No-look said:
What can be done to reduce injuries? Better conditioning? If so, what does that intel?
I'm not a Dr. or sports med guy but in talking to some former athletes and certified trainers over the years there are several things you can do to avoid injuries, from nutrition, to strength and conditions to how you run your practices. Flexibility is really important and that is why some athletes do Yoga. There are a lot of tools now than were not there when I was a kid. They can measure impact on the body and can show you how you should properly jump or move or throw etc. They can help you change a motion to help you prevent an injury. While some injuries are from repetition, others are not.
I saw a special awhile back about some equipment schools are using in basketball. You have your athletes jump on something that is connect to a computer and it measures the impact on the body and the force you are using and then from there it can help teach the kids how to reduce impact on their bodies using better technique. It was a special on NCCA Basketball teams and their use of this tech to keep players on the court. There was a large % of those in the NCAA tourney using this new tool and their injuries were noticeably reduced since using it. This was helpful for knee, ankle and other similar soft tissue issues. Some injuries will happen no matter how good of shape you are in or how flexible you are or what technique you use. You may just land on the side of someone's foot and turn an ankle that is just bad luck but there is a lot that can be done to prevent injuries and recover faster from them.
Not sure what Comeaux did but he recovered way faster than I expected off what would normally be a season ending injury. Last year most of the injuries appeared to be off the court or in a practice. That was my concern with last years injuries. Guys will get hurt during a game and there is not much that can be done about that but outside of a game or during warm ups or practice is frustrating. Hopefully the new basketball training facility will have all the tools needed to put our basketball teams in the best possible position to be successful and stay on the court but we must have the right people working with these kids as well.
Just my 2 cents based the limited training I had when coaching youth sports and what I have read and heard over the years. It would be good to hear from a real strength and conditioning person. From what I remember Dukquits started right before the basketball season started so not sure he had time to do much before the season started so I hope he now has a good year around program in place for the guys that is targeted to each kid.
