Paul Brady resolved to rule the world again

There were points along the way when Paul Brady considered cashing in his handball chips and walking away with his earnings.

Like in the late 2000s when the Cavan man balanced an inter-county football career with his status as handball’s greatest. After a couple of years of deliberation, however, football was the one knocked on the head.

More recently, in 2012, after collecting his fourth consecutive world championship title in Dublin, Brady admitted publicly his time could be up.

Three years on and 35 years of age, the Mullahoran man now stands on the cusp of handball history ahead of next month’s world championships in Calgary and is glad he stuck around.

And if he ever privately doubted his ability as time ticked by, tests conducted recently at the Sports Institute of Northern Ireland vouched for his continued excellence, remarkably placing him at a similar level of fitness and conditioning to Olympic athletes.

“They would have been tests for endurance and speed,” said Brady.

“Obviously we’d have a bit of an advantage as handball players in terms of agility and speed tests.

“But it is really good that I have them because I can compare myself now, to others and to myself in the past. It has given me confidence that as I’ve got older, my results haven’t diminished that much.

“In some cases, they’ve improved. So that has given me confidence going into tournaments, knowing that while I’ve got older, my test results haven’t altered all that much.”

To keep himself at this elite level, Brady puts himself through a punishing regime. Training is only the half of it. Brady has effectively put his career on hold while he chases his dream of a fifth world championship title.

In the last year, for instance, he has spent more time than ever before in America, schooling himself and sharpening his game on the circuit of handball tournaments.

“I have gone over every month,” he said. “I pretty much have to go for a week every month so I can’t take any contracted jobs. I say it every year that maybe next year something has to give somewhere.

“I’m a school teacher and I wouldn’t be able to get that mount of time off so I just sub. Last October/ November, I went for a full month, I’ll probably have to do that again. So in terms of sacrifices, that’s a big one right there, I can’t hold down a proper teaching job. It’s difficult in that sense.”

The venues Brady competes at include Los Angeles, San Francisco, Houston and New York. Next month, he’ll fly to Calgary for the world championships. If all sounds rather grand, consider that he does it alone and openly admits, ‘there isn’t much money in it’.

So why does he do it?

“A fifth world title would mean everything,” he said. “I suppose I’ve wanted to live a world champion and I want to die one. That’s why there was a deliberation over whether to try to retain it or maybe just retire after the last one. In terms of that, there’s pressure. But that’s the way I want to live and that’s the way I want to die. That’s my attitude going into it - I’ve put everything over the years into this and I’m prepared to die to win this again, that’s the way I’m looking at it.”

Naturally, people have questioned him over the years and suggested why with three senior county medals the Mullahoran man didn’t simply stick to Gaelic football.

“Obviously you’re not paying that much attention to the general opinions that are out there, the perceptions, if I had I would have played another sport a long time ago,” he responded. “For me, I’m getting to be in a different city every month. I’ve had great opportunities over the years to play in all these players, I’ve had these great experiences.

“You could have earned millions or had a high profile career playing other sports, that didn’t interest me. I was just enjoying this experience, it’s my life, I didn’t really care about any of that other stuff to be honest.”