Hurling Against The Wall

danceswithwolf

I retired from hurling aged 11 due to a complete lack of interest, in hindsight this may have been a mistake. Anyway a few days ago my physio ordered me to take a few weeks off my regular sporting activities leaving me with about 10 hours of free time per week and nothing to do take a break from studying.

To kill a few hours I've started hurling against the wall to see how good I can get or can I get remotely competent. This is day 2 and I'm starting to see an improvement but I'm really inconsistent, I still miss the ball fairly often, sometimes I slice it and when I do get it right I can only catch it on the bounce and not get it straight into my hand.

Any advice on technique? Should I be trying to hit the sliotar at a particular height? Sometimes I think shortening the hurl one hand length helps other times I think I connect better if I hold it right at the top.

I hope to be a lot better by Friday.

nice_guy80

hold the hurley like a 'sword' in one hand

turn the hips and feet to be perpendicular to the wall (ie not facing the wall)

drop the ball knee height and a nice wristy swing using the forearms.
ball should come straight back off the wall.

randd1

I know it might seem obvious, but keep your eye on the ball when you strike it, getting your hand/eye co-ordination right will get the striking right.

danceswithwolf

Thanks lads! I will keep at it for the week.

dzer2

Eye on the ball stand 20 feet away from the ball hit softly and follow through with the swing and when catching let the hand fall backwards when you feel the touch.

danceswithwolf

Has anyone got any tips on how you work on your bad side? I'm getting there on my good side but not having much luck with the other. Thanks.

dzer2

danceswithwolf wrote: »

Has anyone got any tips on how you work on your bad side? I'm getting there on my good side but not having much luck with the other. Thanks.

Throw ball undefr the hurley and slow down the swing. Also hold the hurley short that way you wont miss the ball as much.

danceswithwolf

dzer2 wrote: »

Throw ball undefr the hurley and slow down the swing. Also hold the hurley short that way you wont miss the ball as much.

Thanks should you throw the ball a head of yourself a bit to hit it? I know you shouldn't throw it very far on your strong side, but should you throw it out more on the weak side?

danceswithwolf

Ok have figured out the weak side myself. The secret is hours of doing it and you will get better!

nice_guy80

to get the mind and nervous system to a point where you can start improving, you need to get up to at least 200 repetitions of a skill.
New Zealand rugby and Aussie sports have done a good bit of research into that

to master it its said you need to clock in over 10,000 repetitions
not sure who came up with that

BertMark

nice_guy80 wrote: »

to get the mind and nervous system to a point where you can start improving, you need to get up to at least 200 repetitions of a skill.
New Zealand rugby and Aussie sports have done a good bit of research into that

to master it its said you need to clock in over 10,000 repetitions
not sure who came up with that

It's actually 10,000 hours working on any one thing to master it properly. Which is an insane amount of time when you break it down.

Canadian journalist Malcolm Gladwell has written books/articles on it that are very interesting from a sporting perspective on how talent isn't really as big a factor as it is made out to be. Obsessive, life sacrificing dedication is the only thing that makes greatness.

Kilkenny hurling is probably a controlled experiment on this theory just waiting to happen.

Now as an aside - and in the spirit of this thread's helpful nature - I have NOT put 10,000 hours into hurling and it shows. But, I do quite enjoy a good puck around and session down at the wall with mates.

However, I seem to be having a real problem getting any decent length on my strikes. Don't know what has happened to me, but every shot from 50 metres is really struggling to even make it to goal. Swinging harder just seems to have a negative effect.

Any tips?

danceswithwolf

BertMark wrote: »

However, I seem to be having a real problem getting any decent length on my strikes. Don't know what has happened to me, but every shot from 50 metres is really struggling to even make it to goal. Swinging harder just seems to have a negative effect.

Any tips?

Im obviously the least qualified person to answer this but I do spend over an hour at it every day and I find that really slowing it down and doing it properly makes it go higher and further than hitting it hard. I think the extra strength comes into it with putting your whole body into it, but that sort of comes at the end of the swing. It's 90% technique.

BertMark

danceswithwolf wrote: »

Im obviously the least qualified person to answer this but I do spend over an hour at it every day and I find that really slowing it down and doing it properly makes it go higher and further than hitting it hard. I think the extra strength comes into it with putting your whole body into it, but that sort of comes at the end of the swing. It's 90% technique.

Yeah that could be it, maybe my technique is just off so I'm not hitting it sweetly when I put power into it. The whole body tip might be good too. Never really considered it before but thinking now I do seem to take my power from the arms, and subsequently flail the arms a bit when I go to give it a good whack down the field.