Demands on GAA Players

toggingout

After John Mullane retired, it got me thinking that demands on GAA players are not sustainable. You hear crazy stories about teams training twice a day and over the last few weeks I believe the Laois hurlers have been training 6 days a week. In my mind this is just crazy and maybe a reason for a lot of talented young lads turning their back on the game at a young age.

Young lads need freedom, need the opportunity to enjoy life but get shamed for been seen out drunk in town once in a while. Where are the demands coming from? In my opinion it comes from management. A lot of managers have or have not jobs which allows them to schedule excessive training programmes. Imagine trying to tell your wife her girlfriend that you'll be gone nearly every night of the week. i would like to see a limit of 3 nights a week max for all inter-county teams. the fun is well gone out of it these days

Tom Joad

While you make good points and I assume you are referring exclusively to intercounty players, I would not agree that pressure necessarily comes from any Management - its a lot more complex than that.

There is a level of GAA for everybody commitment wise etc. in my view.

At Junior club level I don't think it matters generally if you turn up for training and that's fine it that's what you want or you are like me the wrong side of 30 and have other commitments but club numbers are struggling - its fantastic.

At senior level at most clubs I know its twice a week training/ sometimes 3 and you certaintly wouldn't have 100% turn up to training. But in saying that it's not something everyone can commit to but if you can brilliant and people enjoy that. Most young lads have no bother fitting into this.

County level is a different kettle of fish altogether and is just illustrative of the way the modern game has gone - their is a focus on fitness etc/ getting the extra 10%. A lot of that actually comes from the lads themselves - that's their drive and commitment to the jersey - yes the county has trainers/ access to gyms etc - but its the way the game has gone. Most intercounty players I know do their own extra work that's not asked for by management. - They know they need that extra bit just to compete. County football is a young man's game these days given the commitments but like the collective training rules you just can't enforce these training bans etc - its the way the game has gone.

Agree with you totally about the drinking etc - the general public need to cop on and realise they don't own these guys and its none of their business. In saying that if I see a county player falling around drunk the week of a championship game it písses me off no end..


Sorry ifpost is a bit long winded

rockonollie

Overtraining can be detrimental to a team and obviously isn't neccessary........Kilkenny for example, rarely do more than 3 training session a week......and you can't argue with their results

nice_guy80

rockonollie wrote: »

Overtraining can be detrimental to a team and obviously isn't neccessary........Kilkenny for example, rarely do more than 3 training session a week......and you can't argue with their results

yeah, but Kilkenny strive for real quality

anything they do, they do very well.

platypus

The demands are getting more unrealistic every year imo, especially if we want players to have longish careers in counties with very little chance of silverware. Also I think figures of number of sessions can be misleading, eg Laois may have 6-7 sessions a week, Kilkenny might have 3 + 3 days gym work individually its not really that different

davegrohl48

Inter county players families/girlfriends/wives are usually very understanding of the fact that the player is involved in an inter county setup. The demands these days may actually be less than there were in some setups years ago. Meath and Kerry in the 80's did what must be a record amount of training for collective training nights in a row 25+ in a row IIRC. Well documented across both camps. Mentally probably made easier for them knowing there was a big chance it might result in winning the All Ireland.
Nowadays it's usually better managed with gym programs being on the players time and collective training 3 times a week.
Teams are training smarter nowadays as well. Gaelic football is a power sport, the days of running laps in boots are over. Actually officially as Mick ODwyer would have been the last manager getting players to do that and he has ended it this year with Clare he admitted in an interview few weeks ago.

CUPimus

I agree, I think the training has become a little too extreme. Even at club level the demands are increasing all the time. I particularly think that the actual intensity of training sessions themselves are a little too much. I know it depends on the fitness levels of the individual, but to push lads to the point of vomiting week in, week out, in high intensity training sessions has become standard procedure. I don't know about anybody else but for me there is absolutely no enjoyment in that.

nice_guy80

if it ever becomes too much, players will just give up

thats the nature of competitive sport and training

doesn't matter if you're doing an Ironman or a junior d football

Luca Brasi

Tom Joad wrote: »

While you make good points and I assume you are referring exclusively to intercounty players, I would not agree that pressure necessarily comes from any Management - its a lot more complex than that.

There is a level of GAA for everybody commitment wise etc. in my view.

At Junior club level I don't think it matters generally if you turn up for training and that's fine it that's what you want or you are like me the wrong side of 30 and have other commitments but club numbers are struggling - its fantastic.

