conditioning

Strength and Conditioning for Youth Teams

Strength and Conditioning Training for Gaelic Football I’ve been working with an underage Gaelic Football team now for the past 2 months with excellent results so far. This is approximately the 12th GAA team I’ve taken for an extended period. I thought I’d write a bit about the experience of coaching youth teams (which is … Continue reading →

Don’t fail. Here’s a really quick post but hopefully an informative one on exercise selection when doing conditioning training. There is one key thing I advise when selecting movements and exercises for high intensity conditioning sessions. Never fail Within that phrase are 2 key things. First is to never fail because either the weight you’re … Continue reading →

Keep intensity high!

Quick knowledge blast! Answered a pm on Facebook on this a few mins ago but let’s share since I’m in the mood and just got the WordPress app on my phone. I’ve just finished off a nice rack of lamb and I’m sitting listening to Jeff Buckley with a glass of milk while tapping away … Continue reading →

Simple 10 minute session

This is an addendum to a larger article that will be on VPX in a few days. I thought I’d post this video here since there’s a few cobwebs on the front page! This took ten minutes, repeated. It’s a nice, simple mini-session that requires just 2 things- a med ball and a wall to … Continue reading →

Spring Camp with Nivaldo Oliveira

We’re right in the middle of a spring training camp with Checkmat black belt and Elite BJJ competitor Nivaldo Oliveira. ‘Nil’ has been working us hard for the first 3 sessions, and there are still 4 more big sessions to go. The focus so far has been on the X-guard, some entries, a couple of … Continue reading →

Strength Training Template

There’s a lot of talk in professional circles about Continuous Professional Development, or CPD. The idea is that the world is moving so quickly that you need to keep up or you will be left behind. But I want to talk about an older phenomenon known as TTBOWTB, which will never catch on. But it’s … Continue reading →

Battling the complications

I purchased a pair of heavy ropes last week, for use both as battling ropes and as climbing ropes to hang out of our bag frame. I’ve been playing with them since. For those of you who don’t know what battling ropes are, here’s a 7 second video of me using them on Monday night. … Continue reading →

Pictorial weekly

Here’s some shots of my working week this week. I was either too busy or forgot to bring my phone to some sessions, so this is just a snippet of some of the sessions I thought. One week, if I remember to, I’m going to take a photo of every session I teach… assuming I … Continue reading →

Someday never comes

Regrettably,  recently it’s been all work and no play for me. I don’t seem to be able to get more than a couple of hours here or there on the mat thanks to work and a sick little boy in my house. Hopefully my little guy gets well soon and I can start to train … Continue reading →

Committing to Train

Thanks to work and family issues, I’m not 100% sure I can get to the European Championships in January. Nonetheless I’m training like I will go and I’ll know if I can get there or not in early January. Things are not going well however. Firstly, I’m frickin huge. Well, not huge but bigger than … Continue reading →