Blueprint to rebuild Brett Lee

[FBI]

Thought this could be useful to some bowlers...

Blueprint to rebuild Brett Lee - Cricket - Fox Sports

"Because he's been a bit underdone he's been bowling a bit at half- and three-quarter pace at training, concentrating on his technique trying to do everything right," Ponting said.

"But by doing that he's probably taught himself to bowl slow. For the next week he'll be doing that dynamic stuff.

"When he bowls at training he'll be bowling off his long run to train that back into his body again."

The team's fitness adviser Stuart Karppinen, a former Western Australia fast bowler, has devised a program that will see Lee do 11 varied sessions in the week leading up to the third Test, which begins hin Delhi on Wednesday.

The first was a weights session as soon as the team arrived at its New Delhi hotel two days ago.

"We want to mimic the movements that happen when he bowls," Karppinen said.

"We're trying to promote speed."

That includes quick, light upper-body weights and heavier lower-body weights. During special bowling sessions there will be extended recovery between balls so Lee can focus on fast, high-quality deliveries.

[mas cambios]

Makes sense, I think most of us now realise that training should mimic what you would do in a match as much as possible.

[FBI]

On a related note, an article has been written on cricinfo about Watson shunning the gym and alcohol in favour of a different regime.

Cricinfo - Watson health kick works wonders

[edladd]

Who else had this thought when they saw the title of the post:

"Gentlemen, we can rebuild him. We have the technology. We have the capability to build the world's first bionic man. Brett Lee will be that man. Better than he was before. Better, stronger, faster."

Although it makes sense that you should try to replicate game situations in training as much as possible, what role does other forms of training play? Ian Pont says in his book that if you are changing your action, you should walk through it in stages until you understand it and then build up the pace. Peter Philpott advocates bowling over shorter distances initially and building up. Does this mean that Lee's approach was right (bowling slower to re-work action) - but the timing was flawed in that he wasn't back to match readiness in time. Surely if this was the case they would have known before the games and he shouldn't really have been playing!

Then again, you'd need one hell of an excuse to leave out Brett Lee, even at less than full capacity.

[mas cambios]

Ed - think of it as a progression. You start off doing something in the 'correct' way but at half pace or 2/3rds distance and then once you have it, crank up the pace, increase the distance. Continue doing this until you are doing what you would in a match.

Lee is an elite athlete so you could argue that he doesn't need to go back to basics but should just be doing what he needs to in match.

[FBI]

Also, Lee has close enough the perfect bowling action.

[MV!]

Originally Posted by edladd

Does this mean that Lee's approach was right (bowling slower to re-work action) - but the timing was flawed in that he wasn't back to match readiness in time.
[/left]

In a nutshell: Yes, pretty much.

One of the major drawbacks of international cricket is that there is no real recognised lay-off and pre-season times. A rugby, or AFL player will finish their season and in some cases, especially for those around the 30 year old mark, have up to 2 or 3 months off. Then they undertake pretty gruelling pre-seaons to meet certain strength and conditioning standards, as well as honing and developing skills. This is generally another three to six month period (depending on when seasons finish, etc).

For an international cricketer, they may only have three real months off from cricket in an 18 month period. And even then, it may only really add up to about two weeks, to a month of cricket completely. Then they're required to get themselves back and match fit in an exceptionally short, and almost super condensed pre season period. This timing has to be pretty spot on: It's half the reason why so many players hit their straps half way through a long test series instead of firing right from the start. Oh, and with Brett Lee's off field problems that occurred during this time, I can't believe anyone is particularly surprised that he's not been operating at his best. Not even the most professional approach to training can make up for stunted or preparation.

This is one of the reasons why I think strength and conditioning for cricketers is so far behind almost every other major sport in the world. Maybe Liz, who has worked with some much higher level crickets that me can contradict me (and I really hope she does, it would be refreshing), but I just don't think that our players at the highest level have the time to devote to proper strength and conditioning. Maybe strength maintance, but not much more. Hell, half the coaches I talk to are still convinced that weight lifting makes you slow! Even sports that are incredibly similar in the way that players are required to think, move and perform skills (such as baseball), stopped believing that 50 years ago.

Ps: And I REFUSE to believe that Shane Watson's injuries problems can be put down to lifting weights. More like poor programming.

[big blue]

Originally Posted by MV!

Ps: And I REFUSE to believe that Shane Watson's injuries problems can be put down to lifting weights. More like poor programming.

I would point out that anyone who reaches a decent level of strength in the gym (amount of weight lifted) will most likely eventually get injured and have injuries. Mayb this happened to watson ? mayb not. Most strong people(trained) will be walking around with some type of niggle- its just an occupational hazard.

[micoach]

Originally Posted by big blue

I would point out that anyone who reaches a decent level of strength in the gym (amount of weight lifted) will most likely eventually get injured and have injuries. Mayb this happened to watson ? mayb not. Most strong people(trained) will be walking around with some type of niggle- its just an occupational hazard.

Strength training should never give you more niggles. It's there to prevent them.

If the right exercises are done with good form there is no risk and statistically speaking weight training is one of the safer physical activities.

[big blue]

Originally Posted by micoach

Strength training should never give you more niggles. It's there to prevent them.

If the right exercises are done with good form there is no risk and statistically speaking weight training is one of the safer physical activities.

If you lift a decent amount of weight you will get niggles.