Mike McGurn is Head of Athletic Performance at Queens University in Belfast. He has a BSc in Sports Science from Temple University in Philadelphia, U.S.A. and an ASCA Professional L2 accreditation. Mike has worked for over 20 years in Professional Sports as a S+C coach preparing athletes and players for 3 World cups, 3 Olympics, EPL, Commonwealth Games, Boxing, and many other sports. In that time winning 2 World Titles in 2 different sports as well as having the prestigious honour of training 3 National Senior Irish Teams in 3 different codes. His area of speciality is Olympic lifting and strength development in the gym along with energy system development on the pitch. Mike presents ASCA courses in Ireland, Malta and Poland as well as delivering lectures and talks in the USA, UK, Germany, and wider Europe.

QUOTES

"All they had was rugby league, tattoos and weight training”

“Firstly, what does an athlete need to be fit for purpose? Then what does the sport demand?”

“We need to look at the three P’s in athlete preparation: position, pattern and power”

“You can’t fake fitness and you can’t fake strength”

“Look at what is happening in the sport and in hard training blocks and stay away from that in your strength work”

“Don’t set your athletes up to get gold medals in the gym and then a bronze on the weekend in competition”

SHOWNOTES

1) Mike’s journey from Ireland to US collegiate running to elite S&C in field sports

2) The myth of sport specific training and differences between considering strength and energy system specificity for sports

3) Building athletes to be fit for purpose based on demands of their sport

4) The difference between sport specific and sport relevance with case studies of surfing and sprinting

5) Dynamic correspondence, force vectors and understanding what the sport is giving the athletes to be able to “fill in the blanks”

6) Periodisation differences between general and specifc prep

7) The importance of being comfortable with all the training you prescribe as an S&C

8) The influence Dan Baker has had on Mike’s coaching career

PEOPLE MENTIONED

David Boyle

Kelvin Giles

Yuri Verkoshansky

Dan Baker

Dan John

Joe Kenn

Paul Sculthorpe