Lone Shark wrote:bracknaghboy wrote:Lone Shark wrote: it was ten years ago. Hurling has completely evolved, and teams from back then would be eaten alive in the modern game.
This I think is a dangerous statement. True the modern hurling game is based around catching high ball and also trying to gain pocession into the hand at all cost. The idea of a lad pulling on the ball in the air today seems absurd. As for ground hurling.....forget about it. It doesn't mean that hurling is always going to be this way. The game has evolved, is evolving and will evolve in the future. I think a manager that is thinking a little outside the modern box would make some strides with the right team (its hard to know who this manager might be). Most teams are looking at Kilkenny and Tipp for ideas but perhaps a team to make the break through will do things a little differently.
Look at football. 13 men behind the ball is what the modern game is evolving into but already teams are looking at ways to unlock this and go for different approaches. In a few years time the notion of a team basing their entire game around the handpass will probably be absurd. Just because someone had success with teams 10 or 20 years ago when the game was different doesn't automatically exclude them from having a chance of success today. We need to be a bit more open minded on these things.
Tommy Lyons let the footballers run loose in 97 and we won a Leinster. A year earlier the notion of our footballers playing with the kind of flair that would have the country talking about us was laughable.
I'm not disagreeing for a minute that what worked in 2010 and 2011 might not be what works in 2012. I'm all for tactical innovation, and if somebody wants to make a case for ground hurling in the context of the modern game and how that could unlock the Kilkenny defence that we saw five weeks ago, then by all means I'm all for it. My point is that there are people saying we should do things the way we did ten to twenty years ago for no reason other than it worked ten and twenty years ago.
However as was pointed out, Ollie Baker has the job - and best of luck to him. It's a huge step up for him based on what he's done already, but as was pointed out here, a lot will depend on his backroom team. So let's see how that goes.
Brilliant point LS regarding 20 years ago and what is needed now. Anyone that would breed in ground hurling particularly with the younger generation now, will infact put our development back as a county by another 20 years. Ground hurling worked for successful Offaly teams, simply because they had some masters of the skill and they done it with a certain speed and it worked, at the time their hurling was revolutionary and we reaped the rewards. However with every generation, a new brand comes, the game evolves. We as a county, from the ground up, are years behind in developing a style and a system that will allow us to equal and surpass other teams. It actually defies logic, and is a credit to the players themselves who put in a lot of work and are reasonably competitive on championship days given the level of training they were exposed to since under-age in this county.
Now, barring we have a revolutionary who has everyone buying into a new band of play that miraculously works immediately, then we will have to really really develop our youngsters in a mould that will introduce them to the style of playing the modern game. Step One, get them coming, get them enjoying it, keep it fresh, interesting and do all you can to get to them loving the game first. Then, when you have the respect and commitment, we need to develop their skills, speed, and awareness of how they should play the game, and breed this mentality into them. They are more likely to buy into message you are the message and retain it as they move along.
That is that they learn to be competitive in the air, learning to fight, and win primary possession, breaking the tackle, when clearing a ball, its not the 90 yard big ball up the field that lifts the crowd but does little more than give the opposing back line a great chance to mop up. Either they find there they team-mate or the create a running game to make the space to work a score. Emphasis on collective team play rather than individual play, i.e, the option of taking a point from 30 yards, or breaking the tackle and offloading to a team-mate in a genuine goal scoring position.
Speed needs to become a huge part of the game, and as they develop their skills from 6-10, and start honing them from 10-14 years, coming out of 14 they should be able to do more 'physical' training, let these be sprints, Speed and agility work etc.
Kids should not be subjected to laps and weights from that age, instead having the emphasis on speed work. Coming toward minor and beyond is crunch time for their physical power and development and a core of gym work would have to be implemented to get themselves in a shape to compete with the Kilkenny's, Tipperary et al., of this world, because a part from being extremely talented hurlers, the are seriously conditioned athletes, something which we are not on a par yet, with the exception of a few.
Granted all this will take time, and a system something like what I am trying to get across would require patience. Rome wasn't built in a day, neither was Kilkenny's. But persistence is key. Also, the basics of what I have tried to explain doesn't mean that is the total answer, but bringing kids to a field to have them puking in two's across the field, ground striking the length of the field which takes the guts of 20mins when all is said and done, does not improve their skill levels. As Paudie Butler adhered to, one needs to get on average 200 touches per training session or they aren't improving from session to session. (In his pomp coming up to the 2001 All-Ireland, Eoin Kelly wouldn't stop until he had 1000, he had a person designated with a clicker-counter to count for him, extreme maybe, but did it work? Yes)
All in all, there will be younger posters here in twenty years time lamenting how far we are now unless people are appointed in their clubs to devote serious time and effort doing what is best for our future players and equip them with the best possible, skills, methods and trainings to give them the utmost chance of becoming great once again.
