Toy Show

Opinions differ on all the latest training gimmicks but I still retain some faith in them. Mike McGurn rolled out the ‘cones are for policemen and ladders are for firemen line’ to us in February and the lads got a great kick out of it. I don’t think everyone quite grasped what he meant as we saw he is not adverse to using cones in his sessions. I think what he meant was not to let them govern your every move and rob you of the freedom to think.

Another point we didn’t consider is that he deals with elite sportsmen whose athleticism and mobility is a given. One of his points was when will ever run through a ladder in a match or turn because there is a cone there to make you turn. It is true but the technique must be developed also. I think a reasonable example would be if you put two ladders on the ground and put Brian O’Driscoll and say, Olof Gill in front of them.

O’Driscoll would float through it without flaw, no matter what the combination of footwork was required. Olof on the other hand, would look like some giraffe in distress because he hasn’t developed those basic techniques over the years. Give him a few weeks and there would be noticeable improvement and i’ve no doubt he would see the benefit when he is on the pitch.

So whilst I take on board McGurn’s point, I don’t want to dispense of my little toys yet. In fact I want more. The club has been very supportive to any request I’ve made to get gear over the last two years. I’ve always tried to be cautious spending money though, for example, last year we mostly trained with those cheap training balls which are fairly crap.

My latest craving is for medicine balls. Rather than go to the committee with hat in hand, i decided it was time for some player contributions.We plan to raise €320 through a World Cup draw. Basically, we need 32 lads to give me a tenner. They will be put in a draw and be randomly allocated a team from the Soccer World Cup in June. If their team wins the competition, they win €50. If their team ends with the worst record, they win €20. That leaves us €250 to spend on medicine balls and a few tackle bags. I think it’s good for lads to take some ownership of raising money for equipment and doing things yourselves also helps further foster the all important team spirit.