“I came back very, very hungry” – How Lee Chin turned lockdown into a positive

"Sometimes you're so invested in it, just being forced to step away from it for a while helped."

As you can imagine, a top inter-county level hurler like Lee Chin is completely immersed in the sport of GAA. In recent years, the continuous treadmill of matches has been a constant in his life and stopping to take a break was never an option. Not that players at this level even want to stop, they got to where they are through their love of the sport and unwavering commitment to the demands that are asked of them. However, when lockdown imposed itself on us and forced everyone to take a step back from the regular monotony of our own daily lives, it can actually end up having a positive effect. Speaking on the launch of the Centra Community Matters campaign, the Wexford star admitted that being forced to take a break and sit back for a little while, did have its benefits for the All-star. "You call upon a lot of your other interests in your life to try and get you around things because there was no collective training, there was no games, nothing like that," said Chin. [caption id="attachment_230100" align="alignnone" width="2048"] Pictured is Wexford hurler Lee Chin who has teamed up with Centra for the launch of their Community Matters campaign which will call on people across Ireland to show what matters most to them about their local community. [/caption]

"The community really came together in the lockdown, the element of support that they showed each other, all of those different things - they are very important. Obviously during lockdown you're trying to stay as fit and healthy as you possibly can, so that when the day came, you can go back onto the pitch."

Without collective training, pitch sessions or gym sessions, keeping the fitness up was obviously a challenge, but mentally, the break did give Chin some clarity about the season ahead. "In some ways you could take the actual lockdown as a positive and use them as maybe a mental break as well," confessed the forward. "It probably helped me in a lot of ways. Sometimes you're so invested in it, just being forced to step away from it for a while helped.

"When I came back, I came back very, very hungry. Some people may have struggled a bit more than others, but for me alone, I came back to the group that bit hungrier.

Centra, 12 years as proud sponsors of the All-Ireland Senior Hurling Championship, are celebrating Ireland’s communities and the strong bonds people have developed with their locality over the past 15 months. To see how Centra will champion communities across Ireland, follow #CommunityMatters, @CentraIRL on Twitter, @centra_irl on Instagram and www.facebook.com/CentraIreland