GAVIN CUMMISKEYhears Mike McGurn, the strength and conditioning coach for the Ospreys and WBA Super Bantamweight champion Bernard Dunne, explain why Gaelic games and athletics have always been a big part of his life

BEING FROM Fermanagh, Gaelic football and then athletics dominated my early sporting background. My passion became athletics. I did the 5,000, 10,000 and cross country.

It’s funny because my uncle, Joe McGurn, was the chairman of the Fermanagh County Board for 21 years. I think he is the longest serving chairman in the GAA, so it was always part of our lives growing up.

I was attracted into athletics by the individual aspect. It always annoyed me when people weren’t playing or training as hard as myself. I was very competitive and realised with athletics you only get what you put in yourself. You are not reliant on other guys. I started at around 15 or 16 and while I didn’t have much talent, I worked hard at it.

Three years later I went on a four-year scholarship to Temple University in Philadelphia. I didn’t really have a coach before I went to the States. My plans were to go to the European, Worlds and Olympics but I did my back in my junior year; a damaged hernia disc meaning a doctor was forced to tell me I couldn’t run anymore.

This was the period in my life when I laid the foundations for what I do today. I was lucky in that I was the only Irish person in a university of 35,000 people so that got me a lot of privileges. They sent me down to spend time with 76ers (professional basketball team), the Flyers (Ice Hockey) and then the Eagles (NFL franchise), where I got to meet a guy called Pasquale “Pat” Croce.

Seeing Pat work, with both the Flyers and Eagles, certainly captured my imagination. This was 1992 and these guys were so far ahead of their time in their strength and conditioning techniques.

After my degree and post-grad in sports science I went over to lecture in England but became so bored of the lifestyle that I got involved with a small rugby league team up in Cumbria called Workington Town. I had never played rugby before in my life. I had some success with them leading to a guy called David Lloyd hearing about me. This led me to Hull, working with both the soccer (Hull City) and rugby league teams (Hull KR) in the town. Then I moved on to St Helens, where they won the treble – the world club championship, Superleague and Challenge Cup.

That eventually led to a meeting with Eddie O’Sullivan and a chance to come back and work in Ireland.

I played a lot with my club, Enniskillen Gaels, from under-14s and made the Fermanagh Vocational Schools side before I went off to the States. I didn’t stop there, joining the Philadelphia Shamrocks in the summer time. There was a massive Irish league every summer with something like 12 to 14 teams playing every Sunday.

Last year I advised Fermanagh football manager Malachy O’Rourke right through the pre-season and during the year. I also do a lot of voluntary programmes for athletes. Basically I tell them what not to be doing.

The strength and conditioning element of Gaelic football remains a long way behind other sports. I took the (International) Rules squad with Seán Boylan last year. It was very intense but the boys were amazed by how little we trained and how specific the session were.

I’m not being critical of Gaelic games, they are amateur, but they do have a long way to go. Even in the gym. When I am up in Belfast I still see Gaelic footballers doing bench press and curls. There is no relevance to such work anymore.

When I agreed to give Malachy a hand last year I insisted on using four strength coaches, two in Fermanagh and two in Belfast, so that every session the boys did leading up to championship were supervised. I briefed the four fitness coaches and they briefed the players.

The conditioning of Gaelic players is improving, especially when you see the fruits of the work of guys like Pat Flanagan down in Kerry. John McCloskey has done a great job in Armagh and I believe there is a young lad up in Tyrone called Ryan Porter.

Fergus Connolly is now with Wales, he worked with Derry last year. He is a Monaghan man.

I’m coming back to Belfast this summer, to spend more time with my wife and six-month-old son Eoin, so I may be working more with the GAA and Irish athletes in the future.