TWO-TIME EUROPEAN indoor athletics champion David Gillick is currently working with the Dublin hurlers in a performance support role ahead of their Leinster SHC opener against Galway next month.
Gillick, who has a background in GAA having played football for Ballinteer St John’s, has been part of Ger Cunningham’s backroom team for the last number of months during Dublin’s Allianz League campaign and now in the build-up to their quarter-final tie in Tullamore.
The 2005 and 2007 400m European indoor gold medalist was invited to speak to the squad by sports psychologist Caroline Currid last year and has continued to work with the panel into 2017.
“I gave a talk to them last year and it went pretty well,” he told The42. “I’ve gone in and helped where I can, the players have bought into it and picked my brain on various things.
“It’s an ongoing thing, I’ve been working with them over the Easter break in the build-up to the Galway game at the end of May. That’s the whole focus now.
“It has been a bit of technical work to hopefully reduce the risk of injury and things like improving the players’ speed off the mark. It has been quite broad, the lads have been great and have welcomed me in with open arms and given me opportunities to get stuck in.”
As well as offering technical advice, Gillick, who is studying sports psychology at the Dun Laoghaire Institute of Art, Design and Technology, has been working with the players on match preparation.
“I’m there for the lads to chat to about their own preparation and things I would have implemented during my own career,” he continued. “Stuff like dealing with nerves and anxiety and how they can go about preparing themselves for games.
“The role is kind of broad and there for the players to tap into and just get some advice. Hopefully they can learn from some of the things I’ve done in my career and we’re trying to drive the whole ethos of self development and self improvement away from group sessions.
“It has been a great learning curve for me. I’m into sport, I love sport so to be involved with a high performance set-up has been great and opened my eyes. I admire the lads and the work they put in, there’s a lot of hours that go in.”
David Gillick is encouraging women preparing for the Vhi Women’s Mini Marathon to get down to their local parkrun and kick start their training on 22 April. parkrun in partnership with Vhi are extending a warm welcome to women training for the Vhi Women’s Mini Marathon with just over 6 weeks to go until the biggest all female event of its kind in the world. Register for your local parkrun at www.parkrun.ie
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