Extracuricular fitness training for hurling?

curious guy

was advised to go here from the Gaa forum was just wondering what type of training people recommend for improving fitness for hurling outside of normal training.
Im 22 so can prob take extra training relatively fit at moment but want to improve for championship coming up in a few weeks,
any recommendations?

tribulus

Maybe send a PM to slemons, he's big into hurling I believe and does (or used to do) a lot of acceleration and agility training too.

Will Heffernan

If you want to drop me a mail and or detail here your current training cycle along with your own stats I'll give you some feedback/recommendations.

curious guy

Will Heffernan wrote: »

If you want to drop me a mail and or detail here your current training cycle along with your own stats I'll give you some feedback/recommendations.

well it varies from week to week most often tuesdays, thursdays and match saturday or sunday. This week match satday nd puck around friday nd training was tuesday.
Trainin typically consists of hurling ball work drills. a match ...some six four sixes..or runs of lik 40 metres over and back 4 times before recovery and about 4 or 5 sets of these.
Find it hard to get motivation on off days..tryin a bit of interval trainin on a thread mill we have..

Will Heffernan

curious guy wrote: »

well it varies from week to week most often tuesdays, thursdays and match saturday or sunday. This week match satday nd puck around friday nd training was tuesday.
Trainin typically consists of hurling ball work drills. a match ...some six four sixes..or runs of lik 40 metres over and back 4 times before recovery and about 4 or 5 sets of these.
Find it hard to get motivation on off days..tryin a bit of interval trainin on a thread mill we have..

Without the motivation your going to struggle with any of the suggestions that people make and unfortunately I don't think there's anyone that can help you with that.

What sort of interval training have you been doing?

curious guy

Ah know I have the motivation alright ...only started the interval training last week following advice from a similiar post I put on the gaa forum..although dunno if I am doing it right ...
i jogged for about a minute and then sprinted at full speed for 30-40 seconds done this for ten mins and was sweating strong...

Will Heffernan

curious guy wrote: »

Ah know I have the motivation alright ...only started the interval training last week following advice from a similiar post I put on the gaa forum..although dunno if I am doing it right ...
i jogged for about a minute and then sprinted at full speed for 30-40 seconds done this for ten mins and was sweating strong...

If your goal is to improve your anaerobic capacity then what you are doing is probably a reasonable way to go about it. Is that what is going to give you the best bang for your buck in the limited time you have before champo? Myself, I doubt it...but it certainly won't hurt you.

To know what the best training modality would be to optimise your performance you'd really have to know what your various physical attributes and abilities are.

Personally, with the limited time you have and what little information you've given and know that you want some sort of answer rather that just more questions...I'd put my money on spending more time doing high intensity agility work with hurl in hand.

entropi

Will Heffernan wrote: »

If you want to drop me a mail and or detail here your current training cycle along with your own stats I'll give you some feedback/recommendations.

I think i'll take advantage of this myself and post up details of my usual training schedule as i'm a hurler too...if thats ok?


Mon - Training 7-9pm changes from cardio to skill on different sessions*

Tue - Running 8miles in an hour, usually around 6:30pm, once home some exercises using a barbell**

Wed - Training 7-9pm changes from cardio to skill on different sessions*

Thu - Running 5miles in 35 mins, once home do weight exercises with barbell**

Fri - Rest

Sat - Rest

Sun - usually every 2nd one has a match on a regular schedule, some weeks are different so i alter the above plans to fit around them.

*Training will have sessions with usual warm up, drills and shooting practice, speedwork is done through sprints usually, and agility with modified shuttle runs.

**Weight training exercises, limited amount of plates at home:

Barbell:

Chest Press - 8 reps 2 sets 30kg 1min break between sets

Upright Row - as above

Military Press - as above

Romanian Deadlift - 40kg

Full Squat - 40kg as above but 12 reps not 8


I can use gym facilities at the clubhouse but have not done so yet, access to dumbells and some machines if training needs modification.

