Right attitude goes a long way

SPORTING PASSIONSHURLER ALAN KERINS:  Mark Roddentalks to the Galway man about his love of golf, winning All-Ireland football medals with club and county, and on what you need to success in sport

WHEN I was growing up, I played a good bit of golf and that’s probably my main passion outside of hurling. I represented Galway at Oscar Traynor level in soccer as well, but it was mainly hurling.

I was okay at soccer – it was a great break in the winter time. I played left wing or up front for Kiltullagh and Salthill Devon. I wouldn’t have played that regularly because it was a hobby at the time but I enjoyed it immensely.

Golf is something I really like and I play off a handicap of six. I haven’t got much chance to play over the past five or six years with the hurling and doing charity work in Africa. But I’d like to get the handicap lower and I think if I played it a lot more I could. It’s a sport that I intend to play an awful lot more of in a few years when I’ve retired from the GAA.

It’s a very challenging game. It’s about hand-eye co-ordination and it’s a mental battle as well. It’s so unpredictable. One day you go out and you shoot level par or under and the next day you could get a score in the 80s.

I used to live beside Christy O’Connor Jnr when we were younger. I used to play in Galway Bay with his sons Darren and Nigel and they were great golfers. Christy played in the Ryder Cup and I remember him coming home with the Cup after he shot that great two iron against Fred Couples on the 18th at the Belfry in 1989 – we have pictures of that at home in the house.

Nowadays I watch Tiger Woods just for his sheer aura, his intimidatory presence and his mental approach. He’s so mentally strong.

I always loved watching Greg Norman when I was growing up. He was a brilliant player but he should have won a lot more than he did. I thought he had a lovely way about him – a great attitude and a great personality.

You have to admire Pádraig Harrington now as well because of the way he’s worked so hard to improve himself. He’s a family man, he’s grounded and he has a great work ethic. He’s a nice guy with it as well. It’s brilliant to see an Irishman at the top of the world game.

I only took up Gaelic football at 23. I played a little bit in St Mary’s from first to third year but I went to Trinity and took it up there. But I haven’t played for Galway since 2003 – it was too demanding to do the two sports. I haven’t played much club football in the last year or two either because I’ve concentrated on the hurling.

It was a fantastic time to be involved with the Galway football team. There was a great management team there and great players and it was lovely to have an All-Ireland medal at the end of it.

It was a great achievement for Salthill and a great time as well when I won a club All-Ireland with them in 2006. When you win one with a club it’s a special feeling because there’s a bond there with the players. It was brilliant.

I’m not part of the plans for the Galway hurling team at the moment but it’s a good wake-up call. It’s reignited and refocused my love for the game. I’m training away at club level and I’m training away on my own with like-minded people who are showing me different approaches. So I’ll play away with the club now and see what happens.

The commitment, discipline and flexibility of playing on the field, I’ve carried all of that into life and it has helped me greatly with building up the charity (Alan Kerins African Projects).

But in terms of other sports, hurling is a brilliant game because you can adapt to other games a lot more easily. Games like squash and tennis, and obviously a few hurlers are fairly handy golfers too.

There are so many skills and so much co-ordination involved in hurling that it’s a great game to pick up as a young fella if you want to practice other sports too.

With all sports it boils down to your attitude – having a great attitude, commitment and discipline.

An ordinary player with great commitment, discipline, attitude and willingness to learn will do well in any sport. An extraordinarily talented player with an ordinary attitude won’t go far. Your work ethic, commitment, discipline and focus – they’re the key ingredients that you can apply across all sports if you want to be successful.