strength training

Defining Sport Specific Training

I was asked the other day about Sport Specific Training. I don’t think I’ve seen a good definition of what Sport Specific Training is, and I was asked the other day so I’ll have a little go at defining it here. Sport Specific Training is any training that results in a performance improvement in a … Continue reading →

Summer time

And the living is easy. But not for Erin’s Isle minor candidates who are 2 weeks into a pre-minor camp with me for 8 weeks of their summer holidays. Next Thursday at 12.30pm I’m going to be talking to the guys about the training they’re doing, essentially condensing my whole youth training philosophy into a … Continue reading →

Preseason GAA Training

It’s preseason time right now and I’m really enjoying working with a great bunch of young guys at Erin’s Isle GAA in Finglas. The guys are a dual code team (ie. They play both football and hurling) and we’ve been working together about 3 months now. We’ve completed a 10 week strength camp and now … Continue reading →

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 →

Injury prevention ideas

I’ve been tinkering with the idea of committing to paper a series of prehab articles with video and pictures on the most common grappling and MMA injuries. I may run it as an article on another site (work!) or on here, depending on the format. Possibly the way I will do this is to put … 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 →