Round robin of the hurling league over. 'Thank God', I hear you say. We have our semi-finalists and hopefully we'll have a couple of more competitive games at least.
But what of those who have seen their league journey end? Well, for some it’s off on a training camp.
What actually happens on a training camp?
I know when you hear, oh they’re off to Spain or Portugal on a training camp, people visualise lads lying on the beach with the small umbrella drinks, getting their backsides tanned and just general relaxation for the week. When the opposite is the reality for those on camp.
As someone who was lucky enough to go on a few of these training camps, I will do my best to break down what actually occurs.
Firstly, I know a training camp is not everyone’s cup of tea. Asking players who train three or four times a week to fit that into a day sounds absurd. But I fully believe that with the quality of S&C coaches, and the relationship they’ll have with management, they will know when to push and know when to pull back with the load.
Trust is key here between those on the management team to manage the players, and getting the max out of them without pushing them and their bodies too far.
So what happens during the week?
Firstly, you’ve got to get there, so it’s off to the airport for the flight. Unless a volcano erupts in Iceland and stops all flights, which happened to Tipp in 2010, and we were diverted from Portugal to Kildare.
Kudos to the wonderful liaison man, who had to react to this crazy turn of events in a short space of time.
Anyway, all going well, the plane does actually take off and arrives in your European destination and you get bussed to the camp facility. These facilities will be used regularly by professional sports teams and will have everything you can ask for: gyms, pools, top-class pitches, lovely rooms and restaurants.
Everything except GAA goalposts, which we had to get shipped over one year. Someone always has to be thinking outside the box when it comes to these things.
Depending on arrival time - and also perhaps on how shook the bodies are from a game the previous day or a few pints the night before - there may be a light session that evening.
The rooms get divided out. I think this is the first big positive out of a training camp – players get to know each other better and on a more personal level throughout the week.
Players that normally might not say two words to each other when training at home get to spend some time together.
An open-door policy is also a bonus, where players leave the hotel room doors open so lads can just pop in and out for the chat throughout the day. You have arrived now, settled in and may have a quick group meeting about the week ahead, the standards you have and what is expected from everyone.
Training-wise, it would look like a morning session, some hurling, drills and running maybe.
Afternoon could involve a gym session as a whole group or in smaller groups. Then lunch, relax for a few hours and a further session in the evening involving an internal game maybe.
Dinner afterwards, you’ll eat like a king for the week but it’s all needed for that workload. At night, you would have a players meeting, some tactical work, video analysis, whatever the management see fit.
This programme would not be the same every day, as the body just couldn't handle that volume of work. That’s where the professionals and management would come together and make the calls on sessions and their level of intensity as the week progresses.
The players' meetings allow for groups to really get to know each other, and ask each other some tough questions, and perhaps see things in a certain person you might never have known were there before. Because you never asked or never had this opportunity or this environment to do so.
The top mangers will also use this time for one to ones with the players, to have a chat with the player about how they feel he is going. It will also allow the player to voice his opinion and maybe there are challenges put out there by both sides. Another massive plus which, timewise, you just couldn’t get at home.
Of course, there will have to be time made for a bit of craic. This might take the form of a group quiz, a golf outing, table tennis tournament, cinema night or, in the good old days, a few pints together.
I’m not so sure the latter is allowed or deemed feasible in modern-day camps, but it’s something I feel is very important also.
All work and no play is no good for anyone. I’m not suggesting going on the beer for two days or anything but it’s so important for the group to unwind and have a good laugh together because that will help create a great atmosphere when the training is on. It also gives lads something to have a joke about and chat about away from hurling.
From personal experience, we trained very hard but we had some craic too and, you know what, it brought our group even closer at the end of it all. Even now, we still laugh about those stories from the camps all these years later.
So, what are you getting from a camp? The obvious is a block of work together as a group that you just could not get at home because of the amateur status of our games.
John Kiely said about the recent Limerick camp: "We got five pitch sessions in, you just can’t get that done here in two and a half weeks."
That alone shows that players are not getting flogged as Limerick were there for nearly a week, so there was no overtraining going on either.
It’s what you are getting outside the pitch work that is a massive bonus also. The tactical work, the group meetings, the craic the group will have just being together for the week, the group becoming closer.
All these things are the one percent which help teams to win, which help them to stay calm when the pressure is at its highest because you know and you trust each other to do the right thing.
Training camps help develop all these things. I’m all for them and I’d love to be heading on one again.
