I am sick and tired of hearing week in, week out from various media sources and pundits that the current gym culture and strength and conditioning in general is to blame for various problems in the G.A.A. and sport in general. The blame game usually begins after something ugly has happened, either a poor performance or a fight has broken out. Both of which are happening quite regularly at the moment, particularly but not limited to, the Ulster club football scene. “Maybe if lads spent less time in the gym and more time kicking football… blah, blah, blah” BULLSHIT.
This week I’m fighting a battle against people who don’t understand what strength and conditioning is and why it’s absolutely vital to so many players. Perhaps if these ex-player pundits just asked a few more questions of their strength and conditioning coach and tried to educate themselves more about why they are doing it we wouldn’t be having this conversation but here we go. I’m going to be hitting three points in today’s post
1) The background of the blame game and where I think it’s originated from.
2) Why we need Strength and Conditioning in sport.
3) What I feel needs to change.
As always, here’s a life update. I felt really good about last week’s post (find it here) because I had some time to do several drafts and re-reads during the week before posting it. That’s something I always did starting off but in recent weeks I fell off and would find myself creating content on Saturday to post on Sunday. Now, there’s a few reasons I got behind on my work in recent weeks but one is my dad. He got his hip replaced in early September and I’ve been helping the rest of my family pick up the slack in my spare time for all the things he would usually do while also doing whatever I could to make things a bit easier for him during the day. His recovery however has been incredible, his surgeon couldn’t believe how soon after the operation he was able to get up and walk without a frame. Over the last four weeks he has gone from strength to strength and is walking un-aided for large portions of the day now. Dad has been training in the gym where I work for well over a year at this stage and his recovery is no mystery. The work he put in, like so many before him, laid down the foundations for a quick return. Without the strength and conditioning he has done I have no doubt this wouldn’t have been as easy.
In recent years much has been made of teams and players including strength and conditioning as part of their training. I’m not sure is it that I’ve become more aware since entering the industry or is it truly a new thing? Either way, the chatter around strength and conditioning has defiantly increased year on year. Sometimes the talk is good, sometimes the talk is bad. I’m going to start here and say the main goal of any S&C programme for a team sport is and should be to not be the main focus. At the end of the day you are playing a sport, S&C is there to give you an advantage and keep you healthy and on the pitch. I feel that because we have more access to media and social media, the message is getting lost. As previously said, it seems to be that whenever a team play poorly some pundit is giving out saying they need to spend less time in the gym. This isn’t fair to the players or the strength staff for that particular team, the players know exactly why they do their strength and conditioning work, many of them speak positively of good programmes and coaches as well. To blame poor shooting and bad tactics on strength and conditioning is absurd and uncalled for, if anything the skill coaches should be called out… but I’m not advocating that, just so we’re clear. I’d like to ask these pundits and media outlets if they actually know what the purpose of strength and conditioning is for a team. My guess is they haven’t a clue, people always blame what they don’t understand.
So at this point you might be asking “well, why on earth do they do it?”
As any strength and conditioning coach worth their weight in salt will tell you, injury minimization and prevention. We do that by getting the athletes stronger, fitter and faster, so when their bodies meet this challenge in a game it’s not a new stimulus, this greatly reduces the risk of injury. We will never be able to fully eliminate injuries from sport, contact injuries happen. Legs get broken, shoulders get dislocated… these things happen in a tackle, scrum, jumping for a high ball or going to block a puck. However, if we can put enough strength into the muscles and make sure their playing time is monitored and the workloads are gradually increased without too many spikes hopefully that will limit the amount of muscle tear related injuries we see in sport.
Secondly, with the amount of great research out there, strength and conditioning coaches can manipulate training to help the players peak at certain times of the year.
Finally, everyone is trying to get that 1% edge on their opponents, if they’re doing it you better be doing it otherwise they are going to kick your ass in the last 10 minutes.
I said above I’m going to hit 3 topics today, the last one I need to talk about is what needs to change. I always say, don’t give me a problem, give me a solution. So what needs to change?
Firstly, I’d love if pundits could just stop saying “ohh if they spent less time in the gym they might not have hit 10 wides” because the two things are in no way related.
I’d like the media to engage more with strength and conditioning coaches to learn more about why they do what they do. The more information the public are given about this area the better. If they understand the work someone puts in coming back from injury just to get back on a level playing field and the hours of dedication from the S&C coach and player, all the 1 on 1s they do, I doubt they’d be blaming the gym. Furthermore, the gym work they do to prepare for a season isn’t the same as these pundits are doing when they go to their local commercial gym and bicep curl for 30 minutes with some cross trainer and bench press thrown in. It’s performance based, injury prevention. So, I’d like more attention for S&C professionals so we can educate the public on our role. The public’s perception of us needs to change. I never see anyone questioning physiotherapists or doctors and why they’re in the setup, S&C as a discipline needs to be on par with other sports performance professionals.
So, if you don’t understand why they do what they do, just don’t talk about it.
I hope those of you who have made it this far understand a little more about what performance strength and conditioning is and what it is not. If a player can’t kick a ball on target or make the right choice when it matters that’s not anything to do with the gym, they just don’t possess those skills. I will continue to fight this fight as long as I see it in the media. Not for myself but to try and avoid future alienation of the general population. The old school views are outdated and there are many people across all sports who need to catch up with the times. I heard a great coach say that he’s never worried about others who want to try new things but when somebody tells him “It’s how we’ve always done it” he gets worried. I fully support that.
If you enjoyed this week’s post, pass it on to a friend who might get the same benefit. Better yet, flood the media with links to this week’s blog. I for one will be sending it to all the social media big wigs. Anyway, that’s all I have to say this week, have a great week everybody, thank you for reading and supporting me. If there’s anything you want me to discuss just reach out through the contact me form at the top of this page, or shoot me a message on social media.
Until next Sunday,
Rory.