Tuesday, 6th November 2007

INSIDE TRACK: Interview with Scott McAllister

When he's not keeping fit himself, watching sport and supporting Tottenham Hotspur he's behind the scenes making sure the players we all enjoy watching perform on the pitch make it out into the middle in one piece.

We started by asking Scott how he became the physiotherapist at Yorkshire back in 2003?

By chance I was made aware of a job going at Lancashire which was essentially working with the 2nd Team with a bit of 1st Team work as well. That was about 7 years ago after I qualified as a physio. I did a couple of seasons there which was funny given that I'm from Yorkshire.

When I finished with Lancashire Wayne Morton who is our medical consultant rang me up and made me aware that the 1st Team job was available here and asked if I would be interested in applying for it. I'd met Wayne before when I was working with Lancs so I had an interview with him and a chat and when he offered me the role there was no chance I was going to do anything else. Coincidentally I had an offer from Essex the day before &ndash Essex on the Monday and Yorkshire on the Tuesday &ndash given I live in Huddersfield and the history of this county it was an easy decision to make.

I assume there are some hypochondriacs in the dressing room and some a little bit braver - any funny stories?

In any working environment there are different people and different scenarios. Some are more susceptible to the odd ache and pain, but then again they might be doing harder roles. The important thing as a physio is to understand your players and I've got to know them well in 5 years here. I'm good friends with most of the lads as well and that all helps my treatment and care of them as sportsmen. You understand what makes them tick, how different bowlers respond to different situations and how batsman and bowlers have different takes on their work. You have to take all of that into consideration and be aware of the role of each individual. Even though it is a team sport they are individuals with their own characteristics and you have to appreciate that and integrate it into your job.

There will be some people who will be on your bench when they stub their toe and others who will want to carry on playing with their arm hanging off.

Absolutely, but I've always tried to encourage since I've been here that I want to know anything that concerns the lads. It's up to me to pacify and calm someone down or recognise that it might be something that could lead to more serious problems. That is the way that professional sports management is going now. I'd rather players make me aware of minor niggles than hide problems that could be symptomatic of something more serious &ndash then you lose a player for a few weeks and turn around and say, “You should have said something!” We want a situation where people feel they can come and tell me anything, not just physical but also off-field stuff that is completely unrelated to cricket. That's my role too, someone that can help out, maybe just listenx85

A mental physio as well then?

Absolutely, I think that goes for most people in any walk of life. Lives are complicated enough and there are so many things that feed into it. In sport generally people play under pressure and here they play for a famous county where they are expected to perform by the coaches and supporters, but these lads set high standards for themselves and it helps if they feel they can bounce off people a little bit.

It can be a glamorous occupation, but it's also a high pressure environment and people respond to that pressure in different ways don't they?

They do and that is life. We all have things that press different switches and react differently to various stresses and coping with that is part of being a sportsman or working in any job where there's a spotlight and you are judged on how well you do. Cricket is a results business.

Is there a normal pattern to a match day from your perspective or is each day different?

I like to make sure that I am the first person on the ground from the playing side, so I like to be in at the latest by 8.30am so I can get myself sorted and wait for the lads to come in. We say hello, have a bit of a laugh and small-talk, but it's always nice to know that you've got time there just in case you find that a couple of the lads rock up with problems from the day before. The last thing you want is a queue when you get in. The lads know I'm in early should anything have cropped up and taken them unawares.

Once we're all in I prepare the lads for whatever they need, loosen them off, strap them up or to use an old term give them a rub if that's what someone needs to get them loose. If it's the first day there might be a fitness test where we need to run the rule over someone to ensure they are fit to start.

When the game begins I think some people's perception of my job might be that I'm just sat watching cricket all day, but the way I perceive my job is that I'm sat concentrating and watching the players, not necessarily the game, but scouting across the 11 players to ensure that nobody is indicating that something is wrong by the way they run, bowl or field. I certainly found when I first started here that I was mentally tired at the end of the day because as a game going over seven hours plus you are never relaxed and when you win you are like the lads, quite pumped up and buzzing and it takes a while to ease off if things have gone really well.

The day might end, if play finishes on time at 6.30pm with Championship cricket, but I will invariably be here until 7.30pm or 8pm sorting people out and trying to make sure they are as ready as they can possibly be for the next day. Your days are generally long over the summer, but they fly as it is fun. It's a great job to be involved with, a great team and great lads. I think as a Club we have some great staff. What we've found is that everyone gets on and although you work long days they are just gone and the summer is gone before you know it.

One of the Team - Scott (centre) at the end of season fancy dress with Anthony McGrath and Jacques Rudolph

Does your role change when the season finishes?

It had done in the past. I would finish on the last day of September and I would pick the lads up again on 1st March with Wayne Morton providing the majority of the physio cover in the interim. With the lads that go away and play abroad or join up with England at various levels it wasn't perceived that there was much for me to do. What we are doing this year is providing more continuity so even though Wayne is still providing support I am actually employed now on a part-time basis over the winter to deal with niggles that we've had from the end of the season and also to screen the lads and profile them for what we now know to be their own individual physical characteristics. We are profiling all of the lads who have complained of certain niggles or are weak or stiff in certain areas, building a portfolio and setting them their own programme based on their specific needs.

