“But the pass fell incomplete, and the excitement turned to nervousness as Moss slowly jogged off the field toward the training staff.The problem was his left leg. Moss lay on the ground between the practice fields, with the training staff tending to what appeared to be the back of his thigh.” – Boston Globe
“Shouldn’t Randy’s trainer tell him to stretch before he sprints? I coach football at <insert random HS> and we do a team stretch for our hamstring muscles. You live in Boston, why not show them how to stretch out as those coaches don’t know what to do.” – Fred R.
I deleted Fred’s email as I get a lot of “Bro” advise and questions week to week, but the hamstring injury is the most common injury that is debated about in terms of optimal training and rehab. I have experienced a few elite and HS injuries to the hamstring and they need to be rehabed perfectly or you will see issues down the road. While Fred’s email was out of the blue (and moronic) his use of the word “trainer” does bring up a point. The role of the athletic trainer and strength coach (sometimes called trainer) will become gray near the end of the rehab.? What makes me tired and angry is the gurus that will talk about glute weakness or psoas inhibition when it’s far more complicated than that.? Mike Woicik is a fantastic strength coach and was a great discus athlete so he doesn’t need Fred’s telling what to do. Injuries will happen. Randy works out with another coach in the offseason and I am not sure what he does but I do know he is at least training. So no blame here!
Most of my experiences with the hamstring injury comes from following protocols by some great therapists and fantastic coaches in track and the primary element is tissue texture of the hamstring. How the hamstring remodels structurally as well as neurologically is key as most training programs build strength and contractile velocity gradually and wonder why things are reinjured. I have used Mach’s rehab model for ten years and the results have been no re-injuries and I also think the rate of injury to the hamstring has been very minimal. I have sent athletes up to Toronto and have found the therapy (both tissues) to be outstanding as most massage done locally is either ART or general sports massage. Scar tissue needs to be minimal and how the scar tissue is removed through prone eccentric work is more of a feel than pure rep schemes. The medial glute is the size of a deck of cards and one can’t place all of their eggs in one basket so if you are doing band work in efforts to activate the poor thing I would get Cobb’s work on the foot mobility work first.? In summary a hamstring injury and what you do is beyond a reply email…it’s years and years of trail and error, research, and hard work.