How much is too much?

ONE THING ELITE ATHLETES HAVE IN common are their aspirations to represent at the highest possible level.

Rugby league payers are no different. As an elite junior, you aspire to play Harold Matthews Cup and SG Ball in NSW and Cyril Connell Cup and Mal Meninga Cup in Queensland – followed by the Toyota Cup.

From there players have the NRL in their sights and then onto higher honours, including City-Country, State of Origin, the All Stars match and, of course, a Kangaroo jumper.

Only the elite few senior players are privileged enough to do it all.

But the question must be asked, is doing it all, doing too much?

It is possible that players like Billy Slater, Cameron Smith and Darren Lockyer, who are among the elite few selected to represent in every capacity, are at risk of affecting the longevity of their careers by playing such a large volume of elite matches each year?

Although for Slater, Smith and their fellow Storm superstars, they will get more rest this year than ever before with finals football taken out of the equation by their salary-cap punishment.

The toll on the elite players is not only physical; the emotional toll of extended regular absences from their families has a bearing on player welfare also.

“What I think is most concerning is the cumulative load for players,” says Troy Thomson, sports scientist for the Storm.

“You never want to take an opportunity away from a player to play rep football because it is such a special time for them and is pretty much why they play the game.

“My biggest concern is that our players are doing it year after year. We have to make sure that we counter that load and the commitment that the boys have to ensure that they don’t burn out and that their careers aren’t shortened.”

The major concern for players who are not getting sufficient rest is the risk of overtraining, the effects of which include a decline in performance, unrelenting fatigue which may lead to injury, increased risk of illness and changes in mood.

“Every player is only one serious injury away from ending their career. If a player is fatigued and it is a cumulative fatigue they are at a higher risk of injury,” Thomson says.

“As a medical and a conditioning staff, we need to be able to identify where players are at, how they are feeling and ensure we are keeping them in their best state.

“There’s a fine line between making sure they are not overworked but you don’t want them to be under-conditioned either because that will also put them at risk of injury.”

While Thomson concedes motivating the Storm players has become more difficult since they were banned from playing for points, he says the professionalism of the club will ensure they don’t develop poor habits.

Melbourne Storm staff have systems in place to monitor and manage the health and welfare of all of their players which seems to be a combination of art and science.

The art is in the in-depth knowledge medical and conditioning staff have of each player and their needs, as exact training and playing load is very difficult to quantify.

The science in player monitoring is in the strategic use of monitoring tools and analyses of player performance.

One such tool used is an online wellness form; this type of monitoring tool is used extensively in elite sport.

Every player is only one serious injury away from ending their career. If a player is fatigued and it is a cumulative fatigue they are at a higher risk of injury

28 Rugby League Week

HE WORKS HARD

FOR THE MONEY:

By the end of last

year’s Tri-Nations,

Billy Slater had put

his body on the line

in 33 matches.

NRL clubs are using state of the art technology to safeguard against player burnout

Sports science

DR JODI RICHARDSON

Storm players are required to complete this form on the morning of every training day to enable staff to monitor how they are responding to the workload. The form questions players about their physical and psychological well-being and sleep patterns.

The form gives staff insight into players’ mood and physicality encompassing questions about tension, depression, fatigue, vigour, anger and confusion. Elite athletes typically score below average for tension, depression, fatigue and confusion, and tend to score well above average for vigour.

Thomson explains that with the questions on the form, staff are looking for deviations from the average responses as an indication that a player needs closer attention.

They also use GPS data to quantify exactly

what players are doing in training and matches and look for deviations in this data also.

In addition, players make a ‘Rating of Perceived Exertion’ (RPE) after each training session which gives staff a ranking of how the player found the intensity of the session.

When a player’s general well-being is declining, they will perceive a training session to be more intense than the remainder of the playing group.

“Some players can tolerate the load and it doesn’t affect them but there are others we really need to look after,” Thomson says. “They’ll often want to keep playing and training but sometimes we have to step in and tell them what we think is best for them and ultimately what is best for the team.” RLW