COACH'S CORNER Liam Hennessyand Jim Kiltysay you need to know if you are really ready to embark on a serious training programme. Find a brush handle and a full-length mirror and read on . . .

PART TWO

Getting functionally fit to train

LAST WEEK we noted the importance of being functionally fit before starting intense training, and this is not a new concept.

Bob Tisdall, Ireland's 400-metre-hurdles gold medallist at the Los Angeles Olympics in 1932, used the analogy of tuning up a motor car before racing it to explain how he prepared his body before starting training.

In fact several leading Irish coaches for decades preached the importance of "setting the foundations" before commencing serious training.

We can readily recollect great athletics coaches - Tony Farrell, Jack Sweeney and several others - who led the way in the coaching art through the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s stressing that it was essential to make the body strong and supple before loading it. We seem to have lost this understanding nowadays in amateur sport.

To help you check your "motor", here is a simple self-assessment that will test your functional competence. It involves using just a broom handle and is called an overhead squat.

Start by standing upright with feet parallel in stocking feet on a flat surface. A tiled floor or a vinyl floor surface is ideal.

Now hold a broom handle or corner flag overhead - slightly wider than shoulder width - and complete the following test.

Squat as low as possible while a) keeping your torso (back, shoulders, head and arms) upright and b) keeping your feet parallel with heels flat on the floor.

It is that simple.

To check your competence to do this test get a partner to observe you. If you do not have an observer simply stand in front of a mirror.

You pass the test if you can get to a deep-squat position while ensuring that a) and b) above are achieved.

Note the most common imbalances identified in the performance of this test: the upper body (viewed from the side) falls forward and one or both knees (viewed from the front) buckle inward.

Any one of these imbalances suggests you would do well to complete additional stretching and strengthening exercises daily for a few weeks.

Do not be surprised if you note one or both of these imbalances in your movement.

The majority of sportsmen and sportswomen tend to show them before starting a comprehensive training programme.

As an aside, how many in your team can deep squat with an upright torso and knees staying firm over the feet?

Don't be surprised if at least one of every two athletes or players cannot do this successfully.These notes are contributed by Dr Liam Hennessy and Jim Kilty of Setanta College, the Institute of Strength and Conditioning Studies.

(www.setantacollege.com)