McGurn critical of collective training ban

GAA FITNESS:IRISH FITNESS expert Mike McGurn believes the GAA's ban on collective training during November and December is not in the best interest of player welfare.

Although most associated with his various roles in rugby, McGurn in fact started out in Gaelic games, and now working on an independent consultancy basis, will next season be fitness coach to the Armagh football team.

“Personally, it’s similar to the situation I had with the IRFU back in 2002,” he explained. “We were trying to operate Magners League, Heineken Cup and international rugby on a three-week pre-season. I was critical of it and I got suspended. I don’t regret it because it led to us getting a 12-week pre-season and we haven’t looked back since.

“Putting these boys out to battle with McKenna Cup in Ulster, National League and Championship from January to September is nine months, on a very limited pre-season. So if you want to keep the guys healthy, and on the pitch, you need to increase that time. Your pre-season is time where you keep the players strong, fit and healthy and prevent them getting injured. The more money you put in the bank in pre-season, the more you take out during the season.”

McGurn is not alone in his opposition to the ban, which the GAA instigated as a way of addressing player burnout. However, McGurn reckons it may well have the opposite effect, as players will still be training alone, and most probably spending too much time in the gym.

“I’m not a big believer in giving a fella sessions and saying, ‘go do that there’. As a fitness coach, you want intensity and the safety aspect of it, but also technique. Giving guys programmes can be more dangerous than helpful.

“I don’t think you get the same response when you hand a guy a programme. You want to be working with him, fire him up, get him going.

“So I think they (the GAA) are missing the point here. They’re on about player burnout. If you train for two hours you’re going to get burned out. My training sessions take 45 minutes maximum. You get in, you rip the place apart, and get out again.

“If you’re doing two 45-minute sessions a week you won’t burn out ever. It’s when you bring them in and do the laps and do two-and a-half hours, which is happening, you burn out. Clubs and teams also have got to talk. If you’ve got a player who is playing colleges, club and county, coaches should get around and say, ‘You’re the player, what’s best for you’.

“It’s very similar to what we have when you had provincial players playing for Munster and Ireland. We went around to the provinces, asked them, ‘how long is the training for, when do you need him by?’ Come to an agreement and put the player in the middle. It’s got to be athlete-centred. It can’t be club-centred or county-centred.”

McGurn will feel well at home with Armagh given their reputation for fitness, particularly strength and conditioning.

Having completed a six-year tenure with the IRFU, and then last year working with the Ospreys club, McGurn recently returned to his home in Belfast, where he has advised, amongst others, boxer Bernard Dunne.

But taking on the fitness role with Armagh, under their new manager Paddy O’Rourke, was not something he took lightly.

“It’s always been my ambition to come back and work within the GAA. But I didn’t jump in straight away. I had to be sure of certain conditions, not financial conditions, but certain conditions that we could get right. Will we get a proper gym? Yes, we will. Will the players be looked after properly? Yes, they will.

“Also one of the things I hoped for was to get away from this parish mentality and the shenanigans on the sideline. I mean, 40,000 people don’t show up to watch Paddy O’Rourke, it’s the players. It’s got to be player-driven. They’re the guys that have to cross the white wash and take ownership. Once I got those assurances it was great. I mean, Paddy is very forward-thinking. It should be a marriage made in heaven.”

Despite his reputation for designing quite severe gym sessions, McGurn also believes the GAA player has lost sight of what matters most: “My philosophy with strength and conditioning is not to make the players bigger. For Gaelic football you need to be powerful and quick. So my philosophy is to get them a lot more powerful and a lot quicker.

“Carrying extra bulk in Gaelic football is no good. It’s not beneficial at all, especially in the upper body. You want strong legs, strong core and practice the skills. You could bench press 200k and squat 1,000k but if you can’t put the ball over the bar it’s pointless. Maybe Gaelic football has gone too far down the route of conditioning and forgetting about the basics, can you tackle, can you kick, can you pass, can you shoot. It’s a very simple game that’s complicated by coaches.”

“I think the next big step is to get away from drills. I like game management where you put yourself in a situation as it happens in a game. Can you break a tackle and put the ball over the bar? Can you stop a player coming through at pace? Can you field a high ball in the air? So, more about game management than drills.”

McGurn was speaking at yesterday’s launch of a new range of sports nutritional products, Kinetica, for which he will act as an ambassador. Fully Irish-owned and sourced, Kinetica products have been approved by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and are aimed at all sports.

McGurn also hopes to continue his role with the Irish International Rules team, provided the series is revived next year as planned.