 Maybe it’s the time for of the year and the inevitable build up of games in Gaelic Games but I have got numerous questions on Warm Ups and in particular about slow starts in last 3 weeks. Firstly, it’s highly unlikely the warm up has a huge effect on slow starts. It may have a little, but I would believe based on experience that it’s one or more of these things; 🔴 Too much high intensity sub max running throughout the season or conditioning being too “lactate” as I refer to it. Running fast (but not sprinting) without enough recovery is an example of this. Too many tackling grids without sufficient recovery would be another example 🔴 Even in well prepared teams and highly cooperative dual clubs the sheer volume of games in 2 sports reduces freshness. Success and momentum can mask this sometimes and when the mind is right (see below for opposite), but usually it’s highly detrimental to being successful at both hurling and football 🔴The team is not psychologically ready and/or fatigued from over training or a run of games. Training has an energy cost. Repeated high intensity fatiguing training has both a physiological and psychological cost. Continue it months on end and your team will suffer. Players need to be hungry. 🔴 Long training sessions within 10 days of games. Playing week to week is unavoidable of course a lot of the time, however 70-80-90 min training sessions the week of games are still quite common. Remember meetings are training. If you have a lot of tactics to go thru or a significant group meeting needs to take place then something has to go. Also if the message is important (which it often is) then do it before training and reduce time of training significantly and keep it intense and sharp. 🔴 Ignoring strength training. Strength can start to reduce after as little as 5 days. Seeing as our strength is what underpins our ability to produce force then not allowing strength training dissipate before games is critical. A micro dose approach works well here. Just 2-4 lifts for 2-3 sets within 4 days of game should be enough to maintain strength. Strength Training helps us keep our nervous system primed. Of course too much (just like too much tackling/sprinting etc) can be a negative also, so thread carefully.  Many over trained teams start slow. Very often this leads to falling behind or poor execution of skills. However these teams will often have a lot in the tank once fully up and going. In my experience this can take as long as 45 minutes in to a game. They then finish life a train and either steal a game or are gallant losers. Words and terms like “never give up”, “warriors” “they were fit in fairness” often get thrown around. However the reality is that they are very often very poorly prepared. You can see this often even at the highest levels of Gaelic Games. And you can actually track this pattern with individual managers where all their teams play like this. Where the warm up may possibly be an issue is if it is not specific enough, has too many non competitive drills, involves a lot of static stretching, lacks a decision making element or is too long. However a perfect warm up is useless if the players are tired and uninterested (not intentionally so often). One of the main reasons for a warm up is to “switch on” physically and mentally. It becomes almost impossible to do that if already fatigued. It astonishes me how much time is put into warm ups (as important as they are) and how much they are blamed without ever looking at the overall picture. There is a lot of talk recently about pressure on young players and demands of the modern game. Most of it is actually rubbish. Athletes in other sports or in teams like Dublin Footballers have any problem with it. Soccer teams like Cork City and Dundalk produce high level performances week on week. You can be sure they are not being flogged mid week. Having been part of quite a few teams where management sabotaged a season it’s is highly frustrating both as a player and a professional when I see this happening. What are the options to avoid this cumulative fatigue?
 Deloading is a common term used in S&C Circles. It is a term used to describe a period of time where after a layered increase in with volume or intensity of training (or both) a large decrease in training takes place at an often pre-determined time. Flexible and well equipped management teams can probably do this on the fly if they have methods of analyzing the players fatigue and performance levels. However a standard approach would be something like 3 weeks increasing load/intensity, one week where you drop to 30-60% load but maintain intensity. This period of deloading allows for an adaptation from the previous 3 weeks of training to occur. Very often in the following 7-10 days after a deload a team will perform to a very high level or even a level not reached before in either that season or ever.