Hopefully this is enough info on training to see how it works out and personal nutrition is good.

Will Heffernan

Master of Nothing wrote: »

I think i'll take advantage of this myself and post up details of my usual training schedule as i'm a hurler too...if thats ok?

No.

curious guy

Will Heffernan wrote: »

If your goal is to improve your anaerobic capacity then what you are doing is probably a reasonable way to go about it. Is that what is going to give you the best bang for your buck in the limited time you have before champo? Myself, I doubt it...but it certainly won't hurt you.

To know what the best training modality would be to optimise your performance you'd really have to know what your various physical attributes and abilities are.

Personally, with the limited time you have and what little information you've given and know that you want some sort of answer rather that just more questions...I'd put my money on spending more time doing high intensity agility work with hurl in hand.

Yeah we do kinda high intensity agility work with hurls in hand in the drills i suppose.
I dont really record times for running will start doing it though. Can do those 40 yard x 4 runs in about 34 secs if that makes sense.

Got moved out to midfield so gonna need a bit more endurance.
My pysical attributes are I am 6ft and 12 stone so athletic build if that helps iI dunno.

oh yeah first round championship wont be till august and after that prob september after all Ireland for other matches its the kk champ ...

Will Heffernan

curious guy wrote: »

Yeah we do kinda high intensity agility work with hurls in hand in the drills i suppose.
I dont really record times for running will start doing it though. Can do those 40 yard x 4 runs in about 34 secs if that makes sense.

Got moved out to midfield so gonna need a bit more endurance.
My pysical attributes are I am 6ft and 12 stone so athletic build if that helps iI dunno.

From the sound of it...what you are doing is probably pretty close to spot on then.

What I'd suggest though is that you perhaps vary the duration of your work intervals.

Personally I'd ditch the treadmill as well and do them outdoors on pitch.

Brian?

Will Heffernan wrote: »

From the sound of it...what you are doing is probably pretty close to spot on then.

What I'd suggest though is that you perhaps vary the duration of your work intervals.

Personally I'd ditch the treadmill as well and do them outdoors on pitch.

You wouldn't recommend any sort of strength training?

Will Heffernan

briankeating wrote: »

You wouldn't recommend any sort of strength training?

Not particularly. Especially if he's not already.

Vegeta

Will Heffernan wrote: »

Not particularly. Especially if he's not already.

Firstly good to see you posting,

A few questions on the above, is the reason you advise against strength training

1)Because he has limited time and his efforts would be best spent elsewhere
2)Hurling doesn't really require it
3)He gets what he needs from actually hurling

Will Heffernan

Vegeta wrote: »

Firstly good to see you posting,

A few questions on the above, is the reason you advise against strength training

1)Because he has limited time and his efforts would be best spent elsewhere
2)Hurling doesn't really require it
3)He gets what he needs from actually hurling

From what I've read I think I could just say yes to all of the above.

Will Heffernan

Master of Nothing wrote: »

I think i'll take advantage of this myself and post up details of my usual training schedule as i'm a hurler too...if thats ok?


Mon - Training 7-9pm changes from cardio to skill on different sessions*

Tue - Running 8miles in an hour, usually around 6:30pm, once home some exercises using a barbell**

Wed - Training 7-9pm changes from cardio to skill on different sessions*

Thu - Running 5miles in 35 mins, once home do weight exercises with barbell**

Fri - Rest

Sat - Rest

Sun - usually every 2nd one has a match on a regular schedule, some weeks are different so i alter the above plans to fit around them.

*Training will have sessions with usual warm up, drills and shooting practice, speedwork is done through sprints usually, and agility with modified shuttle runs.

**Weight training exercises, limited amount of plates at home:

Barbell:

Chest Press - 8 reps 2 sets 30kg 1min break between sets

Upright Row - as above

Military Press - as above

Romanian Deadlift - 40kg

Full Squat - 40kg as above but 12 reps not 8


I can use gym facilities at the clubhouse but have not done so yet, access to dumbells and some machines if training needs modification.

