Cork All-Ireland winner Paudie Kissane believes that four collective sessions a week is plenty for inter-county teams - most of the time.
The matter of how many gatherings the GAA is prepared to sanction expenses for centrally is at the heart of the current standoff with the Gaelic Players’ Association. The GAA says that any more than four a week is a matter for the relevant county board to tease out with regard to claims from players but the GPA insists that all sessions should be subject to the same expenses procedures.
GPA chief executive Tom Parsons suggested this week that a sports science approach be adopted to determine what is the appropriate number of sessions for a given time of year rather than a flat figure all year round.
Kissane, an All-Ireland winner in 2010 and an S&C coach with the Cork, Limerick, Clare and Tipperary footballers in more recent years, says that while four gatherings is generally sufficient, there are phases of the season where more may be needed.
He cites training camps, many of which take place overseas, where players often do sessions back-to-back, as one example but, by their very nature, they wouldn’t require multiple expense claims.
He explained: “From an S&C point of view, obviously players aren’t professional so everything they’ve been asked to do, you’ve got to balance that with the fact that these people have jobs or they’re studying full-time or whatever or may have travel, a lot of travel, depending on the county they’re coming from.
“To make sure the return is got from the S&C programme then there’s a certain amount of supervision required for that and that might be more at the start of the year or it might be more depending on the player.
“So that might require an extra session but for a good core part of the year, four sessions, you would imagine, would be sufficient.”
Kissane, who runs Paudie Kissane Sports Performance, doesn’t offer a solution to the GAA/GPA impasse but suggests that it’s not a one-size-fits-all scenario, pointing out further exceptions such as recovery sessions.
“Depending on the fixture schedule, if it’s condensed, if it’s a short turnaround between games, some teams might do only a session that week or they might stick to doing two sessions but they might say, ‘Alright, we need you to get a recovery session done’.
“Extra commitment is not just about an extra training session on the field or an extra match as we might assume it is.”
He added: “I was fortunate when I was involved with Cork in the latter years, Cork were relatively successful and you’re involved in a squad where there’s a lot of competition for places.
“A lot of our training would have been in Cork so, for me, travel wouldn’t have been a big issue so then for me.
“If there was another session, irrespective of if maybe you felt a small bit fatigued or whatever, which is normal at the level you’re operating at, there was plenty of, ‘Do you want to try and be successful or not?’
“I remember with Limerick, guys travelling up from Cork and guys travelling down from Dublin, guys travelling down from Galway.
“I had fierce admiration for all those guys as people and footballers but the extra time commitment that they have got to put into it.”
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