GAA players now dangerously overworked, warns fitness expert

A LEADING fitness expert has warned that GAA players are dangerously overworked, know little about their nutritional needs and have far too little recovery time after training and matches.

“Having worked with professional athletes in North America I noticed a very certain difference in Ireland soon after I arrived,” Canadian expert Richard Roecker said in Dublin yesterday. “Basically, players are overworked. They have jobs, they have training and they have matches. It’s all too much.”

Roecker, who has also worked extensively with NFL footballers during 15 years in the fitness industry, has lived in Ireland since October and quickly became aware of the poor levels of awareness amongst Irish sports people.

“People are just not recovering properly and all the signs point to nutritional problems with a lot of athletes over here. I gave talks to a few teams and I soon learned that some athletes didn’t even know what protein was. They couldn’t give me an example of it.

“I had to tear up my notes that I was going to work on and just begin from a far lower base than I expected. The awareness of what a correct diet is generally very low.”

Roecker, who worked extensively with former world heavyweight boxing champion Lennox Lewis, was speaking at the launch of Pro-Performance, a sports nutrition company he has set up with Clare hurler Tony Griffin. The company will be selling a line of sports supplements through the Elverys sports shops nationwide.

Griffin backed up Roecker’s claim that the level of understanding among top GAA players on the subject is surprisingly low, drawing on his own personal experience.

“I joined the Clare hurling panel four years ago and then I met Richard who made me think differently about my approach to sport. After that meeting, I trained harder, ate better and thought differently about my preparations. We want a medium through which sports people can achieve their maximum potential.

“The first thing to focus on is diet. We try to get the message across that it is so important that they know what they are eating. Food isn’t the same as it was 10-15 years ago with additives and whatever else. For some players maybe their diet is good enough anyway. They won’t need supplements. Other players are taking maybe the cheapest supplement. It’s important to take a supplement that has been tested, as this one has.”

Roecker added: “supplements are used in addition to, not in place of, the right diet. Not a lot of people are aware that they have a poor combination of the basic food their body needs. The days of spuds and sausages are over, but some people still have to move on from that. That needs to change.”