Sport

John McEntee: Proper guidance is worth its weight in gold

The payback of hours spent in gyms dedicated to strength and conditioning (S&C) programmes can provoke serious divisions
The payback of hours spent in gyms dedicated to strength and conditioning (S&C) programmes can provoke serious divisions The payback of hours spent in gyms dedicated to strength and conditioning (S&C) programmes can provoke serious divisions

LAST weekend commenced with my regular Saturday morning run but this time, instead of pacing up the many inclines which are scattered along the murderous route, I found myself slogging through snow, eight inches deep in parts, with that voice in my head shouting ‘catch yourself on you oul eejit’.

At my age that negative voice can be a voice of reason. Yet, stubborn as I am, I plodded along determined to complete the route, or perhaps I was too conceited to allow someone to see me stop and turn back.

Voltaire once said ‘we are rarely proud when we are alone’.

That is easy to say when you are a French philosopher but not so when you are a former Gaelic footballer, as one is rarely beyond the line of sight of others for long enough to walk.

My route takes me past the home of a lifelong Armagh supporter. I swear his garden is home to the most manicured hedge in Ireland as, at exactly the same time every Saturday morning, he peers across his Portuguese Laurels with hedge shears in hand to wave me down for a chat.

It is a welcome rest and, truth be told, I’d sit and talk about the good old times all day long.

Our conversation this time centred on my time growing up on my uncle’s farm and how we spent our summers drilling spuds and baling hay. It was all wee rectangular bales back then.

When we were very young it took two of us to fling one bale up onto the flatbed trailer but by 11 years of age we were pitching our own bales up five rows high. Winters were spent dunging out cattle sheds and replacing the cow clap with fresh straw bedding and graping fodder to hungry cattle.

For fun we would fill wheelbarrows full of silage and take turns at racing up the yard – the first past the water hose would be the winner. When the meal shed was emptied it turned into our playground.

The high railings became monkey poles for us to compete with each other in hanging competitions, in chin-up contests and in swinging competitions from one end of the shed to the other. It was all very innocent.

The shed is no longer there, yet my memories of those times are as fresh as if it was yesterday.

My hedge-growing friend is adamant those games were how my brother and I gained our natural strength.

Strength and conditioning was alien to the club player back then and was still a relatively novel concept among county players.

It was 1993 before I was first introduced to weight training, as it was described back then.

My memory is one of competing to see who could lift the heaviest weights the largest number of times. It was unscientific and it was poorly regulated.

Roll on 25 years and it is apparent that the activity of lifting weights has become more technical and controlled and there is easier access to expertise in this field.

The payback of hours spent in gyms dedicated to strength and conditioning (S&C) programmes can provoke the same divisions as marmite or red pepper soup – either you are into it or you are not.

I’m not sure when exactly weight training was rebranded as strength and conditioning. The change of title completely alters the raison d’être.

No longer is the focus on lifting weights, rather it is on conditioning the athlete’s body to be able to compete at the highest level, consistently. Yet the name change has not completely been accepted.

Is this due to a lack of education on behalf of the participants or an under-investment in the GAA into strength and conditioning coaches to improve athleticism and reduce the likelihood of injuries occurring?

Sometimes a name change can work, other times it does not. Puff Daddy springs to mind. Puffy, P Diddy, Diddy, and Love never really rolled off the lips in the same way.

Compare that to Apple when they changed from Apple Computer – it has become one of the most successful brands the world over.

As clubs follow county set-ups there remains a real risk that the misuse of S&C is contributing to a rise in lower limb injury occurrences.

Think about it. Pitches have become firmer and rest is perceived to be as important as training itself.

Male and female players are devoting hours in the gym working on weighted squats and so on with the aim of lifting heavier weights than their gym buddy.

Without the proper guidance, players will pick up ankle and knee strains due to poor technique and general lower limb instability.

They will rip hamstring after hamstring due to an imbalance in strength with their quadriceps and underdeveloped core strength.

While loads of money is being pumped into player welfare, much of it seems to be directed toward physiotherapy bills to address injuries which can be, for the most part, preventable.

It is part of a general pattern of misguided policy and what is seen to benefit our players is creating irrevocable harm.

Thankfully, I can still run the roads.