Thomas Holmes Injured

[Old_time_miller]

And yes, it is just gut wrenching, sickening. A player head and shoulders above everyone else. The rest should take a good long look at themselves.

[Old_time_miller]

I?m guessing you have a sports science degree etc?
You obviously know better than the professionals then.
Long story short your opinion is now a fact.
Our supporters are an unbelievable at times.

I agree with the original poster. You only have to look at what the players are like in games. Tired out looking, not realy up to scratch some of them.
Picking over why, when we are not privy isn’t helpful. There will be lots of individual reasons.

[Townerslovechild]

Same as everyone else, I don't what's causing all these injuries, as with most things in life, it's probably a combination of few things, not just one reason.
I think it's the right thing to do to have the hardest working, fitist team in the league as we will won't have the most talent.
Our best managers,Moore and Warne realised this pretty quickly, that's one reason why they were so successful.

[Upthemillers14]

10-12km is what an average player covers in a game so 22km over 2 days might be excessive for training or maybe just trying to prepare them for games? 4.30/km is nowhere near pro marathon pace, that's 4.30/mile. 4.30/km is twice the speed of a brisk walk or one third the speed of a full sprint.

I'm not arguing the merits of the training regime, just trying to frame the figures more accurately.

Let me just clarify - pro marathon pace on race day is absolutely 4.30 ish per mile. But they don't train at that pace regularly, it isn't going to end well if they did.

I'd love for you to run just 1km at 4.30/km pace, for you to realise how quick that actually is. Then do it 22 times in the space of 2 days + hours worth of football on top. No matter how fit or unfit someone is, they'd be knackered. It's not sustainable at all.

[Upthemillers14]

I?m guessing you have a sports science degree etc?
You obviously know better than the professionals then.
Long story short your opinion is now a fact.
Our supporters are an unbelievable at times.

It doesn't take a degree to work out that the staff aren't training at the same level as the players, yet are doing silly amounts of running themselves, which isn't sustainable in the long term.

Sure you might keep it up for a few weeks, but the load being put on your body would quickly wear you down

[RU66]

Not counting T Holmes only signings or loans we've made this season only Lenny Hall Spence Baptist Gore my opinion will prove any good in the long run this season. Rest I'm not bothered how long they're out for incl' Raggett. Clarke Douglas McGuckin want to see given a chance.

[Upthemillers14]

I?’m sorry but have the club confirmed this?
Until then and it may or may not be true nobody is right or justified with anything.
It?’s like the emotional state of what?’s happened as to what people say has happened.
If it?’s true then let?’s wait till the club confirm that Ross is to blame for this.
I?’ll wait for the club to confirm it rather than some bloke on a message board.
Then I?’ll be live it?’s true.

It's information which is visible to everyone. Ross posts his and staff runs on strava for everyone to see. It was shown to me over the weekend and its been on twitter a bit. I looked to see whether it's true and it is. Download it and find him, its all there to see, from pre season right through to now it's been relentless

[CAMiller]

Let me just clarify - pro marathon pace on race day is absolutely 4.30 ish per mile. But they don't train at that pace regularly, it isn't going to end well if they did.

I'd love for you to run just 1km at 4.30/km pace, for you to realise how quick that actually is. Then do it 22 times in the space of 2 days + hours worth of football on top. No matter how fit or unfit someone is, they'd be knackered. It's not sustainable at all.

Thanks for that. At 65 I'm pretty certain I couldn't cover 1km at 4.30 pace but I do regularly walk 10-15k/day at ~6k/h and I'm not nor have ever been a professional athlete.

[UlleyMiller]

A few things which shouldn't need saying, but seem obvious and are getting missed:
There are no elite sports trainers on here (if there are, they certainly hide their expertise and rationalising very well).
4.30 per km is either 8.3mph (if the '30' is assumed as seconds) or 8.6mph (if it's the mathematical '.3').
Either way, there seems to be some blurring of kmph and mph stemming from this.
Running at around 8mph (as indicated by Burbeary's Strava) for an athlete is reasonably steady - men in decent shape in their 50s can manage this for 45-60 minute runs.
Elite marathon runners shift at around 13mph - this is very different.
The standard for 10k athletes (more similar to the distances Burbeary tracks) is targeted at 14mph.
Strava indicates breaks between many of the runs, seemingly no more than two consecutive days are being used, which is sensible to manage wear on the body and limit injury risk for a 'normal' bloke, so seems broadly in line with what a non-expert would assume for an athlete.

