Ulster Lead Pack

The Friday night flight from Brussels to Dublin could easily double as a live Gift Grub recording with all the politicos heading home for the weekend. I’m often surprised how little discretion they exert when they are discussing the issues of the day. There was one particularly comical moment involving Enda Kenny on Friday.

I think he must have intentionally boarded last and booked a seat in the back row so he could make the most of the meet and greet opportunity. There were handshakes, smiles, good luck wishes and pats on the back. In response to one well wisher, he clasped his fist and delivered a steely ‘it’s championship time’. ‘Jaysus, we know what that means’ came the reply. With Mayo’s recent record, it probably wasn’t the most reassuring proclamation.

Anyway, about four hours later I pulled into the Glenavon Hotel in Cookstown, Co. Tyrone. I’d been to the town before to receive an almighty hiding from the home side in the Irish Senior Cup (hockey) back in the early noughties. The name Andy Barbour will be forever lodged in my memory, as will the fact that the cans of Bud were 5%.

The idea of travelling was suggested by a buddy before Christmas and when I took a look at the list of speakers, it was a no brainer. Down All-Ireland winning manager Pete McGrath, referee Pat McEnaney, European Boxing champ Paul McCloskey, 4 time Derry All-Star Tony Scullion, former Tyrone and current Down coach Paddy Tally as well as a host of others.

Some mentioned a figure of up to 400 attendees and the event was impeccably organised. The cost was €25 and that included a morning snack and buffet lunch as well as a few freebies. My expectations of such events have been managed though. I used to attend expecting to come away with a whole new direction or catalogue of ideas but I soon realised, if you have an active interest in the fields of fitness and coaching, you actually already know a lot of what they tell you. What you get out of it is a confirmation that you are generally on the right road but more importantly some better ideas on how to put it all together.

In the morning you had to select two workshops from five. The first I attended was with Paul Murphy who has worked as Antrim Hurling and Down Football conditioning coach. His focus mixed the theory and practical application of core work. I found it very beneficial as it’s a hot topic for me at the moment. How to progress your team through a core programme was the key learning.

Next up was Paddy Tally. I’d remembered reading something about a fall out between him and Mickey Harte in Harte’s book so I had a preconceived idea about him. He is a confident guy, coming in from more of a science background and I couldn’t find an easy connection with him. I’d have liked more practical examples but his focus was on structure of a season’s training. Less sexy maybe but still, it was very useful.

The afternoon workshop I attended was about developing high intensity football and was led by Tony Scullion, Terence McWilliams and Kevin McGuigan. It’s another topic I’ve a big interest in. As a player I get frustrated when we play games in training where there simply isn’t enough intensity or touches of the ball. As a trainer, I constantly tinker with numbers and pitch sizes to try and get the balance right. Scullion turned out to be a total nutter. He’s a huge man who could nearly kill you by just looking at you. I can only imagine what he’d get out of you as a player though. He struck me as an awe inspiring character.

The workshop mixed talk about heart rate and practical examples. They talked about what the target heart rates should be for training and how to maintain it. It’s a method they use to track how hard players are working at training. Of course, they have all the equipment so can track it better than we could imagine but the principle doesn’t change. Actually a player can buy their own heart rate monitor fairly cheap these days so if they were motivated, they could easily do it themselves.

It was definitely worth the trip and to see the work going on in Ulster is incredible. Munster is certainly lagging way behind. The coaching structures in place are enviable and the hunger to learn was clear from the large attendance. I’d certainly recommend such conference to anyone with an interest in developing themselves as a coach.