEFA Champions League showed that muscle injuries make up more than 30% of all player injuries and cause about 1/4 of total time lost due to injury.[10]
  • Over 90% of muscle injuries seen in this study involved four major muscle groups of the lower extremity: hamstrings, adductors, quadriceps and gastrocnemius. [11]
  • Injury to the hamstring muscle group is reported to be the most common injury subtype representing 12% of all injuries and more than 1/3 of all strains.[12]
  • A professional male soccer team with 25 players may expect about five hamstring injuries each season, equivalent to more than 80 lost football days and 14 missed matches.[13]
  • In soccer injury to the hamstring muscle group is reported to be the most common injury subtype representing 12% of all injuries and more than 1/3 of all strains.[14]
  • In a track and field sprinting study the most frequent diagnosis was hamstring strain.[15] For example, thigh strain was the most common diagnosis (16%) in sports injury surveillance studies at the 2007, 2009 and 2011 IAAF (International Association of Athletics Federations) World Athletics Championships.[16] [17] [18]
  • In the American football muscle strains account for 46% of practice injuries and 22% of pre-season game injuries, the second most common pre-season injury.[19]
  • More than half (53.1%) of all hamstring injuries in American football occurred in the 7-week pre-season, before the teams had even played their first regular-season game.[20]

And there is also no shortage of claimed causes and preventions. Perhaps the most popular of these is described in the following statement:“The best evidence for injury prevention is available for programmes designed to increase hamstring strength, particularly eccentric hamstrings strength.”[21]

So, what impact have all these theories and research had on hamstring injury incidence?

“Despite a massive amount of recent research and consequent prevention programmes, hamstring injury incidence is not decreasing.” [22]:

I shake my head as to why the sporting world is still plagued by soft tissue injuries. Everyone now wants to be a ‘injury rehab specialist’ – yet no-one wants to be an ‘injury prevention’ advocate.

Perhaps it is understandable, when you search the ‘web you find so many articles, website and experts purporting to have the education to prevent hamstring injuries. I am very uninterested in theories. I want to know of sporting seasons with high volumes of athletes and minimal if any soft tissue injuries. That’s the only evidence that matters.

Soft tissue injuries such as hamstring strains are completely optional and unnecessary. It’s pretty easy to make them extinct or near extinct. Yet they continue.

Two things are apparent to me – the rise in soft tissue injuries, and the concurrent rise in funding and research on how to prevent them has been ineffective.

Yet the ‘search’ continues. The NFL has just allocated $4m USD (yes, 4 million) to:

“…fund a team of medical researchers led by the University of Wisconsin” to “investigate the prevention and treatment of hamstring injuries for elite football players.” [23]

The NFL has had only one century to solve the mystery of hamstrings…[24]

This statement was made in relation to this research:

“The persistent symptoms, slow healing, and a high rate of re-injury make hamstring strains a frustrating and disabling injury for athletes and a challenge for sport medicine clinicians to treat,” said Dr. Bryan Heiderscheit, PT, PhD, FAPTA, Department of Orthopedics and Rehabilitation, University of Wisconsin-Madison.” [25]

I agree it would be frustrating for the athletes – if they were trained in a manner that resulted in hamstring strains. I agree it would be a challenge for sports medicine clinicians to treat – if they didn’t know how to prevent and rehabilitate them on the rare occasions they might occur.

However, I don’t agree with the following suggestion in relation to the recent NFL funding:

“To truly understand and reduce hamstring injury risk requires a study of an unprecedented size and scope.”

And what will it result in? Will it solve the leagues 100 years search for answers to hamstring strains? Let’s review the hamstring strain stats in the NFL in about a decade. That should be enough time.

I have my predictions, and I am sure they differ from those invested in the ‘research’ of hamstring strains. Our profession has been ‘researching’ hamstring strains for decades, and I suggest that it has not resulted in a downturn in hamstring incidence.

But you don’t need my opinion. The statistics tell the story.

It appears the world is still hamstrung, after all these years.

 

References

[1] You can learn more about these concepts in the original writings of How to Write (1998) and How to Teach (2000), the Legacy book (2018) or the KSI Coaching Courses.

[2] Eirale C. and Ekstrand, J.,  2019, Hamstrings are dangerous for sport and sport is dangerous for hamstrings, Aspetar Sports Medicine Journal, Vol. 8, p. 438-444.

[3] Ekstrand J, Healy JC, Walden M, Lee JC, English B, Hagglund M. Hamstring muscle injuries in professional football: the correlation of MRI findings with return to play. Br J Sports Med 2012; 46:112-117.

[4] Orchard JW. Intrinsic and extrinsic risk factors for muscle strains in Australian football. Am J Sports Med 2001; 29:300- 303.

[5] Eirale C, Farooq A, Smiley FA, Tol JL, Chalabi H. Epidemiology of football injuries in Asia: a prospective study in Qatar. J Sci Med Sport 2013; 16:113-117.

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[23] https://www.nfl.com/news/nfl-scientific-advisory-board-awards-4-million-research-funding-hamstring

[24] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Football_League

[25] https://www.nfl.com/news/nfl-scientific-advisory-board-awards-4-million-research-funding-hamstring