It’s pasta and bananas as soup and sandwiches off the menu
YOU are what you eat. It’s not the title of a hit television series or a runaway bestseller, these days it’s a mantra employed by county teams.
As managers and players search for that extra edge, dieticians have become a significant presence in the back room team.
It’s fashionable to claim the two Northern powers have transformed Gaelic football from an amateurish game into a fully-functioning professional-style sport. Armagh and Tyrone have been credited with taking the sport into a nutrition-conscious age.
Almost two years ago, moments after Tyrone captured their first national title, journalists were perplexed to be left standing outside as Mickey Harte’s victorious team tucked into a pasta salad in their dressing-room.
However, nutritionists aren’t a recent phenomenon in the GAA. Sharon Madigan has been tailoring diets for county teams and offering advice since 1998 - with some excellent results. Although she declines to name those she has assisted, some have won national league and All-Ireland titles.
“For the most part, Gaelic players are becoming much more receptive to what you tell them,” Madigan says.
“There are always going to be some players who don’t want to know.”
Sometimes, it takes players to see the results before they accept the advice. Sharon relates one story of one of the Northern teams she works with.
“With this team, we actually gained their trust more by sheer accident than anything else. A couple of years ago, one of their key players - was playing absolutely horrendous stuff. And nobody could figure out why.
“The manager asked us about his iron levels and things like that, and we did some tests. But nothing came up. The simple fact was that he just wasn’t eating enough. We sorted his diet out and within a couple of weeks, he won a man of the match award. And it was all down to his calorie intake. That won the rest of the team over.”
Tyrone were eating directly after claiming their first national title because it is the hour after intensive training or competition that the muscles can absorb the most protein.
“What I always tell athletes is their car should look like a rubbish-tip,” Dr Giles Warrington of NCTC says. “So, if you are driving home after training, you should have a snack. Two bananas will give you plenty of protein for your muscles to absorb. They act like a sponge after intensive training.”
Stories of county teams subsisting on soup and sandwiches might be a little exaggerated, but Gaelic football has certainly come a long way from the traditional meal after training.
“You are looking for every little thing to give you that bit of an edge. It is all about attention to detail,” says Armagh manager Joe Kernan.
“If players are not eating the right foods at the right time, then they are not getting the full benefit of the training they are doing. If you are eating properly, then you are more likely to do be doing other things properly.”
Madigan, in her work with county and club teams, gets players to keep a nutritional diary-so she can track what players eat and when. She can then observe if players are lacking in anything.
“Generally, you find that players aren’t lacking for protein because they take plenty of meat. The major energy source is carbohydrates and that is what we are looking at most.”
Dietary requirements are different for each player. The nippy corner-forward, weighing in at 68 kgs, obviously eats differently to the towering midfielder, weighing in at 110 kgs.
“We don’t use percentages as guides, rather players, on average, need 6-7g of carbs for every kg of bodyweight.”
Giles Warrington agrees: “Carbohydrates are the most important food-stuff for a high-intensity sport like Gaelic football. With protein, the rates are much lower.”
Hydration has an even bigger bearing on performance levels. When Donegal imploded against Dublin in the replayed All-Ireland quarter-final three years ago, it was because some of the team were dehydrated.
“Research shows that if a player is dehydrated by as little as 2%, their performance decreases by as much as 20%,” says Warrington. “So, if any player goes onto a field not sufficiently hydrated, he is already working off only 80% of his potential.”
Madigan says one player she worked with last year told her that he got an Allstar award simply because he was drinking more water. And a dehydrated player is more likely to get injured.
“Last summer, we were able to tie down a problem one player was having with his hamstring down to the fact he wasn’t taking in enough fluid during games and training,” Sharon says.
“We have found that with young players involved in Sigerson, that come March and April, they were hitting a wall. And it was all because they weren’t eating enough food, never mind the right types of food. It is interesting, particularly when player burn-out has become such an issue.”
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