Different strokes for different folks.
We’ve all heard the stories of free-takers spending hours out on the pitches on their own, with a big bag of balls, hitting infinite frees with the aim of perfecting their technique and their striking.
They say it gives them piece of mind come game day, that as a result they’ve more confidence in their own methods, and can convince themselves that it’s just the same thing in the midst of Championship action.
That’s not how Shane Dowling, Limerick’s dead ball specialist, and one of the most deadly free-takers in the country sees it.
The Na Piarsaigh man was speaking at the launch of the 2017/2018 AIB GAA Club Championships when he revealed his approach to free-taking, and it’s a lot more relaxed than you might expect.
The 24-year-old, who is aiming to add a fourth Munster club medal to his collection over the next few weeks, claims that there’s no comparison between hitting frees on your own in the club pitch, and the pressure that exists with a big free in the cauldron of a game.
So then, he sees no point in spending too much time practicing them.
“Not often (Would I practice them). We’re playing Blackrock in two weeks’ time. Say for me, going down to Na Piarsaigh hitting frees on a Thursday night, with no-one there, no cameras, and to compare that to going down to a completely different venue, with a big crowd, and on TG4, there’s no comparison,” he began.
The 2014 All-Star spends more time focusing on his own mental preparation for frees, on visualising them going over the bar, and thinking about his own technique.
“I’d put more emphasis on my technique and my visualisation than I do on the frees. As I said, if you’re playing a match in front of 5000, live on television, it just doesn’t compare to hitting frees on your own in a different venue.
On game week, you won’t see him down in the local pitch with nigh on 50 sliotars. He’ll hit a few after a training session and that’ll do the trick.
“The week of the match, I’d just hit a couple to make sure my striking is intact, but as I said, there’s no point in hitting 100 frees because it’s different circumstances for different days,” he added.
Dowling has a very distinct, unique free-taking technique. First of all, he hits them on his left side, which is fairly uncommon in modern day hurling.
Secondly, he stands back from the ball, crouched, and uses his forward momentum to take him through the ball. This technique didn’t come overnight, he says, and you can see just how specialised it is from 0:40 in this video.
“It’s weird. Growing up, I would have looked at Niall Gilligan and Alan Markham, both from Clare. As a left sided free-taker, I always found it difficult to get my own technique, so it took me a long time to get the technique that I have, and one that I’m happy with,” he said.
He performed the hard yards at the beginning of his journey as a free-taker, when he was trying to find the technique that was right for him. He backs himself and that technique every single time.
“A lot of practice went into that, down in Na Piarsaigh on my own, but I have that technique now for a number of years and I suppose it’s just all about backing that every time,” said the Limerick half-forward.
While some free-takers pick out targets, such as the far post, the black-spot on the cross bar to aim at, Dowling doesn’t feel the need for that.
“No I wouldn’t pick things out for visualisation. There’s different venues, I mean, some days there might be a treehouse behind the goals and you want to hit it into the tree-house, but other days there’s nothing behind the goals,” he said.
Or at least he wasn’t willing to tell us.
“I have my own little secret, with my own teammates for what I do in that regard, so I’ll keep that between us,” he quipped.
Regarding worries over his own fitness, on the back of a knock in the Limerick county final, Tuesday is D-day for him with the results of a scan arriving then.
“I’ll know tomorrow, initially there was fears it was my cruciate, but it’s definitely not that, unfortunately for ye, the results are tomorrow,” he said.
Na Piarsiagh and Limerick star Shane Dowling was at the launch of the 2017/2018 AIB GAA Club Championships #TheToughest, the 26th year of AIB’s sponsorship of the Championships. For exclusive content and to see why AIB are backing Club and County follow us on Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat, Facebook and AIB.ie/GAA.
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