Interview with Strength Coach/Soft Tissue Therapist Robbie Bourke

Today’s interview comes from Dublin based Strength Coach/Soft Tissue Therapist Robbie Bourke.  This great interview, Robbie goes over the importance of soft tissue therapy in athletics and some of his ideas regarding strength training for Gaelic football.

Hope you enjoy it!

Patrick
patrick@optimumsportsperformance.com

1) It is great to have you do this interview Robbie.  Since most of my readers here, across the pond, may not be familiar with you, please give us some background on yourself.
 
Well to be honest I am just a baby in the world of strength and conditioning. I am 22, from Dublin Ireland. My background is, as an athlete, I played hurling and Gaelic football for my local GAA club. I have always had a huge passion for sport and fitness and always knew that whatever career path I choose was going to be one that involved something in one or both of these areas.
 
I did a basic personal training course when I was 19. From there I got my first job at Dublin City University (DCU), which has both a commercial gym, and high performance gym. I started my career in the commercial gym and hated every second of it. It was your typical commercial gym. All that matter was membership retention, membership retention, and….. let me think….. what was it….. oh, membership retention. Program design and nutrition advice didn’t matter one bit.
 
The head Strength Coach for the high performance gym at DCU at the time (and still is today) was Martina McCarthy. She really took me under her wing when I first wanted to get into the field. I soon started to realize (the more I studied, and talked to Martina) that nearly everything that I was taught on my original PT course was Bullshit!! After a year of working in the commercial gym I quit to take up a part time job in the High Performance Gym.
 
My role was to help train all athletes that came through the facility. Our main athletes were gaelic footballers, hurlers, rugby players, a bit of soccer players, and track and field athletes. I stayed for another year before I decided it was time to do an internship with one of the big guns, like Boyle or Cressey. So I got an internship with Mike at his Winchester facility last fall. I still hope to intern with Eric at some stage.
 
But that is my story so far!
  
2) Aside from being a strength coach, you also practice soft tissue therapy.  This has been a great combination that I have been implementing for some time.  Please tell us how soft tissue therapy fits into the program for your clients/athletes and why it is so important to you.
 
I don’t know how I came to decision that I wanted to do neuromuscular therapy (NMT), but I am glad I did, as it is one of the best things that I have ever done. It has given me a much more holistic approach to training. I am currently doing a Higher Diploma in NMT, and have the pleasure and honor to be taught under world renowned therapists such as Leon Chaitow, and Judith DeLany, who is someone I know you admire greatly too.
 
As for how do I combine it?
 
I like you do believe that soft tissue work is essential for our athletes/clients if they want to see maximal results. In a team group setting though it is not feasible to do tissue work on every athlete individually, so in that situation the foam rollers, tiger tails, med-balls, tennis-balls, or even sliotars (a hurling ball), will be used for the athletes do get their soft tissue work done.
 
What I also love about soft tissue work when I do have my hands on someone is that it is a constant assessment. You are feeling, and weaving your hands through tissue, trying to constantly assess the feedback you are getting. It is another tool in the toolbox, and a valuable one at that.
 
I will always encourage my athletes to get regular soft tissue work. Whether it is a manual treatment from myself, someone else or just some foam rolling, I just want them working on the tissue quality. 
 
3) You recently started working with a Gaelic Football team in Ireland.  What are some important aspects of Strength and Conditioning that you hope to bring to the team?
 
To be honest, just good old STRENGTH. A lot of the guys that I will be working with have a training   age of zero (0), so they are pretty much beginners. The fact that they are beginners means that any increases in strength alone, will increase speed, power and decrease injury.
 
Now don’t get me wrong here and think that I will put (as Gray Cook would say) fitness on top of dysfunction. One thing that a lot of GAA players seem to have is really poor posture. So this is another thing that I will be looking to improve upon. Some people would call this “corrective exercise”. To me strength training is corrective exercise. Just as long as the proper volume, intensity, and progression are put in place, this will help improve any poor posture.
 
As for poor movement patterns which a lot of these guys will have, I like to work on this initially in warm ups and rest periods through some form of mobility/stability exercises. Then once these patterns clear up, I will re-force them by putting good old solid strength on top of them. You will also find that the soft tissue work that we discussed above will help in this process too.
 
Nutritional habits are also something that I think that I can bring to the table. Now I am not, and do not claim to be a nutritional expert, but it doesn’t take a genius to figure out that McDonalds isn’t exactly ideal food before training/practice. 
  
4) If you could give an athlete one piece of advice, what would it be?
 
This is a tough one. This is where you wish you could come up with something original and meaningful. Something that would make people think, that’s an invaluable piece of advice.
 
I would always tell my athletes never ever stop believing! Belief in one’s self is probably the single greatest thing that any athlete can process. All the greats had/have it – Ali, Pele, Tiger, Federer.
 
One quote that I got from Lance Armstrong that I love to say to my athletes also is – “Pain is temporary, but quitting last forever”.
 
So I guess my advice would – Always believe in yourself, and never ever give up (without a fight).
 
5) Thanks for taking the time to do this interview, Robbie.  Please let my readers know where they can find out more about your work and upcoming projects.
 
Its my pleasure Patrick. Thank you for having me.
 
You can find me at www.allthingsstrength.blogspot.com. I am hoping to get a lot more video content on there over the next while. As for upcoming projects, I will be traveling a bit this year. I am hopefully going to Seattle to work with Tim Vagen for a few weeks. I also hope to go to Westside Barbell this year to visit Louie, and finally I hope to visit Coach Peter Rouse in California at the end of the year sometime. I will keep everyone updated on my travels on my blog.
 
As for now I am busy writing, designing, and implementing strength and conditioning programs at Na Fianna GAA Club in Dublin