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.

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When you look at old documentaries, it’s usually with a little bit of a smirk on your face. They are quaint, often silly and terribly outdated.

But today I ran across an old hurling video starring Christy Ring, one of the game’s best players ever. In it, Ring and his narrator provide some absolutely wonderful advice on some of the basic skills of the game.

Ring, by the way, is so well respected in Ireland that hurling’s mid-level county championship cup is named after thim.

For modern Irish players, this video might be full of what I call “no duh” information. But for Americans? It can help us understand some of the basics that we haven’t ever been educated on.

Indeed, this is some timeless advice on playing this great sport.

As for the parade music, well, that is definitely not so timeless.

Christy Ring statue image from http://www.donal.ie in this post. Please take a moment to check out the site!

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One of the most satisfying skills to develop in hurling is hitting a  “free” — which is basically an uncontested shot toward the goal that’s awarded to a team for a penalty by their opponents during game play or when the ball goes out of bounds.

Assuming they’re shooting the sliotar at a close enough range, most frees result in a single point for your team. Sometimes, a plucky free-taker will go for a 3-point goal, but it’s fairly difficult since the goalkeeper will often have extra players to help him defend the shot.

To “take a free” the ball starts on the ground. Its placement can be partially adjusted by the player. It can’t be moved more than a foot or so and it’s usually only done to find a better tuft of grass. Players also like to adjust the ball so its seams are positioned in a particular way.

Once the sliotar’s placement is settled, the chosen shooter (many teams have a designated free taker) must scoop the sliotar up with the hurley and immediately strike it. The player can’t touch it with his hands.

The most difficult subskill in free-taking is the requirement for an immediate strike. The player needs to:

• Scoop the ball from the grass.
• Momentarily balance it on the end of the hurley.
• Flick it upward so that it falls “in the strike zone.”
• Wind up your swing.
• Swing and strike the ball.

Notice that there’s no, “grab the ball and toss it in the sky” step. The player literally never touches the ball after he adjusts it on the grass.

In this video, Eoin Kelly, a Gaelic Athletic Association star for County Tipperary, explains his method. http://youtu.be/HmYKyVUwrJ4

Here in the United States, it’s hard to go down to the local pitch and practice frees. Typically there’s no such thing!

Some suggestions on how to practice these shots:

• Get a bunch of balls: I would suggest getting about 10 balls. Further,  grab a magic marker and number them 1 through 10. Hit them in order and see if you get better toward the end of the cycle. Numbering the balls will also help you figure out where they all landed, since they’re expensive to replace.
• Find a goal: A hurling goal is about 20 feet wide. At least for practice, you can adopt a local football field’s goal posts, which are anywhere from 18 to 23 feet wide.That’s good enough to practice. If you can’t find that, go to your local park and look for a few trees near an open field. If they’re about that close, that’s good enough. You’ll even benefit from having a “goalie” in the form of all those leaves and branches.
• Go the sideline: Since many of a teams’ frees will be awarded when the ball goes out of bounds, it’s important to be able to shoot from just inside the sideline — and it’s a long hit to make. A hurling pitch is 90 meters wide. That’s about 300 feet. You need to be standing at the sideline when you hit the ball, so go about 150 feet to the side  of your makeshift goal zone — that’s almost twice the width (yes, width!) of a high school football field. Once you’ve found that spot, move away in a line perpendicular from the goal with each shot or each set of shots.
• Fire from the middle too: Since not all frees are awarded from the sideline, you need to work on shots from the playing area the pitch as well. Try different places on the field, and those selections shouldn’t be always in the center of the field either. When a free is awarded during play, it can be on any spot of the field so you need to be accurate from a variety of zones.
  

  DIRECTIONS: Assuming you are right-handed, you can bet your ball will follow one of these paths when you hit it.

• Take your time: It takes a lot of work to learn the pick-up-and-hit skill, so be prepared to just spend time learning that motion. Once it decently delivers the ball to you, remember to swing smoothly and evenly in your strike. Swinging the hurley faster doesn’t make the ball go further. You want a clean strike on the ball in the hurley’s “sweet spot.” That will make the ball fly far and accurate.
• Take Aim: Once you have a clean hit pattern established, work on your aim. For me, where the ball goes is all based on the placement of my shoulders in relation to the target area.
• Switch sides: Don’t forget to hit from both sides of the field. Hitting from you non-typical side of the field is a little tougher.
• Run up or Stand: There are two ways people take frees. Sometimes players will run up to the ball for the scoop, lift and hit motion. They do this because it’s said to improve distance. Others simply stand over the ball for the scoop, lift and hit. That is said to improve accuracy. Try both. Learn both. They both have merits.

