Pre season training regimes

[brokencrossbar1]

Did Kilbroney, The Park(thankfully not too often), Termofeckin sandunes, the island down on Muckno lake but of all the puke inducing pre-seasons, the worst was down here in Cork on the sand dunes of Inchadoney Beach.  If ever a place was created for torture it was there. 

There is one memory of the heavy training on Termofeckin beach which always makes me giggle.  We were there loosening up when Big Joe says "see those two sticks in the distance jog down to them and back to warm up."  Off we merrily went laughing, joking and having a good old time tripping the younger lads in the water as we ran.  By the time we made it to the "two sticks" they were actually a ship wrecked boat!!! The were plenty of fcuks at that, took us 20 minutes.  The same night we were doing laps of the dunes of about 600 metres.  As hard as you could 5 laps.  Each lap we went past Joe and Francie was always smiling, Joe says you boys are staying out here till I wipe the smile off his face.  The fecker kept laughing!!!

[T O Hare]

Murlough sand dunes is the toughest training ever!!!!!

[Davitt Man]

Pilates anyone??

[illdecide]

Pilates anyone??

Is that not for women???

[illdecide]

Barnets Park in Belfast was a fecking nightmare for me, hated that place with a passion. Legs went to jelly in the car on the way down to it...Done the Kilbroney park a few times last year (tough but enjoyable)

[behind the wire]

Did Kilbroney, The Park(thankfully not too often), Termofeckin sandunes, the island down on Muckno lake but of all the puke inducing pre-seasons, the worst was down here in Cork on the sand dunes of Inchadoney Beach.  If ever a place was created for torture it was there. 

There is one memory of the heavy training on Termofeckin beach which always makes me giggle.  We were there loosening up when Big Joe says "see those two sticks in the distance jog down to them and back to warm up."  Off we merrily went laughing, joking and having a good old time tripping the younger lads in the water as we ran.  By the time we made it to the "two sticks" they were actually a ship wrecked boat!!! The were plenty of fcuks at that, took us 20 minutes.  The same night we were doing laps of the dunes of about 600 metres.  As hard as you could 5 laps.  Each lap we went past Joe and Francie was always smiling, Joe says you boys are staying out here till I wipe the smile off his face.  The fecker kept laughing!!!

Hated the park. val kane and john rafferty loved it, thought there was nothing like it. i had the misfortune to be at the abbey shortly after the management read ger loughnanes book. needless to say i decided that selling football boots was more enjoyable on a saturday and stuck to that instead.

[theskull1]

I hope that most teams by now realise that there is no need for that ridiculous run run run rubbish any more.

A few bits of physical training OK, but if you have overweight lads on the squad, then they should be sorted out as a smaller group and the entire team train on the skills, techniques and so on for the coming season.

This seems to be what GAA coaches are telling younger players now
and I can only hope that this goes for adult sides, though some will feel a GAA version of Catholic guilt if they are not killing themselves with laps and hill/beach/bog/water based running.

The Cavan squad when they got rid of Liam Austin in the late 90's a prime example.
Liam got the road as the squad were not happy with the amount of puke inducing training being metted out.

I know it's not the norm nowadays as laps are not specific enough training for Gealic games anymore, but we really do kid ourselves about the fitness levels of most people who play top level at club anyway. Any decent athletics club 5K/10K runners cardio capabilities would put a "fit" GAA man to shame. Surely in football the lung busting runs up and down the pitch need players with similar speed endurance that 30m shuttle runs will never give you and more specific training to develop?

[EC Unique]

When Peter Mc Donald (Armagh manager) took Errigal Ciaran he took us to Slieve Gullian and made us run up it and most puked at some stage. Micky Harte took over from him the following year and when one of the lads aked him if we would be going to the forest his answer was ' when they start playing football in a forest then we will train in the forest' All of his training always involved a football..... A lesson in that I think..

[Zulu]

While I agree the vast majority of your training should be done with the ball I think there is a place for forest, sand dune, etc. running in an overall training program. The thing about training is there isn't just one way to achieve your goals and the mistake many in the GAA make is to try and copy whatever the AI champions of the last year did. You have to plan your training program based on the type of players you have, the level you're playing at, the players main weaknesses/strengths, what is available to you (i.e a beach etc.) and many other things. With respect to MH, just because a man of his standing believes something doesn't mean it is right for all teams.

[INDIANA]

mid to late 80's

6 x 200m - 35 seconds
6 x 150m - 25 seconds
6 x100m  - 15 seconds

followed by circuit training and med balls.
To this day i still maintain it was f**king insanity
Guess what we won- nothing. Only years later after doing sports science course, i realised it was a complete waste of time.

[brokencrossbar1]

mid to late 80's

6 x 200m - 35 seconds
6 x 150m - 25 seconds
6 x100m  - 15 seconds

followed by circuit training and med balls.
To this day i still maintain it was f**king insanity
Guess what we won- nothing. Only years later after doing sports science course, i realised it was a complete waste of time.

Indiana, I know a team that won a brave few trophies over recent times using a similar method, without the circuits. (as they had no weights programme).  it is all about a mixture of the old and new.  you need a core stamina and you will not get that by shuttles, but the days of a quick stretch and 15 laps are well and truly consigned to the bin.

Barnets Park in Belfast was a fecking nightmare for me, hated that place with a passion. Legs went to jelly in the car on the way down to it...Done the Kilbroney park a few times last year (tough but enjoyable)

I had forgotten about Barnett's, sprinting up the gradually inclining road was a hateful way to finish off running round the grass.

[Zulu]

Why won't he be able to run come summer?

[Zulu]

Running 30km per week early in the season won't burn a player out come summer, in fact any IC footballer should be able to do that with little problem.

[AbbeySider]

Has anyone done pilates before the football season starts??

How did you find it? Did it benefit you?

Davitt Man,
You resurrected a thread from way back in 2006! And nobody had the manners to answer you....   

Anyway the Kerry team are said to be mad into the Pilates. It improves core strength, flexibility and makes the muscles more supple.
I never had the guts tried it but I have done some hot yoga a few times - different story altogether.

[mattockranger]

i'd love to try pilates but the site of a middle-aged retired footballer walking into a class full of women
does nothing for my confidence or my wife!

how would the kerry boys fit it into there regime? organised classes?