MOTION: Hurling isn’t a game where you just stand around. You need to be on the move through the entire game. (Photo courtesy of Columbia Red Branch Hurling)

In my previous posts responding to the questions from new-hurler Mike, I talked about enhancing game awareness in hurling and some helpful hurling videos for new players.

This time I want to sum up a few things that are key development points for every person playing hurling or its sister sport, camogie.

• STAMINA — Hurling is a sport where you are in constant motion if the sliotar is within half-a-field of you. That means that you’re easily moving 70 percent of the time. As you’re on the field you can’t just stand there, you have to constantly be ducking around other players, avoiding your mark and keeping the ball in sight. All that hustling means that you have to have some some fuel in the tank at all the right times.  Since I’m in my late-late 30s, this is clearly my biggest fault — I just get winded way too quickly. Boosting your stamina comes in two forms — diet and exercise. Diet wise, you need to be eating a high fruit and high veggie diet and keep your hydration levels at their peak. For exercise, it’s all about practicing ahead of time to keep moving. Running is the best exercise for sure to develop stamina, but suicide sprints are even better.
• FOOT SPEED — While I talk about movement in the section above, a totally separate focus needs to be placed on maximizing your top speed. You can impress your coach two ways: (a) Having a sensational blow-them-out-of-water sprint or (b) Having a high-speed cruising run. Either is fine. Increasing foot speed is a remarkably difficult feat, though. My suggestion is to work on increasing the speed of the “chop” in your run — you know the quickness of your foot hitting the ground. In particular, the best way to do this is speeding through “tire” or ladder drills.  You can do these at home on your own simply by laying a ladder on the ground and running through the openings as fast as possible — making sure not to trip.
• ONE-TOUCH POSSESSION — Over in Ireland, the one-touch possession is taught at the earliest levels of learning the sport of hurling. The theory of the one-touch is that you need to gain possession of the ball in one attempt. You can’t drop it or bobble it. You need to gain immediate possession. This buys you time on the field because the other players are still reacting from their own attempt to gain control of the sliotar for themselves. Increasing your one-touch performance is best with the assistance of another player, or at least a person willing to throw the ball to you. To practice have the other player throw or hit the ball toward you. Your job is to scramble for the catch or, if you don’t make it, pop it up from the ground and gain immediate possession. Once you do, take three steps and fire it back to your helper.
• ACCURATE PASSING — One of the key skills of the game, passing helps teams keep control of the ball, which means more scoring opportunities. When you practice passing, you must practice at both short distances and long distances, and while you are in motion. The exercise in the section above transitions into the exercise you can do to improve your passing. Once you have the ball, you must get it within three yards of the your target.  If you haven’t recruited a helper, that’s fine — just fire your passes at a tree trunk or other vertical target. Remember, your passes shouldn’t necessarily be powerhouse hits. A more gentle strike will help your teammate catch the sliotar.
• ACCURATE STRIKING — This skill is key for everyone, not just midfielders and full forwards. You need to practice hitting the ball into a goal or a goal-like structure. Most of all, practice making points because “racking up points” is the scoring style that can be entirely in your control — the opposing team can rarely take a point from you once it gets over their heads. Scoring goals, on the other hand, requires being close and betting on the fact that the goalkeeper is off his game.  To work on point-scoring, strike from a variety of distances and, most importantly, angles with the intent to hit a high-up zone in the point-scoring area. Don’t have any hurling goals around? Never fear. I’ve substituted batting cages, baseball backstops, football goal posts and even trees for my practice goal.  Further, remember that you need to be making these strikes while on the run. Nobody in hurling will let you stand around and take a shot at the goal.

Visit the Columbia Red Branch Hurling Club in the Portland, Wash., area.

SEE IT PLAYED: Finding hurling videos on YouTube can be somewhat challenging. One tip is to look up videos featuring some of the game’s best players, such as D.J. Carey.

Mike, a reader from St. Louis, chimed in with a few questions and comments about hurling. First up, he mentioned his efforts to find hurling clips on YouTube.

I’m brand new to hurling, just picked it up two weeks ago for a local club. I am in love with the game already, I have been watching clips on Youtube almost nonstop, and I can’t wait for the season to start.

