Preseason Prep

In just over a week, the Milwaukee Hurling Club will be having its sign up at Trinity Three Irish Pubs in downtown Milwaukee. For the returning members of the club, this is as much of a social event as it is administrative. Its a chance to see old friends and meet new ones. It is also the point in time where we can no longer hide the fact that the season is about to begin, and some of us may have been slacking during the winter freeze.

Getting ready for the hurling season can be difficult, especially those that may not have anyone to practice with. However, there are several ways to knock the rust off before the preseason training begins. After all, who wants to show up looking like a chump?!

Dan McAuliffe, the first American to be invited to the annual Poc Fada, says that after time away from the game, your hands are the first thing to go. So, lets start with that - getting our hands back. Here are a few simple things you can do around the house to get yourself ready to start catching the sliotar more.

• Get More Touches
• Play Catch with Yourself
• Learn to Juggle

Getting More Touches
This is simple enough, carry the sliotar around with you. When ever possible, keep it in your hand. This builds muscle memory which will allow your hand to automatically conform to the shape of the sliotar without you thinking about it. The less you have to think about while playing, the better you will do.

This is particularly important for clubs in America where we have not grown up with the game. One of the reasons the Irish-born players dominate is that so much of what they do they do not have to think about - they just do it. being brought up with hurling has given them the muscle memory that allows them to concentrate on other aspects of the game.

Play Catch with Yourself
When you find yourself sitting still, watching television or some other activity that does not require much attention, throw the sliotar up and catch it in the same hand. This should be done absentmindedly. Most experts believe that the typical American watches 4 hours of television a week. Imagine how many catches you would have if during only a quarter of that time you spent tossing and catching the sliotar!

Learn to Juggle
This may seem like an odd skill, however juggling is all about hand to eye coordination. In hurling this is incredibly important. Hand to eye coordination allows us to do everything from striking the sliotar, to judging if a shot is wide, to making a block down or double. And again, because this is done with the hands and sliotar, you gain more touches and get a better understanding of how the ball moves.

In the end, its all about Repetition. 
More touches means less thinking in the end. For those of us in the Milwaukee Hurling club, it also means we can get up to speed quicker. The loose translation to that is that the sooner the rust is knocked off, the sooner we do not have our trainers yelling in our ears about messing up basic skills!

And lets face it, who wants to spend time with friends messing up the basics. You want to go out there and have fun! So, put in a little work before the season starts. It will pay off in the end.