10th July 2018
If it hadn’t been for injury, the World Cup semi-finals could have had a very different and specifically South American look about them. The injuries to James Rodriguez and Edison Cavani surely gave both England and France a massive advantage of progressing. While a tenacious Columbia were finally left to pay the penalty from the spot kick, the absence of Luis Suarez’s strike partner left the Uruguayan’s attack uncharacteristically ‘toothless’.
FOR THE NATION AND THE TEAM, FOUR YEARS IS A LONG WAIT. FOR INDIVIDUAL PLAYERS, FOUR YEARS MIGHT BE JUST TOO LONG FOR ANOTHER CHANCE; MESSI? RONALDO?
While some claim there is too much focus on ‘individuals’ within the team sport of football, we believe there is a need to give each player the best of what they, as an individual, need when it comes to protecting their career. Increasingly, it is becoming clear that every player moves differently. Just think about how a few of your favourite players move on the pitch; even from a distance, you know who it is by these patterns. However, sometimes the movement patterns players use can be associated with injury risk.
FINDING AND CHANGING THE RISK IN THESE PATTERNS IS WHAT WE DO WITH THE FOOTBALL MATRIX.
Used in both top divisions within England and within international set-ups around Europe, The Football Matrix is a state of the art movement assessment and movement retraining tool. It finds the fundamental parts of movement patterns that players can’t change.
You might ask, ‘why do these movements matter?’;
1. If we always co-ordinate our body in the same way, the same tissues get stressed in the same way. This impacts recovery, which then impacts our ability to perform well in training. Going one step further, this is also going to impact injury risk.
2. The movements we use on the pitch need to stay fresh. If we consistently use parts of these same movements during the rest of the day, we are already stressing part of the pattern we want to protect.
3. As we continue to develop our technical skills, those fundamental movements we consistently use and can’t change can hold us back, regardless of coaching.
The Football Matrix is designed to protect your ability to train and your availability for selection. It tests for performance over 10 tests, finds the risk related movements and then pinpoints the exact couple of exercises to fix these problems. And it’s not just for the short term. Given the chance, few ex-pros wouldn’t want to play again. Finding and addressing those problem movement issues seeks to build career longevity. And, one day in the far future, you want to make sure you can still show your kids what you could and can still do on the park. From semi-pro to World Cup Semi Final, protect your game.
Click here to find out more about TPM Elite.