The date for the All-Ireland final set and the teams are decided, and Championship is soon to begin on the club scene so I thought now would be a good time to break down some of the most important Athletic Traits that you can train to become an even better footballer, hurler or camogie player no matter what level you play at.
1.Acceleration Mechanics:
This one is a given. Being able to beat your man to the ball or blow by your defender is what the game comes down to. Having efficient acceleration mechanics can give you the edge and beat your man you a quick burst of speed.
So what actually goes in the building good acceleration mechanics?
- Forward (positive) Shin/ Body Angle- In order to go forwards you have to be leaning forwards, so the more of a positive shin angle (forward lean) we can create, the more force we’ll be put into the ground horizontally pushing us forward harder and faster.
- Attack The Ground- Accelerating is all about producing force to move yourself horizontally. So, I like to say “Attack the Ground” to produce force, meaning think about bringing your knee up as high as you can and drive it as hard as you can back into the ground and ‘attack it’ with a vengeance. This will naturally get you producing more force creating a higher and more frequent horizontal impulse (direction of how the force is applied) and give you that crazy first step.
- Don’t Break the Barrier- try not let your leg swing back behind you and break the line of your hip when your going through and acceleration cycle. This ones a bit harder to explain on a blog so I’ll link a video below from Over Time Athletes. Basically you want to keep everything going forward, so if your leg is swinging behind you, your losing ground and energy that could propel you forward faster.
2. Top Speed Mechanics:
If you’ve never heard of the phrase top speed don’t worry. Its probably the most overlooked atheltic trait in the history of open field sports. Sprinting essentially happens in two main phases; Acceleration and Top Speed. Once you,ve accelerated and gained as much speed to get you moving, you move into a the next phase where your moving as fast as you can or what we call your ‘Top Speed’. This phase never happens in basketball because its played over short bursts, but GAA sports however it happens quite often as a Footballer or Hurler can win the ball and sprint the whole field unbroken by having to change direction or slow down, allowing them reach peak velocity
Having smooth top speed mechanics is important for all GAA positions, but its particularly important for midfielders and the half forward and half back line who may get out on a break and run a 40 or 50 metre distance with the ball down the field unbroken and it can be the difference between breaking away from a defender or getting caught up with.
So what makes good Top Speed Mechanics? Well there slightly more complicate to explain than sprinting:
- Having an efficient cycle- Top speed is all about mechanics, and the best way to learn about mechanics is to see them in action, so again I introduce Chris Barnard breaking down Top Speed mechanics so you can see them rather than try to visualise them.
- So you heard him folks, think of it as riding a bike. Like I said earlier, try not to break the plane of your hip so that your moving forward. I like to think “drive the knee and reach forward” as a que for good top speed mechanics. The only way to improve here is through repetition of this cycle. Drills like A skips and B skips along with Single Leg high knee drives can really help with learning this pattern. Stay tuned to my Instagram for these kinds of drills in the future.
3. Single Leg Training:
Football and hurling are pretty much played on one leg; you jump off one leg, you kick a ball off one leg and so on. So with that in mind building solid single leg strength (with both legs obviously) can significantly improve your jump height, speed, stability and reduce your chances of getting injured. Since we tend to play mostly with our dominant leg, single leg strength training is partucalarly important to try even out any imbalances to prevent any sort of overuse injuries.
Another overlooked compontent of single leg training is improving your single leg jumping and landing mechanics. Training the body to being comfortable producing and absorbing force through one leg not only will get you jumping higher and winning every high ball, but it’ll highly reduce your chances of injury. Single leg plyometrics are great here, but remember keep them simply, short and sweet. Too much will result in problems down the road and too complicated will be a waste of time and energy. Make sure to check out my Instagram page for some Single leg plyos and exercsies.
4. Change of Direction And Speed:
The ability to change direction is a killer athletic trait in any sport. Although its more subtle in GAA than in other sports due to the vast amount of open space and the physicality of the defence, being able to change directions can be the difference between being caught by a defender or leaving them in the dust.
We’ve all marked a player at some stage who was constantly moving, going left then right, sprinting, stopped and then sprinted again. There a backs worst nightmare. There unguardable.
The best way to train this trait is to play and try your best to shake off your defender during training and drills. Being able to change direction and speeds is something we’re all capable of doing, but no matter how many plyometrics you do it all comes down to knowing and understanding the when and the how. This is done by studying the game and trying to your best to shake off defenders during games and practise.
5. Core Stability:
There are many components to core stability but argueably the most important one for GAA is Anti-Lateral Flexion. What I mean by this is the ability to resist being bent or moved laterally. Ever go for a shoulder and instead just end up on your arse? Well thats where anti-lateral flexion comes into play. Being able to stabilise laterally allows you to accept force better during that shoulder, not get knocked off balance and leave the other lad on his arse instead. Its a win-win really.
Its also very important for change direction laterally. Think about it this way, if you can resist bending or moving laterally, you’ll be able to move back quicker laterally in the opposite direction. This is a big key for defenders looking to find ways to stay in front of those twitchy forwards and lock them up.
Exercises like Side Plank holds and Vinci Plank holds are a great place to start here.
Pulling It All Together:
Of course there are tons more smaller traits and qualities that are super important for GAA, but these are my top five that are trainable and can really improve your game giving you the edge. So to summarise if your looking to make a big jump athletic in your GAA career you need to:
- Improve your acceleration mechanics
- Improve your top speed mechanics
- Work on single leg strength, stability and plyometrics
- Add changing direction and speeds to your bag
- Work on core stability, in particular Anti-Lateral flexion
I’ll be going into more detail on GAA in the future, but for now get to it.
Hit me up if you need more advice or if you want help with your training.
Stay workin’
Aaron.
Silent Grind Performance 
Leave a comment