Top tennis prospect Nick Kyrgios is the latest Australian sportsman with a question mark over his fitness.
The 19-year-old missed the start of the season in the Hopman Cup and Brisbane International with a back injury, and was the walking wounded with a knee problem in the latter stages of his three-set loss to Poland’s Jerzy Janowicz in Sydney last night.
Lleyton Hewitt is the prime example. His stellar career has been consistently punctured by injuries and surgery.
Turn the clock back to the likes of Frank Sedgman, Ken Rosewall, Lew Hoad, Rod Laver, Roy Emerson, Neale Fraser, Ashely Cooper, Fred Stolle, John Newcombe, and Tony Roche to name a few, and there were no injuries, maybe the odd niggle, but nothing to miss tournaments.
Take the cricketers, especially the pacemen.
Ray Lindwall, Keith Miller. Bill Johnston, Alan Davidson, Graham McKenzie, Ian Meckiff, Alan Connolly, Gary Gilmour, Len Pascoe, and Rodney Hogg didn’t have any problems in eras where they had jobs 9-5, practiced on Tuesday and Thursday afternoons, and played on Saturdays.
Only Dennis Lillee, with stress fractures of his back that required a change in his bowling delivery to lessen the problem, and firebrand Jeff Thomson who collided with Alan Turner in Adelaide against Pakistan that broke his collarbone and had to be pinned, were casualties in the pre-Packer era,
And let’s not forget, when Sheffield Shield or Test duties were called on, they had to get time off work to represent.
Take the current crop of pacemen – Mitchell Johnson, Ryan Harris, Trent Copeland, Pat Cummins, James Pattinson, Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazlewood, and Jackson Bird.
Every one of them has been out of action for long periods, Cummins in particular has played only one Test against South Africa just over three years ago in a stunning man of the match performance, but hasn’t played a Test since.
Take Michael Clarke, and Shane Watson, who are consistently injured.
But both of them have been full-time professional cricketers since they left school.
Clarke (33), has had chronic back problems since he was 17, and since then has added hamstring injuries that are likely to reappear at the flick of a switch.
Watson (also 33) has injured his back, shoulder, groin, calf, and ankles, apologies if I’ve missed anything. So much so Watson has played 56 Tests, but missed 58 though injury.
Brothers Shaun and Mitchell Marsh are injury prone as well, while their opening batsman father Geoff had no such problems.
Which raises the question are current Australian tennis players and cricketers over-trained, or soft?
Are they spending far too much time in the gym lifting weights, something tennis and cricket legends of the past never did?
Or are there too many on the coach’s support staff who are over-cooking the current crop to justify their existence?
Somewhere among those questions are the answers.
One thing’s for sure, the answers have to be found.
peeeko
Roar Guru
i thought it was 50 for golf?
Johnno
Guest
Mcdermott was finished by aged 31, when you think Mcgrath got to 36, Harris is 35,Warne got to 37,Mitch Johnson is 34 this year. Not sure when you look through players of past a bit with rose tinted glasses I reckon. Plenty of players in all sports are sticking around longer, as training standards and injury prevention have improved. Look at tennis, no teenage men or women win grand slams anymore, Nadal seemed the last and he was 19,and that was 10 years ago in 2005. What's also skyrocketed is the seniors tours in golf and tennis, the prizemoney has gone up for both and the players are fitter. I think seniors tennis starts at aged 35, and golf i think it's 40.
Professor Rosseforp
Guest
I'm not so sure about this, pjm. The recovery time of serious injuries in footballing codes is unbelievable. Given the investigations into the use of performance-enhancing substances, and having a look at pictures of footballers of today's era compared with, say Mr Universe of the 1970s, I would not be surprised at a reasonable level of sophistication in supplements. These are not necessarily illegal. Our swimmers tend to peak at the right time, and hit fabulous new times, as do our athletes. Certainly elite competition can enhance performance, but so can substances that are injected or ingested. Appearances can be deceptive, but looking at tennis players and field athletes, too, I see a surprising amount of chiselled features, virtual absence of fat, super-developed and defined muscles, some facial rounding in some players, voice-deepening in females, and super reflexes. Possibly these are due to sophisticated training, possibly they are due to sophisticated supplement regimes. Perhaps I am too cynical, but I remember taking some cold and flu medication, and finishing 7 hours' worth of work within 2 hours and feeling fresh as a daisy. It certainly made me ponder some of the benefits of supplements to an elite athlete (of which I am not one!)
Professor Rosseforp
Guest
Benaud had operations on his bowling arm ; Rodney Hogg stopped bowling (because of asthma) after a couple of overs in his first test, after taking a couple of wickets ; Bradman missed a lot of playing time (because of illness rather than training). Craig McDermott was a health freak, and was the first player I remember where training was directly related to his inability to play. There was a lot of talk at thetime of the fine balance between training and over-training. I'm sure many of the players are forced back onto the field before they are ready, especially in football codes, although Michael Clarke springs to mind in cricket. I know people who have broken their feet when dancing. Years later, they still have problems with pain, inability to move, etc. Yet we regularly see sports persons breaking their feet and playing again in a matter of weeks.
catcat
Guest
If it's an elite sport with the potential to earn you a lot of money and success, then you will push your body hard to get there. Back in the old days players would probably retire young if they were injury prone as they knew they would need to work and were not willing to sacrifice their bodies for professional (or amateur) sport. But with more money to be made now and enough "experts" to get you back on the field, you have the option to keep on playing.
Winston
Guest
I think it's the increasingly professional and competitive nature forcing present athletes to push their bodies more than past players. I don't understand why there's so much criticism on players going to the gym lifting weights. They're all on specifically designed programs by health professionals to both boost strength and reduce injury. If Michael Clarke has dodgy hamstrings, should he be doing more hamstring exercises or less? Well, unless he can play cricket in a way that avoids using his hamstrings at all, then surely the answer is he should do more hamstring exercises.
stevjam
Guest
With the advent of professional sports, full-time training (incl gym work that wasnt really around previously) has now replaced the 9-5 day jobs of players from days gone by. This coupled with the increase in sports content, look at the yearly schedule for a typical Wallabies / Super Rugby / NRC player per year for example, goes some way to explaining the increase in injuries. I also agree with johnno about higher match intensity these days, faster bigger & stronger bodies in action cause more damage than previous eras..
pjm
Roar Rookie
Australian sports are naive. We push our athletes as hard as other countries but we don't give them the illegal recovery substances that other countries do.
Johnno
Guest
It seems a game of maths. Despite all the advances in technology and the human bodies now stronger than ever before the speed of the game has outweighed technological advances. They used to play alot of cricket, anyway players would play grade when no tests on or shield. I reckon maybe the intensity of games has increased. In tennis or golf every tournament is tough now, as there is good money at every tournament now, not just the 4 grand slams and end of season masters tournament.