I would like to think a bit of both of both Appendage. I have a huge interest in the area and studied it, and continue to do so. The thing is its changes quite a bit with new methods and sciences. The trick is to stay up while batting away the fads. I try everything, and have used myself as a kind of guine pig for years, mainly in the winter months to try things out. Some of these methods have had an affect on the hurling/football year, but general if i thought it was negative i’d have thing re-evaluated by March/April.
Myself, i am fit and i do train hard. But i train alot smarter and shorter now, and i rest well and enjoy it (and that doesn’t mean going on the piss). I do tend to let myself go for November/december, but at the same time tipping away. I’m very near 34, so i tend to usually tire a little around 45-50 sometimes. But it depends, i play Junior hurling and thats easier to last on both the level/speed front and i find hurling not as sapping as football. The football varies between Senior and Junior, so the intensity and speed has varying affects. Its weird, Junior teams these days tend to be very fit, almost as fit as senior teams and they hit more and move in packs more due to limited football ability, while the senior is just all speed, and that i can struggle with sometimes. As well as that, most club players i know train as hard as me anyway, so i don’t have any great advantage. Clubs in Cork have gotten extremely professional in their approach. I’m sure its happening elsewhere as well, but there is just so much competition here the standards are going up very fast in the past couple of years.
But the thing is, if i go away, i’ll still train alot and still study it, it actually doesn’t have a whole pile to do with Hurling & Football, its just the way i am, and the release i get from training makes me feel great.
Yes and no, i have many different qualifications in Health & fitness, built up over time through a number of different Colleges and organisations, but i don’t have a BSc in Sports from DCU or UL.
On the baths, i personally think they are great, and i get super recovery from them. But having them regularly is hard, and my own club doesn’t have those facilities, i always have cold showers after training.
Its a personal decision IMO.
Scientifically though, for every report/study done on these saying they are great, there is another one saying they are useless. Generally, and this happens in alot of these discusions, the Eastern Europeans will have one idea, the Chinese will have another, The Aussies will have theirs and the Yanks will have another. Sometimes all 4 regions can differ, but mostly i would say the Eastern Europeans are the most practical. It varies from sport to sport and discipline to discipline. For instance, for power and speed combined training the NBA would have some brilliant training. For Soccer fitness the Eastern Europeans would have the best practice, for field sports the Aussies would be excellent.
With the internet and globalization etc though many things are being copied from one part of the world to the other and no doubt in time everything will be very very similar.