Of course these are just some basic ideas. If you ask a dozen players, they’ll each have a dozen tips for taking a free, so be sure to do so! Eventually, you’ll develop your own style and have a dozen different tips for the next player.

 

 

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I was recently tipped off to this great video about hurling available on YouTube. http://youtu.be/esDERq-GVjU

In it, Irishman Jack Murray talks at the Walter Cronkite School for Journalism and Mass Communication about what makes the sport of hurling so enthralling.

For those already familiar with the sport, it comes across as quite charming. For those who aren’t they might be a little confused by a few of the elements he talks about. (What makes it so fast? You say it’s anyone can learn it and then have one of the world’s top athletes say it’s difficult later on. Which is it? And how do you play? Is it just about bouncing a ball on a stick? … and so on.)

Still, Murray brings up an important point: The Irish economy is in terrible shape, and that’s pushing many young people to leave the country in search of jobs. Ireland’s (unfortunate) loss does have a positive spin. Those Irish leaving the Emerald Isle are bringing their culture with them. They are arriving in cities around the world where the sport of hurling has never been seen.

To all the new Irish diaspora out there, I’d like to say a few things: Just because you moved away from home, don’t think you should leave your culture behind. Forget soccer, basketball, hockey, rugby or whatever else is popular at this new place. Hurling (and all the other unique aspects of Irish culture) is worth sharing. You may have been terrible at the sport compared to those on your county team back home, but you’re not now. You’re likely one your new home’s best players. You can be a wellspring of ideas, insights and instructions to those of us who’ve just discovered the game.

Get out there and share your knowledge. Share your enthusiasm. Start a new club. Introduce hurling to your new community.

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My favorite sport, the one I have been interested in the longest, is hockey. I love to watch people play. I love to play it myself (or at least mess around with a stick and puck).

Heck, I even draw a comic about hockey. (Shameless plug!)

So it was with great sadness that I found out that the 2012-13 season was in jeopardy as the National Hockey League’s player’s union and its team owners battled it out over how much the players were played. The talks degenerated quickly and the players have been “locked out” of their paid playing opportunities since early in the fall.  Since then more than half the season has been canceled. The truly exciting “Winter Classic” was canceled.

And fans? They’re angry and frustrated.

Even the NHL Network has pretty much given up. Now it’s broadcasting games from the Canadian Hockey League.

And despite occasional bursts of activity, things look quite dismal for the remainder of the season, the playoffs and the Stanley Cup finals.

But then yesterday a Canadian politician officially offered up a great alternative: Award the Stanley Cup to the top amateur hockey team.

Sounds a lot like the way the Gaelic Athletic Association operates.  Unlike so many other premiere sports leagues around the world, the GAA doesn’t pay its athletes. In fact, it strictly forbids it. Yet every year, it fills massive stadiums in Ireland for its games of hurling and gaelic football. And across the world, more and more teams are springing up for these games every year.

But instead of letting the best players go to the highest bidder — as they do in virtually every other team sport in the world — the players of hurling and gaelic football fight it out on the pitch for community pride. It’s true. Players aren’t allowed to join any club they want, instead they can only play for the team that’s affiliated with their birthplace.

So, if such a policy were enacted for America’s National Football League, then players born in Pennsylvania would only be allowed to play for the Steelers or the Eagles. Even then, there would probably be some sort of imaginary line splitting Pennsylvania in half to designate boundaries on who goes where.

But I digress.

The point here is the Canadian politician offers an excellent option for the Stanley Cup, and there’s even a few good reasons why it should happen:

• The Stanley Cup was originally meant to awarded to the top amateur team in hockey. Not the professionals, but the guys who had to hold down a day job.
• The Stanley Cup is not controlled by the NHL. It is governed by independent trustees who can award it at their discretion.
• Quite frankly, the NHL and the player’s union need to get the message that the sport of hockey can go on without them.

Further, the fans of the sport could be well served by a wake-up call of their own.  Just like the GAA does, the Stanley Cup organization could foster a wave of hometown pride as amateur hockey clubs from across the U.S. and Canada battle it out in a March Madness-style tournament to get their name on the cup.

And the day after these amateur players hoist up the cup? They go back to their jobs and a chorus of “atta boys!”

That’s exactly what happens in the GAA, and it is a spectacular celebration of sportsmanship.

 

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