Is player "burn out" a real problem or just the latest fad?

[Guillem2]

Is there really a problem? What's the evidence? If lads don't want to play more than one or two games a week they will vote with their feet and walk away. I loved playing hurling and the only problem I had was that there was never enough matches. Soccer players got regular fixture, we didn't get near as many.
I regularly played reserve and senior games back to back on a sunday, plus a game mid week and loved every minute of it. Now I didn't care much for football and didn't play for a university (hurley's weren't allowed where I was educated) so maybe things are different now.
I'm sceptical but I'm interested in the evidence.

[realredhandfan]

Im fookin sorry, started writing a burnout thread and then suddenly theres too many burnout threads.  We could burn this topic out.

[realredhandfan]

Burnout is the new buzz word at the higher levels in Gaelic Games, whether it be Pat Spillane blaming training for his troubled knees or Joe Brolly blaming Chocolate cake for it more than sport, its still a factor.  So what is burnout? how can we assist its prevention from different levels ie the club, the school, the county and in my opinion the most important the fixture/competition planner. 
My initial proposal for debate is "that the minor and under 21 age group at inter county level is scrapped and replaced by a "junior" adult competition which is effectively under 20s.  Subsequently no individual can play for their county seniors unless they are over 20 years old. I believe that the new age group would be of a higher level of quality almost like Sigerson which I maintain minor games can often lack especially as curtain raisers.  I also believe that subsequently senior players could have a longer timespan with their county senior if we lesson their underage committments.  Others hopefully will contribute items on fixtures/ champions league style formats etc.  Have we lost the run of ourselves and are the number of fixtures relaed to the increasing need to fill stadia?  Too much quantity not enough quality at inter county games?  Lets come up with a few suggestions of our own here.  I propose a sensiible adjudicator to take this thread on with expertise on these matters... I just cant figure out who that is?

[shotstopper1]

Just a few links on studies on burnout.(hope they work)


ulster.gaa.ie/.../playerBurnout/Lynette%20Hughes%20cookstown%20presentation%2024th%20Jan%2007.pps

http://news.ulster.ac.uk/releases/2007/2951.html


http://ulster.gaa.ie/coaching%20articles/developmentArticles/psychology/Burnout%20within%20Gaelic%20Football.pdf

[Rossfan]

Maybe less assinine training trying to get lads fit to run marathons or march to Moscow and back instead of concentrating on  quality training and fitness to play football/hurling.
Are you listening Maughan/Tomkins/Carr/Loughnane etc

[Captain Scarlet]

Well the fact that any forwrd thinking and younger manager has adopted a total new style of training regime means that yes it is.

something is really wrong when there are lads as young as 20 whose knees are fucked and hamstrings total dodgey.

at my club we havent done a single lap all year and we stretch like f**k and get the rest between games. it has been around but its just coming into the media now but as i said those who took it seriously have already made changes.

its still up to the manager in terms of respecting players. when rooney arrived you didnt see him playing for 3 england teams and his club. the managers can be greedy with prodigous talent and need to learn to respect it more.

[cavanmaniac]

Burnout and the attendant rash of troublesome injuries, as well as lack of motivation, is just the symptom.
The cause is too much pressure on players in the 16-21 bracket to play too many games in too many competitions, and perhaps too many codes, too many matches arising from the foregoing and too much training/too many managers as well.

The solutions that the GAA are working to introduce are a pruning of the number of competitions as well as enforcable rules governing the ages at which guys can represent the senior teams and so on, such as no freshers play Sigerson for example. It's a start, but the media highlighting of the problem should make more coaches think more seriously about the problem, even if the legions of young talented but crocked players - my own county as guilty as any other - so far hasn't served as any deterrent to county boards and managers obsessed by short-term gains and an inability to look at the bigger picture or consider the greater good.

[robertemmet]

Until the GAA stop players from playing more than one age group, we will always have burn out.  If players only have one team to concentrate on, there can be the proper match/coaching ratio to help players develop, also there would be plenty of time for players to have "free time".

At the minute young players are playing far too much.  Just let them play in their own age bracket.  Give them a chance of making it to the top.

I heard an interesting story....not sure how much truth is in it, but Joe Canning is taking a break from a while to be a experience the life that a "normal teenager" can live.  Maybe he got too much too young.