• “Hurling skills” -- There’s a series of Gaelic Athletic Association videos on developing basic skills of the game. These mostly feature kids learning, but in truth most Americans are at this level.
• “Hurling drills” — Here you will find a few ideas for team drills you can run.
• “GAA” followed by an Irish county name, “Kilkenny,” “Galway” “Cork” and “Tipperary” will generally get you the best clips.
• “All-Ireland” will help you find some high-skill matches.
• “Christy Ring,” “Eoin Kelly,” “Henry Shefflin” “D.J. Carey” and “Joe Canning” are some of the great athletes of the sport, all worth searching.
• “RTE” coupled with hurling will find you plenty of great commentary on the sport. RTE is one of the broadcasters that carries the sport on Irish television.
• “Hurling” coupled with “goal,” “free,” “puck,” “tackle,” “solo” or “sideline” will dig up some skill videos as well as some great game clips.

I’ll get to more of Mike’s letter next time, where he asks about offense, speed and on-the-field jitters.

Have you got a hurling-related question for Hurley to Rise? Even if I can’t answer it, I’ll find someone who can. Just send me an e-mail at john@johnsimcoe.com

LUCK OF THE IRISH: Enjoy this coloring page on your own, or just ask and Hurley to Rise will send you a version to use for your own events.

While this isn’t exactly hurling related, I just wanted to point you to a St. Patrick’s Day-themed coloring contest going on here in York, Pa.

Your kids can color in the image at right to win some prizes from The York Emporium, a local bookstore, including a spot on their St. Patrick’s Day Parade float.

Details on the contest, and the coloring page image can be downloaded in this PDF.

Still wondering why I’m even mentioning this hyper-local contest on my blog? Because I’m the artist of this beauty of a coloring page!

Yeah, I know I should have added a hurley and sliotar into the image somewhere, but I couldn’t figure a way to do it and still have it appeal to those not familiar with the gaelic games.

HOW THIS IMAGE CAN HELP YOUR CLUB

The greater message is this though: GAA clubs in America (and elsewhere) need to offer a full-course menu of activities during their recruiting efforts. You certainly need to appeal to adults with the promise of comradery, after-game beers and athletic competition. But you also need to start catering to the family crowd as well. Do this by offering parent-friendly leagues, sideline activities for kids in tow, game instruction for kids, picnic events and crazy things like coloring page contests.

With that in mind, hurling and gaelic football clubs are welcome to use the image for their own events — as something to hand out to kids during a publicity campaign, an activity to keep kids occupied while mom and dad are on the pitch, or even on a giveaway t-shirt. Just let me know and I’ll send you a raw image.

Further, I can help you come up with other, more GAA-themed coloring pages and images if you are so inclined. Just contact me at john@johnsimcoe.com.

In my previous post, I discussed playing goal for the Baltimore Bohemians hurling squad and promised to expand upon it further.

Visit the Baltimore GAA website at www.baltimoregaa.com or "Like" them on Facebook.

I’ll get to some tips in a bit, but first we must enter what reality TV calls the “confessional” — where a show’s participant talks directly to the camera about his feelings and his reflections about what just happened. It’s a moment of retrospect, where the celeb tries to rationalize his actions.

That’s just what I need to do about being a goalkeeper, so here goes:

As I’ve mentioned before, I am far from a great hurling player. I love the sport, but I just don’t have the exact combination of skills to really excel at the game.

That basic fact hasn’t deterred me from continuing to play. Still I have wondered “What should my role be on a hurling team?”

This year I began to explore something I tried briefly in the previous season: Goaltending.

There are a few reasons why I wanted to look into this position. First, I don’t have any problem with shouldering the blame for my failures. One of the primary reasons people don’t like to play goaltender in any sport is because it’s incredibly easy to be awful in the position. If you let a ball or a puck pass you, everyone knows it. There’s no middle ground. You either win or you lose.

It’s a pressure position, and I tend to work well under pressure. So I was good with that.

The second reason I was willing to take on the position is because, well, I’m “the fat kid.”