However if this reduced approach is not taken then the training will eventually catch up and burn out the athletes and much of the subsequent training is rendered useless. What essentially happens is the players get good at playing moderately or executing moderately for a long period of time. Whereas what we want is they perform at a high level for suitable bursts of time within the game they play. Be able to output huge energy into plays from the get-go but recovery quickly. That’s really what Conditioning for field sport is about. Tapering is fairly straight forward, taper down your training especially around volume when preparing for a big game. You do not have to withdraw intensity, but reducing load well should bring freshness and enhanced athleticism to the game if down well. Anywhere between a 7 and 21 day taper is suitable depending on sport, training history and age. Generally if possibly I like a 10 day reduction for field sports like Gaelic Games. Reducing training from 80 mins to 65 mins to 45 mins to 30 mins is what many tapers will look like. What coaches need the remember (and I was guilty of this in the past myself) is that they is very little you can change athletically or tactically within 10 days of a game. So what you are best concentrating on is freshness and mental readiness and small bits of house keeping emphasizing game plan, set pieces etc. To avoid this common over training/burnout that can derail huge amounts of time and effort communication needs to be open and free between player and management as well as between managements if for instance working within a dual club or indeed a representative player on multiple teams. I often ask any club managers I speak to have they ever heard from the County manager in relation to one of their players. Never have I been told that a county manager has contacted them. NEVER. To be honest this is not doing your job properly. The information that a club manager will have about players could be invaluable to a County manager. Not to mention it build relationships and if a player needs game time that communication can help bring the player in as needed and not flogged or over played by the club manager. Within dual clubs in Gaelic Games this is even more vital. One of the most common issues I have seen is a team for instance loses a football championship match on Saturday but are back then training full whack on Monday or Tuesday as the hurling manager tries to catch up and fit in 2 weeks training into 1 session. I remember regularly being asked to come in Sunday morning after championship matches. Whichever sport it was (and it happened both ways) I hated it for at least a week. What coaches need to realize is less is more in these few days. A 40 minute session on a Tuesday night will be of far more value to a team who probably had great disappointment the previous Saturday at being knocked out of football championship. The key thing is freshness. In amateur sport I do not believe there is too much between most club players and teams. The 3 C’s of Coaching, Confidence and Conditioning will separate most teams. It’s quite arguable that simply being fresh in such a hectic calendar is more valuable than working on game play or your “touch”. Communication between coaches and sharing loads of training and feed back will enhance everyone’s performance and also support a harmony within the club of county. If you are a Club or Team Manager we work with teams and individuals in a consulting basis and you can contact Kevin at 0874633454 or [email protected] If you are a player and interested in staying injury free, getting stronger, fitter and faster for your sport, check out our online S&C Programs below or call Kevin at 0874633454 https://www.personaltrainingballincollig.com/gaelic-games-online-program.html
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 Going Heavy & Light to develop and express rotational powerHaving developmed good movement, technical proficiency in main lifts and built basic rotational stability we can move on to more specific development. While stability exercises like Palof Presses, planks etc will build a reasonable stability base and can be very effective with general population clients they have their limitations in developing true strength & power. To really develop and then express this force in any movement but in this case rotational movements we need to use heavy resistance.
Exercises that load our lateral sling (Jandas description of our lower right to upper left & visa-versa musculature and is very relative for force transfer and in particular rotational power) are the exercise that will help us develop this contralateral strength and thus allow us develop power. Exercises like split squats, reverse lunges, all sorts of steps ups etc. But there needs to be heavy resistance for true sporting transfer. This power may need to be expressed on the field with our own body weight or even against the mass of an opposition player. So while stability exercises will teach us how to use our deep trunk muscles and help transfer force from floor to bat or hurley or shoulder then we need to lift at ranges of 70% to 95% 1RM (1 rep maximum lift in any one exercise). It should also be remembered that Change of Direction (COD) on a pitch is also an expression of rotational & contralateral strength, power & speed. So this training is transferable to all aspects of field sport. The exercises used are too wide and varied to get specifically into for now, it depends on the body shape of the athlete, their height, their sport, their strengths & weaknesses and also the time of the year. The time of the year is important, sometimes we can work on weaknesses but other times we should be emphasising strengths (in fact this should be most if the time). To express the power we have we would generally use lighter implements. For instance Medicine Balls are a very useful tool for expressing rotational power. But how we use them can be really broken down as well to be as close as possible to the sporting movement we will perform on the pitch. Do we release the ball? How far away will the wall be? Are they one off ballistic throws or more extensive repeats. Your S&C Coach should be able to break these parts down for you and your sport. So to simplify down even further and give a few examples for this continuing process.
In the final post of this series we will look at programming and how it all fits in to a Field Sport S&C program. If you want to know more about our Online S&C for Field Sport please look here https://www.personaltrainingballincollig.com/gaelic-games-online-program.html  Siun’s results and progress Siun has made remarkable progress in terms of data.
