The Stick – Cricket

Despite the common misconception that cricket is a slow and boring sport; it is in fact a sport that contains many high-velocity movements. Fast bowlers for example put their bodies through tremendous forces at the crease when bowling. Batsmen have to rapidly accelerate and decelerate at the crease when running between wickets. And fielders have to embark on long sprints to the boundary and side splitting dives for the ball. All these movements are high-velocity and place stress on the muscles and joints.

Cricket is by nature a very tough sport on the body as players can spend up to a full day on the field. Professional cricket players know that if they do not take care of their muscles and tendons then it will limit their ability on the field the next day, thus they have massages etc. after the days play.

A session on the field will result in tight sore muscles. Massage will not only loosen these tense muscles but will also assist in recovery. Massage has also been proven to retain flexibility in muscles. Flexibility and suppleness of muscles is essential in cricket, especially for bowlers. If any one of these 2 qualities is compromised then it will affect performance. Massage will keep muscles supple and thus help retain flexibility.

After strenuous activity sore muscles result from a combination of small tears in the muscle fibres and subsequently a build-up of metabolic waste in the muscle tissues. Massage will cause blood to flow to this region to flush away the waste and speed up the recovery or ‘rebuilding’ process. Having a tool such as The Stick at your disposal is invaluable as you can perform this massage on most of the major muscle groups in your body.

Using the Stick to massage these major muscle groups after a match or session on the field will relieve tight spots, increase blood flow, assist flexibility and ultimately help prevent injuries. A simple 15 minute Stick session post game will improve your recovery and ensure that you can get back to training and playing as soon as possible.

Yours in Performance

Coach Christiaan Schutte
High Performance Coach
Advanced Sports Performance

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Self Myofascial Release

What is any athlete’s worst nightmare? Not being able to perform to the best of their ability regardless of countless hours of well structured training and preparation. This is something that more and more athletes are being faced with on a regular basis. The problem with most coaching systems that are used in the sporting world, specifically at the younger levels, is that the coach is either not qualified, or has a qualification but has neglected to keep up to date with the ever changing wave of sports science. This wave sees changes in old theories of training every day and continues to expand and develop with every event, tournament and match, where new discoveries are constantly being uprooted.

One such theory is the role of myofascial release in sports recovery and performance enhancement. Muscle fascia is a protective layer of connective tissue that surrounds the muscles and allows for the development of a healthy vasculature as well as innervations by the central nervous system. Your muscle develops tight spots, or trigger points, this indicates that there are portions of the muscle fascia that have become thick, tough and knotted. These trigger points restrict muscle movement and if they are not removed, can form inflexible scar tissue. The role of myofascial release in trigger point removal has been understood for some time now, but infrequently used by coaches who are either not aware of it, or don’t fully understand its importance.

What myofascial release allows you to do is target specific points in the muscle (fascia) and work out the trigger points by applying deep tissue massage. Using special instruments such as The Stick will ensure that you place enough attention on the more tender points and hence remove those tedious limiting trigger points.

Coach Luke Zacharias
Junior High Performance Coach
Advanced Sports Performance

The Stick provides us with an affordable and effective method for quick recovery.

The reason rugby players can play up to 2 matches a week is due to their post-game treatment and recovery. They sit in ice baths and get massages from physios after each match, this cuts down their recovery time 50%. But lets face it, many of us do not have the time or the money to go for physiotherapy after each time we play a game of touch rugby or hit the road for our daily 10kmΓÇÖs. The Stick is, essentially, your own physiotherapist, at a fraction of the price.

After your exercise you can sit down for 20 mins and give those tired muscles a well-deserved massage. Massaging these muscles causes blood to rush to the area and wash away the metabolic waste, speeding up the recovery process! It will also remove tight spots in the muscles; think of kneading dough and using the roller to knead out the inconsistencies. For post game recover you would focus on deep tissue rolling so in other words you will apply greater pressure and before games you would lightly roll which will loosen up muscles and tissue and stimulate blood circulation to the core muscle.

Heating up core muscles will allow for greater mobility and ultimatley allow the muscle to move and function properly!

Yours in Performance

Coach Christiaan Schutte
High Performance Coach
Advanced Sports Performance

In the last month the stick has gained a lot of popularity.

TheStick Usa was featured on the hit show theDoctors. (The clip can be view on our videos page)
Also with our local rugby, Stephan Terblanche from the Sharks was catputred on DSTV using theStick in for pre-game warm up stretching just before they took on the Bulls to win it.

Brain Habana has also be featured using theStick on supersport just this last week. It is great that without even promoting theStick, it is selling itself.

Needless to say if the Pro’s understand what the use and application of theStick is, then you must know it has value to an elite athlete.
As the pro’s become more aware of theStick, We will be featuring it on our website in the gallery section.

Stay Healthy and Keep Rolling
Sean Van Staden
Sports Scientist

Effect of OverTraining

Ever wonder why the players at the top level of professional athletes never seem to have a break between seasons? Ever wonder why these athletes go overseas, play some of the best games they ever have, and not even a season later return to their home country and have somehow lost their edge? Nine times out of ten this is a result of overtraining.

This well known phenomenon occurs when athletes spend all their time trying to get faster, stronger and more talented, but spend none of their time on recovery. It is that simple, overtraining means doing too much. The body needs time to recover from all stresses placed on it, and without the correct recovery schedule or preparation, elite performance is impossible. Some coaches from around the world prefer the term under-recovering to overtraining, as this more accurately describes the cause of the overtraining. By ensuring you look after your recovery as well as you do your training, you are ensuring that you can perform at your best, no matter where or when you want to.

In essence, it is only the team that has the best rest and recovery between their matches that will ultimately be more successful.

Coach Luke Zakaris
Junior High Performance Coach
Advanced Sports Performance