Through most of my life that’s who I’ve been when I’m on a sports team. In most instances, that means I’m on defenseman. That’s what I played in my brief stints in soccer and roller hockey. In baseball, I was a right fielder — tucked away where I could do the least amount of damage to the team. That’s exactly where you put the fat kid, someplace where he can’t mess up for being too slow or too uncoordinated.

But when there’s a surplus of players, the fat kid gets shifted even farther away from the action. He becomes a “sub.” He waits on the sidelines for someone to get hurt or to perform terribly or to become too tired.  When they come out, the sub goes in. And if the coach has his way, the sub stays on the field for as short of a time as possible.

I don’t blame the coach for making that choice. He’s trying to win. He knows that the fat kid has only so much fuel in his tank. He knows that “the sub” has only so much drive and skill.

Thirdly, I know I’m not the fastest guy on the field. Heck, I’m not even the fastest guy among the subs. In fact, I know I’m not. In goal, I figured, running speed isn’t as important as reaction speed.

And so, early this year, I decided to make a concerted effort to get myself in goal.

The results weren’t great, but I learned a lot about the position. I doubt it will happen but I’d like to try it again, especially if they let me practice at the position more thoroughly. And really, who wouldn’t want to shoot things at me?

GOALTENDING: Can you handle the pressure of being a goaltender in hurling?

GOAL-TENDING TIPS

So while I’m not a great goal-tender, I managed to get some good pointers on playing the position. Here goes:

• STAY IN FRONT OF THE BALL: Yes, that makes sense. To keep the ball out of the net, you want to stay in front of the ball. But the more important point of this tip is that you want to block the ball with your entire body. Don’t reach for it. Move to it. If you reach for the ball, you must catch it. If you move your body to the ball, it can block the ball if you fail to catch it. Essentially, you want your body to be your backup for a bad catch.
• BIG GOAL: Remember, the goal in hurling is positively massive compared to the size of the sliotar. It’s like hitting a baseball into a soccer goal. The best way to protect the goal is to have a strong defensive line that doesn’t let the ball come near you. After that, it’s just you protecting that big space. What’s you’re role in that? Well, see the next tip:
• BE A TALKER: On the field, you have the best view of all the action. Talk actively to your team. Tell them who’s open. Tell them who needs to be covered and what gaps need to be filled. Point out weaknesses in the team. Be vocal about any observation you have. The more you talk to your team, the more they will support you.
• DON’T TURN, MOVE LATERALLY: Never turn toward the ball as it comes in. This gives you less “stopping area” to halt the sliotar’s forward progress. Instead, move side-to-side across the goal area.
• YOUR FEET: It might seem counter-intuitive, but don’t stand with your legs spread apart, a position that expands your stopping area. While it does do that, it also makes it more difficult for you to move quickly side to side. Instead, stand at the ready with your feet directly under your shoulders. This lets you shift from side-to-side at a moments notice. A wider stance will force you into taking an extra step — the movement that brings your foot underneath your shoulder before your can move farther to the side.
• THE GOALTENDER’S HURLEY: The hurley used by goaltenders has a wider wedge at the end of it. This is about the only advantage offered to goaltenders. Typically, this upgraded stick is used to block shots and to pass the ball out to your teammates. The problem is that since it’s bigger, it’s also slower to swing. When you get a puck out, switch to a regular playing stick for a better hit. When you’re waiting for shots on goal, use the goaltender stick.
• USING YOUR HURLEY: As you try to block shots with your hurley, the preferred hold is slightly different than a normal player’s. You want one hand on the grip, and the other way up toward the top of the business end. You should use your dominant hand on the business end and adjust the angle of the hurley on the fly to deflect the ball to your teammates. Alternatively, angle the stick to create a nice bounce that you can catch. Most importantly, hold the stick vertically in front of the core of your body. This forces you to move yourself between the ball and the goal, rather than your stick. When you’re stopping shots, don’t reach into a wide open space with your hurley unless you’re absolutely sure you can’t get there in time.
• STOPPING POINTS: The only time you should reach with your hurley is if you think you can stop a point from being scored. However, only do that when there aren’t any opposing players in your zone. There’s nothing worse than stopping a point, only to have it converted into a goal by a quick-thinking full forward.
• HOLD THE BALL: Some people might consider this bad advice, but if you’re in the heat of the moment and desperate, simply hold on to the ball, wait for the whistle to blow and let the referee sort things out. Technically, if you have possession of the ball you’ve got a few seconds to figure out what to do with it, after that you’ve committed a foul. A foul by the goaltender will result in a free from the 20 meter line. But here’s the rub: Getting a foul is better than giving up the ball right on the goal line. If the ref calls a foul, you’ll have your teammates to help you defend the goal, where you might not have earlier. Even better, your delay might cause another player to foul you, in which case you’ll get just what you wanted: a puck out. Honestly, it’s a risk worth taking.
• CREATE TIME: The game of hurling is very fast paced and extremely exhausting. Whenever you have the ball and aren’t being threatened by an opposing player (like when you get to puck out), take your time and stretch out the play. Give your players a chance to get open. Give them a chance to rest. The best way to create time is to take a moment to trade your hurley for another one or simply pace the sideline. Don’t do this for long, but a 10 or 15 second delay can be just what your team needs.
• GET PHYSICAL: Don’t be afraid to apply a check to an opposing player coming in on you. As long as you have the ball, you’re allowed to give a shoulder check. A person more familiar with the rules than I says the striked-out portion of this tip actually a foul. Sorry about that. However, you certainly can throw a shoulder check while they have the ball or if you are both struggling to get control of the sliotar. Doing this will give you time and space to make your next move. It will also give your teammates time to get in and help you.
• SCRAMBLE: Don’t be afraid to leave the goaltender’s parallelogram in your effort to keep the game under your control. You should be willing to scramble, run and aggressively go after the sliotar, and those actions can lead you far away from your safe area. In those times, expect to be bashed and whacked, but you can get some great results. While you’re out there, at least one of your defensive backs should be covering the goal for you. But what’s the benefit of leaving the goal zone? Two things: 1 — You might have a little more energy than your players, so you can briefly help them rest and  reorganize.  2 — You should leave your zone if you think you can get to the ball first,  send it away and keep the game under your control.