Hamshaw was a very good runner as a youngster, and plenty I spoke to who remember him would agree there were better footballers during his school days, but as an athlete he was a different level. Football, like it or not, opened up to good footballers who were excellent athletes at least as much as it did to excellent footballers who were decent athletes (Michael Owen has often commented on this shift). It shouldn't be a 'gasp for air' moment if we see footballers running as much as healthy middle aged men do.

There is a weird injury curse that seems to have hit the club over recent seasons, but like most things I'd suspect the reasons are widespread rather than one or two single factors. I'd certainly back Burbeary's work and educational experience over speculation on a forum.

[Yak]

It doesn't take a degree to work out that the staff aren't training at the same level as the players, yet are doing silly amounts of running themselves, which isn't sustainable in the long term.

Sure you might keep it up for a few weeks, but the load being put on your body would quickly wear you down

I?m not doubting the info you have gathered. However it?s foolish to assume this is why the players are getting injured. It?s nonsensical and not helpful.

[Brin]

I’m sorry but have the club confirmed this?
Until then and it may or may not be true nobody is right or justified with anything.
It’s like the emotional state of what’s happened as to what people say has happened.
If it’s true then let’s wait till the club confirm that Ross is to blame for this.
I’ll wait for the club to confirm it rather than some bloke on a message board.
Then I’ll be live it’s true.

Pocket, I don't think anyone is blaming Ross for all these hammys. He may be under instruction to get the team as fit as a butchers dog but to what cost?

He was brought back to the club because of his prior ability to deliver fit strong healthy players but, something has gone horribly wrong somewhere. Bad luck? Over worked in training? Poor signings? The latter makes me think not as Nombe is one of the casualties who we could always depend on to be the team sheet.

The thing about Holmes' injury, is that it wasn't done in training, so it really is bad luck for him and the club.

[Heliosphan78]

It's information which is visible to everyone. Ross posts his and staff runs on strava for everyone to see. It was shown to me over the weekend and its been on twitter a bit. I looked to see whether it's true and it is. Download it and find him, its all there to see, from pre season right through to now it's been relentless

But just because Ross runs these distances, it doesn't mean all the players do too. This is Ross' private Strava account, not some kind of Rotherham United training roster. By the way, he's also been running to raise money for prostrate cancer lately so whether that has made a difference to how far he runs, I'm not sure.

I had a look on Strava. There's a picture of him with 4 other lads. I don't recognise any of them as being players.

[Heliosphan78]

*Prostate not prostrate 😉

[Derbymiller]

McWilliams out now with Hamstring, but don't worry as it is all bad luck says our manager. Our players don't run enough and bad luck, all the fancy sports equipment and databases show nothing he says. I cannot take that response seriously and i expect a better response. He could say that his team cannot see anything in the data, but clearly there is a problem so we are going to look beyond the data and try to bring in some additional expert advice, having an experienced different pair of eyes could help us.
What we get it is a made up thing, that all the research work on "bad luck" shows it does not exist as a supernatural force, but rather is the result of a combination of human perception of chance, personal behaviour, and psychological factors like negativity bias. People who perceive themselves as unlucky may experience negative outcomes because their behaviours fail to create or recognise opportunities, or because they have a limited focus on relevant information due to a strong negativity bias.

These injuries will not stop unless it is tackled differently than just running more or blaming some magical force.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/margiewarrell/2025/03/17/the-science-of-luck-why-luck-isnt-to-be-found-but-fostered/

https://www.yorkshirepost.co.uk/sport/football/wimbledon-v-rotherham-united-run-harder-is-matt-hamshaws-response-despite-injury-woes-5315585