Jozy Altidore, The Result of a Wrong Training Strategy

Sprinting, high intensity running, weight lifting and fast "everything" is the main focus of the training strategy of most soccer coaches. “ Training endurance slows you down!” insist coaches.

Why then do we see such a high percentage of the soccer injuries happening during a sprinting and/or high intensity events?

The pictures of Altidore in 2011 look identical to those taken during the June 16, 2014 game against Ghana! The same injury, in the same place, during a similar situation, at almost the same moment in the game. Is this a coincidence? Is it the result of a bad process of rehabilitation process? Or, most probable in my opinion, a combination of the former with a poor running mechanics associated to a non-specific soccer training design.

                                                             2014, World Cup. Brazil.

                                                                 2011, CONCACAF Gold Cup. US

Because we do not know Jozy Altidore's health or training history, we cannot be absolutely sure of the reasons for his injury. However, given the information we do have available, we can infer some very likely explanations.

We know that the other day his left hamstring got overloaded during a high intensity run, resulting in  what was reported as a “strained hamstring”. As a consequence, he collapsed, and thus ended his participation in the game, and quite possible the World Cup.

We know also that this is the second time he has suffered this injury (the first occurring in the ninth minute of a 2011match against Jamaica).
We can also observe the type of training that the team was engaging in (see pictures), in what seems to be the norm for soccer players of all levels in US.

What could be the reason for the recurrence of this injury to Mr. Altidore?

1)   The hamstring may already have been damaged before the game. If that was the case, we should ask ourselves why the coaching staff did not find out about it, or, if they knew about it, why the player was exposed to a so risky a situation.

2)   Another possible reason for these types of “muscle pulls” is the lack of adequate proportionality between different conditional capacities. Too much high intensity training (which supposedly it simulates the intensity of the game) to the detriment of other capacities will create physiological imbalances.

3)   Because of the high intensity training, the athlete is ready to produce a lot of energy from carbs. However thanks to the physiological imbalance that this type of training produces, the metabolic leftovers accumulate in the cells, creating an acidic environment.

4)   A more-than-normal acidic muscular environment decreases the efficiency of the contraction-relaxation cycle. Therefore, when we ask the muscle to stretch very fast, the muscle might want to do just the opposite (allow me the simplifications please!!!!). You can see now the picture again (2011 and 2014!!!)

5)   If we add to the previous possibilities a non-efficient running technique (as he demonstrates in the pictures below) we have “all the stars aligned” for the damage to happen…and usually happens!

                               Ankle tense, landing with heel in front of the center of gravity

                               Body hyper-tense. Right leg push-off incomplete and left ankle tense.

                                            Body hyper-tense. Right ankle and knee tense.

                                             Body hyper-tense. Left ankle and knee tense.

                                                 Landing with the external aspect of the heel.

The bottom line is that the training process of the US soccer players at all levels!, but inexcusable at the national level, is non-specific for the real necessities of the game: 
a) Conditional training is based on suppositions rather than on scientific based research.

b) The technical capacity of the athletes involved is never evaluated and/or trained.

c) The decisions as to how to design the training program are not a result of an assessment process, and if the coaching team does make assessments, they seem to use incorrect variables.

d) Athletes (and prospective athletes) are exposed to loads without considering their current real capacities.

What we have witnessed during the World Cup, and already during the previous weeks of so many injuries that have left behind many great soccer players is the result of many years of non-rationally overloaded bodies. This overload was exaggerated in the last few months by coaches’ eager to create superb physical capacities. What the coaches seem not to understand is that they are producing the opposite effect: damage, lower physical condition and increased risk of injuries!

All too often fans, and even worse, professionals in the world of sports assume that these injuries are simply par for the course. We also tend to believe that once an athlete receives an injury, he's more likely to injure that area again. Rather than accepting these sorts of debilitating injuries as normal, we should question why they happen, and whether they could be avoided through proper training.