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USC scientist to speak at World Football Congress
The Wallabies’ forwards could be doing themselves a disservice by concentrating on scrum machine training, according to University of the Sunshine Coast sports scientist Dr Mark Sayers.
Dr Sayers, a sports biomechanist with the New Zealand All Blacks, will speak about the biomechanics of rugby scrum machines at the 6th World Congress on Science and Football starting in Turkey on Tuesday 16 January.
This conference is held every four years and attracts thousands of sports scientists from all codes of football from around the world. It includes presentations on sports medicine, exercise physiology and psychology.
The USC senior lecturer will present two papers at the week-long conference: one on “attack”, highlighting the All Blacks’ approach to running rugby; and the other comparing the biomechanics of scrummaging in a game of rugby union with those when using a scrum machine.
He said too much time using a scrum machine could lead to bad technique, especially as the machine doesn’t push back against the forward pack.
Dr Sayers said the All Blacks’ forwards would spend less than 20 percent of their scrummaging training using a scrum machine, whereas the Wallabies would spend 80 percent.
He said his presentation on attack would highlight some of his work with the All Blacks in teaching running techniques, including foot patterns and running at angles.
“It’s really looking at how the world’s best players do things and how do you teach that to other players – like how do you sidestep like David Campese,” he said.
Dr Sayers is a sought-after sports biomechanist, who has had a stellar career in rugby union. He has worked for three different international teams (Wallabies, All Blacks and the Italian team in its 2003 Rugby World Cup campaign) as well as with the ACT Brumbies when they became the Super 12 Rugby champions.
Dr Sayers was a member of the ACT Brumbies coaching staff from 1999-2003. During this time, he also worked as a biomechanist for the All Blacks from 2000-2001, for the Wallabies from 2001-2002 and for the Italian Rugby team at the 2003 Rugby World Cup.
He has been the All Blacks biomechanist and New Zealand Rugby Union national resource coach since 2004 and will be on the All Blacks management team for the 2007 Rugby World Cup in France in September.
Dr Sayers said he was looking forward to meeting other sports scientists at the conference in Turkey and attending as many presentations as possible.
“I’ll be wearing two caps at the conference,’’ he said. “There are some presentations that the All Blacks want me to go and see and then there’s some that I’m interested in personally.”