INTRODUCTION AND CONTEXT

Gaelic games are traditional Irish amateur sports. There are four games in total: Gaelic football, hurling, handball and rounders. Gaelic football and hurling are the two most popular, and it is the men's versions of these two games that are the focus of this chapter, in particular those individuals who play at senior inter-county level, which is the highest level at which the games are played.

Although all Gaelic games are played as amateur sports, developments that have taken place in the games over the past 15 years have resulted in players being required to give increased commitment and investment of their time to the sports. The advances that have taken place have largely been driven by developments in sports science, new technologies (GPS), education and the use of data, all of which aim to improve the per-formance levels of players.

There have also been spillovers from other professional sports into Gaelic games, such as strength and conditioning from rugby union and Australian rules football. As a result of this, training is no longer confined to field-based sessions. Gym-based sports conditioning is now a central component of Gaelic players’ training schedules, with the majority of teams having specialized sports conditioning coaches. This type of training has added a minimum of two additional sessions per week to a player's training load, on top of two to three field-based sessions. In addition, many players engage in their own, individually instigated training sessions, either to hone ball skills for their respective game or to undertake additional strength work. As well as the extra sports conditioning and training sessions, Gaelic players now engage in prehabilitation and recovery sessions, along with full training weekends and, sometimes, training weeks. The latter often take place away from players’ county team training bases, and can be based in other countries.

Aside from changes that have taken place in training, many other aspects of elite-level sport practices have been introduced into the games. For example, players’ diets are monitored. Supplements are now an integral part of most players’ daily consumption routine.