By Eurohoops team/ info@eurohoops.net
In an highly interesting article posted on Performance-22.com, CSKA Moscow Head performance specialist Kostas Chatzichristos discusses how the new EuroLeague system and the increased amount of games affect the players’ health and performances.
He also takes a look at the tools that the organization and clubs can implement in order to bring up some changes for the benefit of the players, the teams and the championship itself.
Here’s an excerpt:
“Excessive load would theoretically lead to more injuries, that always bear a heavy cost, first on the athlete and then on a team’s overall performance and success chances. It seems that so far, there have been more injuries this year and teams are losing important players at an alarming rate. But do more injuries really happen because of the new system? If yes, what is to blame? Intensity, work volume or just increased exposure time (more time on the court in game conditions)? What can be done in order to help players better adjust to the new conditions?
As a first step, it would be useful, if Euroleague tracked certain statistics related to injuries, in order to have a clear, objective picture of the situation. Metrics like total games lost per year, financial cost of injuries, team overall ranking in injury rates compared to other teams, annual improvement or lack of etc. could give an idea of the impact of injuries on a team’s function. Other organizations have been doing so for some years. For example, in the Premier League, data collection revealed that for the 2014-15 season, injuries had a staggering cost of 210 Million pounds, with teams losing on average 13.5 million pounds in that season. Numbers were calculated by using a UEFA – recognized formula which takes into account wages earned by injured players, the costs of treating injuries, insurance premium costs and the financial implications from fielding weakened teams in domestic and European competitions.”
In the NBA, a comprehensive analysis by InStreetClothes** revealed that each season there are hundreds of games lost due to injury (a total of 4.496 games, including illness etc), with a corresponding significant financial cost. The analysis included all teams and also revealed the organizations with the highest and lowest injury rates. For example, the best performing team, for the season 2015-16 was Oklahoma Thunder with a total of 23 games lost (vs 224 games last year) and a cost 2.1 million $ and the worst was the New Orleans Pelicans with 351 games lost and cost of 28.1 million $. Regarding European basketball, although, to my knowledge, there is no official data), the numbers are expected to be smaller, due to smaller budgets. Still though, it is expected to account for a significant percentage of the team’s budget.
Both the total number and rate of injuries can be reduced, if proper action is taken. This has been proven in several occasions, when teams across different sports managed to improve their performance, after re organizing their medical and performance staffs, changed their modus operandi and invested in new technologies.”
You can read the full and quite comprehensive article here.