Marc Ó Sé has seen his fair share of training camps.
The Kerry legend was heading off to all sorts of destinations with his county for over a decade. He’s experienced the badness, the messing, the drinking and the camps that were simply too much on the squad, physically.
He has a decent idea of what makes a good camp now and what doesn’t.
For the Kingdom, they were fond of Portugal. The group used to travel out together to Browns and then to the Amendoeira Golf Resort.
Sometimes they were pillaged on their camps. Sometimes they were used for bonding. Other times, for football.
Speaking on The GAA Hour, Ó Sé gave a fascinating insight into what went on at those camps.
“I’ve done all of them. I went on training camps in the month of April when there was an emphasis on strength and conditioning and getting fitter and also playing football.”
On a typical camp, the breakdown was simple enough – but downright gruelling. Ó Sé revealed that Kerry would be doing three sessions a day with tactics talk at the end of it all.
8am to 9am
Running
“We started at eight in the morning and you’d have a running session until nine.”
9am
Breakfast
“You’d have your breakfast and then go to bed.”
10am to 1pm
Rest
1pm to 2.30pm
Football session
2.30pm
Lunch
“You’d have your lunch and then some fellas would go off to bed again.”
3pm
Rest
Evening
Gym session
Night time
Tactics session
“It gives the manager a chance to get everyone together and go through tactics,” the iconic defender said.
“Let’s be honest, we’re amateurs – you train and then when teams have meetings and all of that, you can see the same fellas always trying to rush off straight away and get home as quickly as possible and that’s only natural.
“This gives a chance to iron things out. A manager can go through and explain to his players exactly what he wants of them, the football they’re going to play, video analysis and all of that.”
Ó Sé also had some fascinating tales about the antics the like of Tomás Ó Sé and Paul Galvin would get up to on those trips. But it was all still honest work.
“After the week or the five days we were out there, I can tell you we were well and truly wrecked after it but it definitely stood to us,” he said.
“As the years went on, there was no drinking. We were there to work.”
Listen to the full discussion on warm-weather camps below from 15:40.