Hopefully this is enough info on training to see how it works out and personal nutrition is good.

Mate I got your PM. I always ask the same question of all athletes looking to make modifications to their programs...'Is what you are doing right now working?'...if so...keep doing it. If not...then maybe it's time for more than just a tweak to your training.

So? Is it working?

curious guy

Thanks Will and Co...just in relation to varying the duration of your work intervals...could you suggest some examples?

Will Heffernan

curious guy wrote: »

Thanks Will and Co...just in relation to varying the duration of your work intervals...could you suggest some examples?

Absolutely...are you interested in more 'speed' focused or 'endurance' focused intervals?

I can give you all the intervals progressions you'd like.

curious guy

Speed focused...if ya dont mind

Will Heffernan

curious guy wrote: »

Speed focused...if ya dont mind

OK...I should of asked before...but do you prefer training by time or by distance? As in some athletes like to have their intervals set out by distance if they were running on a pitch while others prefer time is they were say running in a park or in the street? Let me know?

curious guy

Distance ..would be great

Will Heffernan

curious guy wrote: »

Distance ..would be great

Consider a warm up and cool down a given...

Here's some long and short interval options...
Long
Option 1: Distance - 400's at 70-75% of max (you need to measure this). Do 9 repetitions. By way of 3 sets of 3 reps with a slow 100m walk between reps and a complete 4 min rest between sets.

Option 2: Distance - 300's at 75-80% of max (you need to measure this). Do 10 repetitions. By way of 2 sets of 5 reps with a slow 100m walk between reps and a complete 3 min rest between sets.

Short
Option 3: Distance - 6 sets of 200m, 6 sets of 150m & 6 sets of 100m with 120sec, 90sec and 60sec between reps.

Option 4: To be done on a pitch. Do 10 laps...start at corner of pitch, jog to half-way, 80% pace to the other corner, sprint across pitch width, jog to half-way, 80% pace to other corner, sprint across pitch width.

That should keep you going at least a couple of weeks till Championship.

curious guy

Yeah That will keep me going alright:eek: thanks

kumate_champ07

Vegeta wrote: »

3)He gets what he needs from actually hurling

you could say that about every sport. when 2 players are going for the ball with similar pace the strongest will prob win it. strong arms will also be an advantage. barbell curls and hammer curls would be good for this.

or just do clean&press and squats twice a week.

curious guy

kumate_champ07 wrote: »

you could say that about every sport. when 2 players are going for the ball with similar pace the strongest will prob win it. strong arms will also be an advantage. barbell curls and hammer curls would be good for this.

or just do clean&press and squats twice a week.

What is clean&press?

Will Heffernan

curious guy wrote: »

Yeah That will keep me going alright:eek: thanks

At least you can chose your own poison. From what you've written they should be easy.

Will Heffernan

curious guy wrote: »

What is clean&press?

With only a couple of weeks till championship...I'd stick with what you've basically been doing to date. It's no time for a major program changes.

curious guy

yeah i seem to be improving had a game Saturday and was playing a lot better...training has stepped up also ...ah yeah will manage that ...think option 3 looks like my poison...

kumate_champ07

curious guy wrote: »

What is clean&press?

its lifting a weight from the ground to above your head in 2 movements, it trains the whole body. its a very functional exercise and will give you explosive strength and power

Will Heffernan

curious guy wrote: »

yeah i seem to be improving had a game Saturday and was playing a lot better...training has stepped up also ...ah yeah will manage that ...think option 3 looks like my poison...

That sounds like you are on a winner then...improving equals good.

Enjoy the session and if you want some progressions then drop me a mail.

entropi

Will Heffernan wrote: »

Mate I got your PM. I always ask the same question of all athletes looking to make modifications to their programs...'Is what you are doing right now working?'...if so...keep doing it. If not...then maybe it's time for more than just a tweak to your training.

So? Is it working?

