Strength and conditioning is among the most important things in sport.
In the modern day, it isn’t just enough to be the fastest or the strongest or the fittest when playing GAA, soccer, rugby or any sport.
Since the gym scene has exploded both in Ireland and worldwide so too has developments in sports science.
One example of a team that has emphasised strength and conditioning is Dundalk F.C., they won three-in-row in the League of Ireland and qualified for the Europa League.
Their fitness coach Graham Byrne once said:
“The priority for me would be injury prevention exercises.
“It’s about monitoring the load and not overdoing it, you don’t want lads fatigued going into a game.
“The last thing you want is a player missing from a game because he overdid it in the gym, that’s the worst case.”
It doesn’t take someone with a sports science degree to know keeping your players fit and healthy should be priority number one but then you hear what is happening in Clare.
Darach Honan announced his retirement this month, he had required surgery on his hip and if he kept going the way he was going a hip replacement would be imminent.
And Honan isn’t the only Clare hurler, Conor McGrath, Cian Dillon, and Seadna Morey have all undergone hip operations.
Marie Crowe spoke to Honan upon the announcement of his retirement and the 2013 All-Ireland winner wasn’t shying away from what was the cause:
“I put it down to poor load-management and all the training that we were doing. It’s worrying and it is something that needs to be addressed in the GAA.
“Some of the training regimes are not good for the teams and there has to be more responsibility taken by people in charge.”
In fairness to Clare, it isn’t just them that have had this problem and in comparison to rugby and soccer, the rate of hip injuries is significantly higher.
So, something needs to be done in the GAA, Roy Keane may have said if you don’t want to get hurt play chess but when an intercounty player is forced to retire due to hip problems at the age of 27, something isn’t right.
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