Am I wrong to have questions about our strength and conditioning regemin creep into my mind when I look at the frequency and kind of injuries the Rams, particularly the O line, sustain?
Strength and conditioning, or the lack of it, can cost us position, and cost us games, and if Stafford's blind side isn't protected, can cost us the key player to any success we might have this season - or possibly years into the future.
Hammy, groin, Achilles - then more hammy, groin, Achilles injuries. Not all, presumably, are products of inadequate stretching and range of motion work first and then strengthening, followed by assiduous stretching as a vital comonent of the position-specific conditioning workouts. But maybe some are.
Before we played flag football in high school our coach made us roll around in the itchy Bermida grass and stretch our hammys, groins, and Achillles. Now, six decades later, my personal trainer at the gym has me stretching my hammy, groin, and Achilles areas before every workout. When I coached, I had my kids stretched their hammy, groin, and Achilles before every ptactice.
Mama and I in a long-buried thread noted that it seemed to us that the Rams rate of hammy, groin, Achilles injuries seemed high, and stepped up with the hiring of strength and conditioning coaches from the college ranks.
The guy who, several years ago, supervised S&C for the combine made a big splash on the NFL nedia coverage of the combine. He then went to the Arizona Cardinals. Their incidence of strains and sprains went down, and individual players had position-specific conditioning programs designed to improve their on-field performances. Larry Fitzgerald became dramatically more explosive, stronger in his legs, lower body and trunk as a result - to the point of being able to carry Dawkins on his back for five yards in a playoff game. Pundits, looking at he former Fitzgerald, expected him to wilt.
I don't know if the same guy is still there, but I checked out this week's Cardinals injury report against the Bengals: A couple of unspecified ankle injuries (possibly sprains) and the rest head, back finger, etc. Hammy, groin, and Achilles injuries for the Cardinals, zero. Their opponents, the Bengals, have two injuries that fall into hammy, groin, or Achilles category.
The Rams have four injuries that fall into that category for this week. Our opponents, the Eagles, have two.
The Seahawks have two, the 49ers have none.
In other words, the Rams have twice as many hammy, groin, Achilles as either of our current two opponents, and twice as many as the rest of our division combined.
Is this a freakish outlier phenomena, or does it point to a bigger trend? I'm not going to spend more time with it, but it does seem to confirm what I've suspected for several years:
Something is wrong with the Rams strength and conditioning program that could be fixed.
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/06/2023 09:37AM by mtramfan.
