Bond University. Australia: The pace and intensity of modern day cricket is putting more players
at risk of hamstring injury, as suffered by Australian cricket captain
Michael Clarke, and specific hamstring strength testing and pre-match
exercising regimes need to be adopted to prevent an increase in
injuries, according to researchers at Bond University.
Bond
University Masters of Research student, Wade Chalker, along with
Associate Professor Justin Keogh from Bond's Faculty of Health Sciences
and Medicine, Dr Tony Shield from Queensland University of Technology
(QUT) and Dr David Opar from Australian Catholic University , have
conducted research on approximately 60 cricketers from the Queensland
Bulls, Brisbane Grade teams and Schoolboy teams.
The study focused
on examining how eccentric hamstring strength differs across these
three levels of participation, and whether real time force output
feedback when performing these exercises can increase hamstring strength
and reduce asymmetries between the legs.
Associate Professor
Justin Keogh said the research had shown that gone were the days when
cricket was more of a gentlemen’s game, where if you were unfit and 40
you could still get by uninjured.
"Hamstring strain injuries
(HSIs) account for between 8-11.1% of all injuries in cricket, which is
similar to the incidence in AFL of 7-14%, suggesting that HSIs are just
as common in cricket as they are in other high intensity running
sports," said Professor Keogh.
"The game is played with such
intensity now and there is so much more pressure on players to back up
again and again, causing an increase in the risk and incidence of
injury."
Professor Keogh said research was increasingly necessary,
as the wider hamstring injury literature indicated a lack of eccentric
hamstring strength as well as strength asymmetries between the two legs
may be the two primary risk factors of hamstring injury, therefore
cricket players affected by either of these conditions may be placing
themselves at higher risk.
"By doing exercise such as the Nordic
hamstring exercise - which is basically a leg curl you would do at the
gym, but lowering the whole body to the ground - we believe hamstring
injuries can be greatly reduced in cricket as has been achieved in other
European sports such as soccer and handball," he said.
Approximately
five years ago Dr Tony Shield and Dr David Opar developed an
instrumented device to measure hamstring strength in football players,
and Wade saw the potential that this new technology could bring to
injury prevention in cricket.
"Dr Shield and Dr Opar had largely
concentrated their efforts in the football area, particularly AFL,
however Wade had connections with the Queensland Bulls and was
interested in cricket injuries so I helped bring them all together,"
said Professor Keogh.
"Our research utilised the instrument
developed by Dr Shield and Dr Opar to accurately measure eccentric
hamstring strength in cricket players, with such data invaluable to the
team’s physiotherapist and strength and conditioning coach.
"We
are looking at developing a statistical threshold which identifies
hamstring weakness and also identifies the increasing risk of injury as
players move up through the ranks of cricket to the elite level."
"Watching
what has happened to the Australian captain Michael Clarke brings it
home to us just how important this issue is and how research and
preventative measures can make such a difference," he said.