Have you got any goaltending tips? Are some of these crazy? Speak up in the comments!

Two days later and my hamstrings are still pretty shaky from my game time at the recent round-robin hurling tournament in South Whitehall Township, Pa.

The Saturday, May 5, Gaelic Athletic Association event was hosted by the the Allentown Hibernians Hurling Club, and also featured teams from Pittsburgh, Baltimore, Md. Hoboken, N.J., and Washington, D.C.

The Hoboken squad, the Guards, won the tournament, and my squad, the Baltimore Bohemians, came in third.

Here's the score-sheet from the May 5 games in Allentown. Scores in hurling are listed with two numbers per team. The first number is the number of goals scored, the second is the number of over-the-crossbar points the teams notched. Each over-the-crossbar shot earns one point to the final score. Each goal is worth three points.

THE SETTING

Just like last year, the tournament took place in the shadow of Dorney Park at a glen off of Haines Mill Road. Although there was only one Port-a-Potty for the 100-or-so players, everything else was great. The field itself was the best I’ve played on so far, with springy short grass and regulation-sized goals.

In the world of American hurling, both of those are quite a rarity. Most of the time we’re playing on the “left-over” or forgotten fields not used by anyone else. As for goals, sometimes we use way-too small lacrosse goals. Other times, we get soccer goals that have nets meant to stop soccer balls, not baseball-sized sliotars. And more than once, we’ve just been defending a slightly modified American football goal.

But Allentown? They made us feel appreciated and even bought lunch for players from every team. And every team that showed up got a 12-pack of sliotars, the super-expensive and easy-to-lose specialty balls used in the game.

Along with their great hospitality, the Hibernians welcomed the good people of Handcraft Hurleys, who brought in a nice selection of merchandise for hurling players. There were hurling gloves, hurleys of all sizes, boxes of sliotars and a big pile of helmets up for grabs.

Since nearly all the hurling equipment in America came via mail-order from Ireland, Handcraft’s set up offered a  nice opportunity to be able to check out some merchandise before purchase and not have to pay shipping costs to boot.

