- Lockdown might’ve given the Proteas’ injury-prone quicks an extra rest, but Tumi Masekela warns it’s not necessarily a positive thing.
- Rest and some “normal” fitness training can’t prepare bowlers’ bodies for the “shocks” to the system when they have to start bowling again.
- It’s because of these “shocks” that supporters need to understand why a team needs a proper pre-season before action can resume.
Covid-19 and the lockdown might’ve been harmful to cricket (and sport in general), but for the Proteas there’s been a small silver lining – it’s afforded a potent but injury-prone group of quicks an extended rest period.
For Kagiso Rabada, the attack’s spearhead, the break has been particularly timely after a short mid-season break during the English tour prefaced a groin injury, which kept him out of the ODI series whitewashing of Australia and the short trip to India.
Yet the issue of his workload has been longstanding, one that already became serious when he was withdrawn from last year’s IPL, just before the World Cup, due to a back problem.
Lungi Ngidi, despite an immensely strong finish to the international season, missed the entire start of that campaign with a hamstring strain and, at 24, has struggled with his hip and abdomen as well as a stress fracture.
Even the find of South Africa’s season, Anrich Nortje, suffered ankle and shoulder injuries within the space of a few months.
It’s only natural to assume the trio will be raring to go once competitive action resumes.
Yet Tumi Masekela, the Proteas’ strength and conditioning coach, provides a sobering piece of reality.
“If you’re going to ask me whether lockdown has been good for the fast bowlers, I’m going to have to answer ‘yes and no’,” he told Sport24.
“It’s like literally making a pros and cons list,” he said.
On the positive side, lockdown has truly helped mend tired bodies.
“One can never underestimate the value of some rest. This period has given us the opportunity to address niggles, determine the type of attention it needs, and even discover some other weaknesses. It’s a nice thing in that regard,” said Masekela.
“But the problem is that lockdown doesn’t allow for any cricket-specific simulation. We’re at week 13 of our strength and conditioning programme and about week six of the running programme. That, however, doesn’t allow players to operate at the type of intensity they’ll experience in a match.”
The majority of discerning sport fans are aware of the reality that professional teams need specialised training to prepare players for the rigours of actual game-time.
But it’s sometimes difficult to understand why it has to take so long, especially in these pandemic times, where people are eager to watch live sport again.
Upon his full-time appointment in April, Graeme Smith, the national director of cricket, noted that the Proteas squad would need at least six weeks in a training camp to be remotely ready for any sort of series.
And that’s just for white-ball cricket.
Masekela points out that a return to Test cricket is even more onerous, one that conservatively has to take eight to 12 weeks.
“I understand why people think a generally fit player shouldn’t have to train to be ready to play for such an extended period. With cricketers, particularly bowlers, there’s a difference between gym training and skills-based training. Any player can keep fit and strong if he exercises and runs, yet it still doesn’t prepare him for the stresses of actual play.”
To illustrate, one only needs a crude example.
“Every person’s body adapts to its environment. If you’ve been sitting on the couch for three weeks, your body becomes used to that state. When you then start running around the block again, you’re going to have aches and pains initially because you’ve actually stressed and, in some instances, even broken down your body,” said Masekela.
“That’s why you then have to rest and stress it again, so that you gradually make your body used to the intensity.”
Professional sport merely magnifies that principle.
“A fast bowler can come back into a training camp fit as a fiddle, but a weight or a jog can’t prepare the body for the skill-specific stresses it actually needs to face.
“A gym can’t prepare a quick’s landing foot to absorb seven times body weight when he delivers a ball, or the stress it puts on the ankle, or the pressure on a back or knee. The body breaks down during the adaptation period again,” said Masekela.
In fact, it’s actually the rest period required for that process that makes a pre-season so vital.
“It’s only inevitable that a quick is going to feel an ache after a few bowling sessions following the lockdown break. Much like the couch potato example, he can only build his strength if he rests and then keeps bowling. You can only stimulate match intensity after a long break by actually going out and bowling to a batsman.”
In the case of the Proteas’ gifted enforcers with the ball, that’s an even more nerve-wracking prospect than in most cases.
“It’s a blank page we start on again. Yes, we might’ve dealt with KG’s (Rabada) niggles, but we won’t know for sure how well those interventions worked until his body has been ‘stressed’ again into bowling at maximum intensity,” said Masekela.
“And that’s why the effect of lockdown can be positive or negative.”
