john harbin

paulbaconsarnie

1 of the rumours in the papers over the last couple of days was the players unhappy at bullyboy training tactics.
i posted at the start of the season, after talking to a palace fan that dowie played people out of position and had an extraordinary amount of muscle injuries especially hamstring strains in his squad.
do you think that harbin, being the performance coach could be part of the problem with both the injuries and the reported players still being unhappy?

Medders

If so, why has Dowie been sacked while Harbin, as far as we know, is still employed by the club....

LoOkOuT

He certainly comes across as old skool no nonsense. But I'm sure if he was a major factor, it would have come out in the review and he would have left or is in the process of leaving.

ISawLeaburnScore

i agree. i think harbin would've got the chop as well if he was found to be operating to the detriment of the team also. anyway - expect him to leave as soon as dowie finds another club.

paulbaconsarnie

my original post was meant to get accross the fact that the same was happening at palace.
wasn't harbin at palace?

BlackForestReds

I thought Harbin was a "freelancer" rather than a paid FT employee?

LoOkOuT

Yup, and you're right. His methods could have something to do with the injuries. But I assume these things are taken into consideration at some level.

ISawLeaburnScore

yeah harbin was plucked from lancashire rugby league when dowie was at oldham and stuck to him like the proverbial pig since.

definitely stories of hard training, with various muscle injuries from the palace lot though, i'll grant that.

BlackForestReds

When I heard about some of the exercises he had them doing - pulling tyres/sleds etc I wondered if they were a contributing factor in the hamstring strains. Typically sprinters do those sort of exercises to build up their hamstrings in order to accelerate away from the blocks a bit faster. Sprinters also suffer a lot of hamstring niggles...

kigelia

[cite]Posted By: BlackForestReds[/cite]When I heard about some of the exercises he had them doing - pulling tyres/sleds etc I wondered if they were a contributing factor in the hamstring strains. Typically sprinters do those sort of exercises to build up their hamstrings in order to accelerate away from the blocks a bit faster. Sprinters also suffer a lot of hamstring niggles...

Those are exactly the type of exercises that worried me, because they tend to work one muscle group harder than the other. That imbalance needs to be corrected to avoid an increased risk of injury.

BlackForestReds

I can see in sprinting and in rugby league, which is similar - you need to accelerate quickly to gain a couple of yards, that you need overly powerful hamstrings. Football fitness is more aerobic based, essentially the ability to run for 90 minutes.

kigelia

[cite]Posted By: BlackForestReds[/cite]I can see in sprinting and in rugby league, which is similar - you need to accelerate quickly to gain a couple of yards, that you need overly powerful hamstrings. Football fitness is more aerobic based, essentially the ability to run for 90 minutes.

I think the difference is less clear than you might think. there was something recently I read that stated footballers are sprinting at near top speed for a lot more of the game than they used to. There still needs to be a good level of aerobic fitness for the players but the sprinting ability is becoming more important.

The main difference I would see is the upper body strength requirements of football are less than in the case of Rugby. whilst still important there is less of an issue.

and it is not a case really of needing overly powerful hamstrings it is making sure that the quads and hamstrings are developed equally.

AFKABartram

don't play down the importance of an advantage over the first three yards.

I think some of the thoughts on the training methods are attracting unfair criticism, as none of us know the weight that is put on them. If they are mere supplementing tools used to keep training fresh and varied, then no problem at all. If however they were given prominence then that is a problem.

Ketman

I remember reading an Article on Arsene Wenger & his training methods a good few years ago now. His philosophy was very simple, work on each of the players individual strengths. The Centre halfs like campbell constantly practiced heading & tackling etc & Thierry Henry worked hard on his sprinting if you can believe that. Not sure what Gilberto practiced on though... : -)

Heath Hero

[cite]Posted By: Ketman[/cite]Not sure what Gilberto practiced on though... : -)

Wearing gloves?