Actually it is working for me right now in alot of areas, thank you for the question i needed it so i could think about it:) However i should certainly try improve upper body strength with weight exercises if possible while keeping up the speed/stamina training, maybe bicep+hammer curls, tricep ext, upright rows, chest press, shoulder press or front+lat raises, need an exercise for upper back though cant think of one...but these should suffice no? Cheers for the input, i'll look into your option 4 above for my own needs also.

Will Heffernan

Master of Nothing wrote: »

Actually it is working for me right now in alot of areas, thank you for the question i needed it so i could think about it:)

No problem.

However i should certainly try improve upper body strength with weight exercises if possible while keeping up the speed/stamina training, maybe bicep+hammer curls, tricep ext, upright rows, chest press, shoulder press or front+lat raises, need an exercise for upper back though cant think of one...but these should suffice no?

Right idea...wrong proposed solution.

How much do you weigh? Lets assume you weigh less than 100kg's...you should be able to 12-15 pull ups. If you can...brilliant. Let me know if this is the case. If you can't then this should be your priority. Actually if you go do some pull ups...no kipping, no worming about...count your reps from a dead hang to chin over the bar and get back to me. You should also be able to do 50+ push ups and 30+ inverted rows...so you may as well test these while your at it.

Your biggest priority as an athlete should be body weight mastery. If you can't do 50 push ups in a minute you don't need to worry about benching...if you can't do 30 inverted rows...you don't need to bent over row....and if you can't do 12-15+ pull ups....you shouldn't be worried about anything else.

Cheers for the input, i'll look into your option 4 above for my own needs also.

I've no idea what Option 4 is...but if I wrote it...surely it must be brilliant.

kumate_champ07

Master of Nothing wrote: »

Actually it is working for me right now in alot of areas, thank you for the question i needed it so i could think about it:) However i should certainly try improve upper body strength with weight exercises if possible while keeping up the speed/stamina training, maybe bicep+hammer curls, tricep ext, upright rows, chest press, shoulder press or front+lat raises, need an exercise for upper back though cant think of one...but these should suffice no? Cheers for the input, i'll look into your option 4 above for my own needs also.

if you want to train your whole body for sport dont bother with the bodybuilding type/isolation exercises. i mentioned hammer curls because they help with forearm strength too which is needed for hurling.

with the clean&press you are working your legs,back,arms and shoulders together as a unit. you will have better acceleration on the pitch as well as more strength. for back you can do chins/inverted rows and maybe deadlift(which also works the whole body) but it will eat into your recovery time.

curious guy

kumate_champ07 wrote: »

if you want to train your whole body for sport dont bother with the bodybuilding type/isolation exercises. i mentioned hammer curls because they help with forearm strength too which is needed for hurling.

with the clean&press you are working your legs,back,arms and shoulders together as a unit. you will have better acceleration on the pitch as well as more strength. for back you can do chins/inverted rows and maybe deadlift(which also works the whole body) but it will eat into your recovery time.

Will try and squeez in some of them too Thanks

Will Heffernan

curious guy wrote: »

Will try and squeez in some of them too Thanks

Please don't.

kumate_champ07

Will Heffernan wrote: »

Please don't.

can you explain why?

fat and slow

op and will, it's a very interesting thread.
Main Question; Pre season I did some compound lifts to gain strength. {Squat DL and bench} I would like to maintain strength during the season. For hurling strength is less important than high intensity fitness. Should I try and maintain strenght or just accept a strength loss and focus on high intensity drills and hurling performance.

Current training load; hurl 2/3 times a week. I do sets of pullups/ chinups{eg pulls,chins pulls chins pulls) at least 2times a week on the pull up bar at home. I have one gym session and 1 kettlebell circuit class. In the gym session I do squats and deadlifts dipps and sometimes military press, then just use a foam roller and stretch.
Should I just stick in one HIT session per week and carry on as normal. or should I stick in 2HIT sessions and cut back on pullups

Finaly would you ever recommend multidirectional sports such as badminton, squash or basketball to improve agility for hurling?