Any other thoughts???

[youngfella]

I mind a young fella at a local club, he'd be about 16. He play under 16, minor, u-21 and senior for club, aswell as u-16 and minor county. He roasted any boy that came near him completely lethal hurler! towards the end of the season, he got a awful bad back. Got the point were he could hardly walk anyways.... after a years break he was back and took it easy. Only playing his age group club and county. I personally didnt think this burnout exsited but i've seen it happen, youngsters need to take it easy or risk doing themselves damage. but if they just play there age group they could be called all the lazy kunts of the day. Its a tricky one.

[Guillem2]

Many smaller clubs couldn't field if players only played at their own age group. Many minor teams are full of u16s with u14s playing u16. More amalgamations at juvenile level may be the answer.

[believebelive]

There are three things that I think the GAA have to do to stop this problem, and it is a problem.
1 - As many other posters have said they have to ensure that players are not playing for a whole host of teams at underage level. I know the argument about rural clubs and numbers but ultimately it is the senior team in that club that will lose out.
2 - At senior level inter couty players must be protectd from training for three or four teams at the same time. You have sigerson players doing one type of trainng with their college and a different type with their county. This is repeated when you have county players training with their club. They could be slogging with their club and doing speed work with their county - this is totally couterproductive.
3 - A proper rest period is needed both between sessions and also at the end of the season. There is no professional athlete in the world who trains 12 months a year yet our county players are being asked to do it year in year out. Also the fact that a lot of players are traingin 5 times a week and working a full time job leads them to burn out. Is it any wonder more and more senior inter county players are students.

[Uladh]

Many young players who are considered over burdened with playing responsibilities invariably end up continually a long ways from full fitness. in my experience, this is because they attend training sessions for different teams at different levels 6/7 nights a week and each manager tends to allow them easy passage or litterally just to kick about. the end result is that they rarely do the tough work that prepares you for championship football/hurling anywhere but rather just pass themselves at several different training sessions.

[realredhandfan]

What about the number of intercounty games.  is this a factor?

[shotstopper1]

Many young players who are considered over burdened with playing responsibilities invariably end up continually a long ways from full fitness. in my experience, this is because they attend training sessions for different teams at different levels 6/7 nights a week and each manager tends to allow them easy passage or litterally just to kick about. the end result is that they rarely do the tough work that prepares you for championship football/hurling anywhere but rather just pass themselves at several different training sessions.

I agree,but at the same time if the lads aren't fully fit then they shouldn't be played.A lot of the time players are played who are not fully fit and therefore pick up injuries or aggravate injuries which they already have. It's nearly getting to the stage where a young lad would need a personal manager to manage all his other managers/coaches.

[shotstopper1]

Former Cavan player Stephen Kings view on burn out

Here's an extract from Stephen Kings column in the Cavan Echo from last week on player burn out


Burn-out madness has to end 
 
Cavan Echo 
 
Stephen King 
 
18/03/2007 
 
Another factor which is having a huge negative impact is the amount of football these young fellas are getting. I mean it defies belief when you look at this year's minor league and see twelve teams in division one.
In effect, this means that the more gifted young fellas are expected to train with their clubs on Fridays, play or train with Cavan minors on Saturday, then for twelve Sundays play for their club minor side.
This is before we even go into college football, club senior matches, schools, or hurling or any other sport. I mean take the Virginia College players as examples – some of these brilliant young players are playing for the school (soccer and Gaelic), club minors, club seniors, club Under 21's, county minors. Where is the sense in this?
It's unfair on the players themselves to ask them to prioritise, of course they don't want to let down their teammates or any of these teams, but it should be up to those in authority to look after the good young players that we have.
Burnout is one of the biggest issues facing the GAA, not alone in Cavan but all over the country, and it is time that someone shouted "STOP!"
Even looking at the Under 21 side, we had a player like Cian Mackey (who is as fine a young footballer as you will see) underperforming, and I have no doubt that a lot of that is down to the amount of football and physical training that he has been subjected to over the past handful of years.
We see the likes of Sean Johnston and Sean Brady getting injured at the minute and you have to ask the question, are these boys being looked after or is everyone buying into the whole "win at all costs" mentality?