Going back to the role of the individual, we know a certain player complains of back ache. What we are now able to do is investigate the reasons why he gets that, not just treat the back pain. Hopefully that will work well, but the proof of the pudding is in the eating and success will depend on the niggles we get next year and then reviewing what we did and assessing whether we can improve it again. That's something we are all keen to do right from Martyn Moxon, Dean Riddle, Tom Summers, myself, Steve Oldham, Kevin Sharp and Ian Dews &ndash it's something we are trying to do all the way through the Club from senior players through to scholars. The idea is that with the younger lads in a few years we will prevent some of the injuries that might occur, however given sport you are always going to get injuries.

So basically we are trying to make them stronger in areas they might be weak?

Absolutely, yes, or if they are lacking flexibility in certain areas we can be a little bit more proactive in making sure that they are at their optimum. Obviously people are still going to get injured and we will have to deal with that.

How has Adil Rashid's back injury been managed and how is he now?

Adil suffered what most people will understand as a stress fracture. It wasn't a full one, but it necessitated a length of time off. What you are always trying to do is look at the factors involved in him developing back pain. Adil is young and his body is still developing &ndash maybe he bowled quite a lot so you look at spell length and the overs he bowled in a game and then you look at his bowling action with our bowling specialists to see if there is anything that needs to be adjusted. Although we know what the risk factors are you could argue convincingly that changing someone before they are injured could give them problems, so it is a very fine line between what you change and what you leave alone, particularly if someone has been injury free.

In Adil's case he is still musculoskeletally immature and needs to have his bowling workload monitored and so last year we new it would be silly to play him in all 4-day and 1-day cricket and in the matches we tried to make sure we were not over-bowling him. Needs must sometimes in a game and if he is bowling particularly well he will want to stay on. These are the things we have tried to look at and he's had a good year in terms of his back. He's not had any reoccurrence or suffered from any problems, but we definitely see Adil's progress in the medium and long-term as well.

So in a situation like Adil's where there is an injury problem would it be you that goes to Steve Oldham or another coach and suggest his action is remodelled - how much do you work together?

Everyone has their input and you respect each others expertise. With the technology they've got now in being able to film a bowler's action we can now look at each situation between us. I have an understanding as a physiotherapist about what would increase stress on certain areas of the body. Steve is a very experienced bowling coach and by breaking down someone's action we can assess where the main problem lies. Steve recognises the importance of each element to the bowler and certainly sometimes we thing that physically there may be something wrong and it is purely a technical problem &ndash you correct the position they are in when they bowl and the pain goes away. The pain is not always indicative of a problem, it is just the position they are getting themselves into and we can all get ourselves into various positions that irritate us.

It is a team effort and Steve would ask for my input if he had concerns for a bowler and likewise I would go to Steve if a bowler was presenting to me a certain condition and say he's having problems let's have a look at his footage. We've done that pretty well over the years and we will get better at preventing these injuries as we implement more prehabiltation protocols over the winter.

What is the difference between the old fashioned masseur and the modern day physio?

We always try and do things for a reason. Every stretch I give somebody, every strengthening exercise or treatment has a function. That's where modern medicine is going, more technical and the use of the video footage and scanning systems we use to investigate injuries is far more advanced now than it was ten years ago.

I think on the other side of that there is a lot to be said for man management. When you look at how people perceive the old school masseurs as rubbers, you still have that role. You still want people to feel good about themselves and feel fit. You go about your job in certain ways around the construct of the team and understand that different people need different things. There is still a place for the good old fashioned techniques too.

And do you follow your own teachings?

I do like to keep reasonably fit. I feel better if I'm more active and as a physio in decent shape. Being involved in a sports team you do need to lead by example a little bit. If you are asking people to do something you should be prepared to have a go yourself. I try and do a bit of training with the lads and I've done off-season runs with people like Andrew Gale and Brez where we've hit the roads and done some hill work together and I enjoy that.

Do you see yourself working in professional sport for the rest of your career?

I loved working on the NHS and there's a different satisfaction that comes from that. Essentially what you are dealing with there are people's day-to-day lives. You are returning people to work, returning them to a level of sport, which might not be professional but it's all relative. Someone wants to get back to running because they enjoy it, or someone wants to get back to playing football because it's social, and so you can have a big impact on people's lives.

When you're part of a team everyone is directed to winning and that's your goal. I like the pressure of working in a team environment where what you do in a short amount of time can have a big impact on a game and on a player being fit to play. I do enjoy the team environment, there are different pressures and I'd like to carry on at Yorkshire for a long time. I'll be starting my sixth season in March and it's flown and I think that's testament to the fact that I really enjoy the work.

Thank you Scott McAllister.