IN THE GAMES

Since I’m not one of my squad’s premier players, I didn’t see a ton of playing time with the Baltimore team. I managed a few minutes here and there, usually at the end of the games.

For this I am not at all ashamed. I’m an old guy (a crippling 39!) and I’m awfully slow. I’m a fill-in and I’m OK with that that role.

But the trip wasn’t a waste of time for me at all. Since Baltimore had an excess of players, those of us who weren’t going to get much time playing with Baltimore, were offered up to teams that were short of players for the 13-per-side games.

That’s how I got to play for the D.C. Gaels for two games, and where I saw most of my action for the day. In those games I was playing full forward right up next to the opposing team’s goal.

I ran my heart out, swatted at opposing players, dug for the ball and generally had a good, if not tiring, time while wearing the white and blue. But did I score? Nope, not yet. That miracle is still eluding me.

D.C. STRIKES BACK

My longest stint on the field for the Baltimore team is also what hurt us the most. In the weeks prior to the tournament, I had been lightly training for a shot as the goalkeeper, and by the time we were up against D.C. in our final game of the day, I got the call.

And I was dreadful.

I might have been in goal for a total of 10 minutes, and in that time, I let three goals trickle past me. In hurling, getting three goals is gigantic. It’s supposed to be tough, and I guess I didn’t make it tough enough. After that third goal against me, I was pulled from the position, a ruling I agreed with 100 percent.

(I’ll talk more about my goal-tending experience in a later post, because it was a learning experience.)

Luckily for me, the Bohemians rallied for a tie after I put us in the hole. I appreciate that, guys. I was a failure, but you came up big to pull us out of a loss.

The Pittsburgh team had a five-hour drive to the Allentown tournament. They placed fourth in the event.

THE PITTSBURGH GAME

The most amusing point of the day for the Bohemians was when we realized that we were about to play the Pittsburgh team, and their jersey colors were the exact same as ours. Both squads adopted a yellow and black color scheme (Baltimore’s mirrors the Maryland flag and Pittsburgh’s copies the city’s pro-sports team colors).

After some negotiations, we borrowed Allentown’s alternate solid green jerseys and hit the field. Still there weren’t enough jerseys to go around, so some of us had to wear our own shirts. I, for example, had brought two shirts from home — a blue polyester athletic shirt and, luckily, a green t-shirt to wear on the way home. I quickly dawned it and was a proud representative of Team Pitfall! and the Bohemians.

After the game, most of the Bohs said it was a tough adjustment. They kept said they kept thinking about passing to the yellow-and-black squad, instead of the green team.

WHAT’S THE SCORE?

One recurring theme in every game I watched and in every game I played is that no one ever knew for sure what the score was.

If you were on the field, on the sidelines or just watching as a spectator, you were completely unaware of the exact point count since there weren’t any billboards posting the score. Sure, we kind of knew who was winning, but you were never sure by how much.

Instead, we just kept playing and hoping for the best.

But next time, someone needs to bring out a big and highly visible whiteboard to keep us up-to-the-minute. It will be great help to keep up the fighting spirit for those trying to come out of a deficit.

NEWS ACCOUNTS

The tournament brought out at least two news media organizations. The Easton Times Express has coverage here.

A TV station, whom I couldn’t identify and can’t seem to locate a report from, was also filming for some time. (Anyone know who that was?)

Advance coverage came from the South Whitehall Patch, which can be seen here.

Hurling is an incredibly active sport. Its activity level is close to something like lacrosse or soccer, and its hard not to feel a bit more trim after you’ve played a game — or ewent through your paces at a long practice on a humid summer night.

Last year, some members of the DC Gaels decided to try snow hurling. Read a bit about it here: http://www.sceala.com/phpBB2/irish-forums-25121.html

But it’s November now, and the sport, which is primarily played outdoors, tends to disappear from the landscape during the late fall, entire winter and first, icy weeks of spring. Obviously, it’s hard to play with snow on the ground — since the ball’s white and being able stop suddenly and change direction is kind of vital to the game. So that means a snowy football field isn’t going to be too conducive to playing.

Hurling, it would seem, and winter just don’t mix.