If that happened after 24 sessions in 2 months i'd be midly surprised. But it was spread out over 3 or more which makes it more impressive although youths do adapt in various ways. There was weeks off, 1 session weeks and 3 session weeks. Such is the life of a dual Gaelic player, nothing is linear or easily plan able. All this means is in theory she should be faster, hitting the ground more forcefully and spending less time on the ground when running, jump higher, Accelerate better and just generally be more athletic. How it transfers to the pitch is more subjective. Her feedback is it is and she is playing better and with a bit more confidence. Hopefully that's the case, I have little doubt it has. But of course there are many other factors other than the S&C program as to why somebody improves. We will never pretend to be the answer to everything or the only reason for progression. Intrinsic motivation underpins everything at the end of the day, and Siun is not lacking there. In this program we worked very hard (every session) on hinging and squatting. Obviously this is not all we worked on but as a starting point getting better at squatting and hinging is going to make you more athletic, especially the less experienced you are. It’s the low hanging fruit of athleticism. However what may be a bit different is the way we develop stability and dynamic stability. Once basic stability is achieved through floor work we quickly move on to new challenges. In the video you will see Siun using an aquabag (from @ultimatestability ). This is a bag with handles and water filled inside swishing around. The basics of this is the instability will help develop stability. It means when we get to this stage we can double up our compound movements (squats, hinges, lunges, step ups, cleans etc) warm up with stability and we reduce the need for the sometimes time consuming floor work (although we do not abandon either). If you are interested in staying injury free, getting stronger, fitter and faster for your sport, check out our online S&C Programs below or call Kevin at 0874633454 for team or small group face to face training https://www.personaltrainingballincollig.com/gaelic-games-online-program.html Developing Contralateral Strength & Power When we throw a punch or strike a ball the force & speed (= Power) in most circumstances we generate that power from the tip of our toes to the final release at impact and follow through. Very often that power generates itself from one side of the body to the other. To get as close as we can to total athleticism specific for our sport we need to move closer to exercises that more closely resemble to movements of our sport and add to the transfer of the strength and movements we build in the regular gym and exercise programs we see everywhere. The process we use here at TMC is usually somewhere very close to the following….. We will build general; Bilateral strength - (Squats, Deadlifts, Pulls, Rows, Presses) Unilateral Strength - (Step Ups, Lunges, 1 Arm Rows) Contralateral Strength, Power & Movement - (Step Up to Press, Rotational Lunges, Various Med Ball Combos, Olympic variations)  It is important to realise that this would be done in conjunction with a good athletic program being delivered through field sport training as well using warm ups and speed training techniques to drive general athleticism and improve Biomechanical qualities at the same time. We would work on agility, lateral speed & movement. But rolling, tumbling, various jumping and multi-planar movement with a Perception-Action focus will lead us to developing better rotational strength & power also. An example of a 3 step progression for Tennis serve, overhead catching in hurling, pitching in baseball or bowling in Cricket as an example; Bird Dog - Basic contralateral stability & mobility Step Up & Press - Contralateral dynamic stability, force development and coordination. There are many progressions that could be used without ever getting heavy. Split Jerk or RDL-to-High-Step (in video) - An option for more advanced athletes. Variations of Olympic movements do not have to be incredibly over complicated, and you can start off light. An exercise like this will develop coordination before strength & power, but thats fine too. Med Ball Step/Lunge & Throw - A dynamic progression of above where the actually release of the med ball helps us express some of the force developed in the previous exercise. I use *French Contrast Circuits to develop horizontal and vertical strength & power. However a version of the above can also be used and i have experimented with this. I see these as particularly useful in-season and for more acyclic field sports like Hurling, LaCrosse, Soccer etc to be time efficient and work on all speeds of movement. In 2015 with Cork Camogie team i also used them for a spike in training coming up to All-Ireland Semi-Final/Final to stimulate further development within the program that was 9 months long at that point. It’s hard to measure how successful that was, but i think it was effective and the feedback was good. *4 exercises in a row from same movement pattern (i.e. Squat pattern) with little rest at various resistance levels and movement speeds to develop speed and power using PAP (Post Activation Potentiation). Some Coaches may even move on to overweight rackets, bats or hurleys. I know some skill acquisition experts see value in this but the science is thin and personally i am not seeing the large benefits to spend the time on such pursuits yet. And i mean yet as i am always open to being convinced, i just do not see the “bang for your buck” in this yet. And i have not used or experienced it either yet. In our next post we will look more at expressing our newly developed strength & power and how we can use Med Balls, Bands, Barbells & Kettlebells to build circuits that will build work capacity as well as rotational strength & power If you want to know more about our Online S&C for Field Sport please look here https://www.personaltrainingballincollig.com/gaelic-games-online-program.html  Basic Rotational Strength & Dynamic Stability Developing rotational strength and dynamic stability are closely related. Or it might be better to say rotational strength & control is an integral part of dynamic stability. We may think the various planks, bird dogs, etc are exercises that build strength or even muscle. But that is a misunderstanding of the exercises. We do them to develop control and teach us to use our trunk correctly. The trunk (Core) is the transfer station between placing your foot on the ground and striking a ball in any ball-bat sport or between planting a foot and throwing a punch (there is a reason Boxing coaches like to get boxers to “sit down on their punch). So much of our power comes thru the hips and trunk in particular.  So what is dynamic stability? In a sporting sense it’s your ability withstand any opposing forces , maintain balance and awareness and then execute a skill efficiently. Think taking a shoulder in football or striking while on one foot, leaning backwards in hurling. The ability to control yourself and self organize your body to execute is underpinned by good trunk function.
To avoid injury but also develop this control we use exercises that develop the following; - anti rotation - Anti lateral flexion - Anti extension By using “anti” we are emphasize really not over rotating, flexing or extending from the trunk. So the anti is developing our ability to resist. At a basic level planks, side planks, suitcase carries will do this. But there are endless ways of bringing it to the next level. This is base strength for building rotational strength & Power. To develop great strength for subsequent development of power we need to add resistance and work on the following; - Lower to upper transfer, transferring force - Single Limb and contralateral strength & coordination To be discussed in next post…. If you want to know more about our Online S&C for Field Sport please look here https://www.personaltrainingballincollig.com/gaelic-games-online-program.html |
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