At senior level at most clubs I know its twice a week training/ sometimes 3 and you certaintly wouldn't have 100% turn up to training. But in saying that it's not something everyone can commit to but if you can brilliant and people enjoy that. Most young lads have no bother fitting into this.

County level is a different kettle of fish altogether and is just illustrative of the way the modern game has gone - their is a focus on fitness etc/ getting the extra 10%. A lot of that actually comes from the lads themselves - that's their drive and commitment to the jersey - yes the county has trainers/ access to gyms etc - but its the way the game has gone. Most intercounty players I know do their own extra work that's not asked for by management. - They know they need that extra bit just to compete. County football is a young man's game these days given the commitments but like the collective training rules you just can't enforce these training bans etc - its the way the game has gone.

Agree with you totally about the drinking etc - the general public need to cop on and realise they don't own these guys and its none of their business. In saying that if I see a county player falling around drunk the week of a championship game it písses me off no end..


Sorry ifpost is a bit long winded

If I see anyone falling around drunk it pisses me off. Its a sure sign of their inbuilt inadequacies and insecurity that they have to get pissed to enjoy themselves. There is a big difference in enjoying a few drinks and getting pissed so that you are under the control of alcohol and not the other way round.

cormac halpin

Luca Brasi wrote: »

If I see anyone falling around drunk it pisses me off. Its a sure sign of their inbuilt inadequacies and insecurity that they have to get pissed to enjoy themselves. There is a big difference in enjoying a few drinks and getting pissed so that you are under the control of alcohol and not the other way round.

We all partied.

jwof2006

Could be paying off for Laois, should have beaten a fancied UCD team last week, lost by a point.

Deise Tom

toggingout wrote: »

After John Mullane retired, it got me thinking that demands on GAA players are not sustainable. You hear crazy stories about teams training twice a day and over the last few weeks I believe the Laois hurlers have been training 6 days a week. In my mind this is just crazy and maybe a reason for a lot of talented young lads turning their back on the game at a young age.

Young lads need freedom, need the opportunity to enjoy life but get shamed for been seen out drunk in town once in a while. Where are the demands coming from? In my opinion it comes from management. A lot of managers have or have not jobs which allows them to schedule excessive training programmes. Imagine trying to tell your wife her girlfriend that you'll be gone nearly every night of the week. i would like to see a limit of 3 nights a week max for all inter-county teams. the fun is well gone out of it these days

You make a good point. I was talking to the Father of a Waterford Minor player last year. His son was involved also with the Colaiste na Déise team that won the Dr Harty Cup. He was telling me (whether right or wong, I Dont know) that undue pressure was put on the players by the selectors. 99 times out of 100 he was saying that the training was done at the WIT Campus outside Waterford City. He was saying that players playing with clubs close to the Cork border were leaving for school just after 8am in the morning, and had to make their way to Waterford straight after school to be there on time for training, picking up something to eat along the way. After training he said it was the long trip home where a lot of players who were in 5th or 6th year faced into a few hours study and then off to bed. He was saying that the selectors were not interested that the players were playing and training with their college side. They were told be at county training or it was good-bye. He said that if it was not but for some common sense by the clubs who excused the players from training a lot of the time, the players would have been burned out very early in the year.

Also in Waterford we have had a lot of good young players who have to had different opperations in recent times. I could be wrong, but to me this is all down to burning the players out, putting undue pressure on them. The amount of games that some players are expected to play with their college, club and county is unreal. You could have a lad playing for his college side, maybe even two college sides if you play for someone like Colaiste na nDéise you are also playing for Dungarvan CBS or St Augustine's, you are playing minor, under 21 and senior/intermediate/junior with your club and you are also playing minor for the county and then you have people claiming that a player should be brought into the county under 21 and maybe intermediate or senior set up to have a look at him or to give him extra experience. Many of these players body's are not fully developed and are not able for all this pressure on it, but they are not going to say this as they dont want to be seen to be letting anyone and more over themselves down, maybe cutting themselves off playing at a higher level in the future if they do. Had they not to do all the training and play as often as they are expected to I am certain that they would not be having the operations and treatment for injuries that some have to each year.

Mountainlad

nice_guy80 wrote: »

yeah, but Kilkenny strive for real quality

anything they do, they do very well.

Shouldn't that be everybody's aim?