Camogie in the Philadelphia, South Jersey and Delaware Region

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Na Tóraidhe is proud to announce that the club are in the process of forming a Camogie Team that will serve the Philadelphia, South Jersey and Delaware region. For those of you not all that familiar with Camogie, it is the female version of hurling with some variation in the rules.

Similar to the men’s team, we envisage that the Camogie team will play various teams in the region and compete for the North American honours at the summer’s end.

While the sport is strongly rooted in Irish culture, that doesn’t mean that you have to be Irish or have Irish roots to play. The team is open for anyone who wants to learn this ancient sport, embrace some Irish culture and have a good time. All the basics will be thought and we can organise equipment as well. And if you don’t think you want to play, we are always looking for volunteers to help us out, so still get in touch.

Check out www.camogie.ie for more details on the game itself, or send the club a mail through the “Join” section of this site.

What it takes to be a Hurler – By Mike McClain

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For anyone who has ever witnessed the game of hurling and most certainly for anyone who has ever played the sport, it is clearly evident why hurling rightfully holds the title as the fastest moving field sport in the world. Each and every athlete on the hurling pitch must not only have the endurance to be able to withstand 60+ minute matches, they must also have speed and quickness to win possession of the sliotar, skill and technique in order to confidently control the sliotar, and strength to ensure greater distance upon striking the sliotar with the hurl as well as more effective contact towards the opposition. Without a doubt, all of these factors demonstrate a great demand of fitness and skill from the players of hurling—and therefore it is no surprise that the great Irish hero Cúchulainn indeed played hurling. So the question to ask is, “how can a hurler address and improve all of these”?

I first learned about the sport of hurling through an Irish literature course I had taken while I was in college at Rutgers University-Camden. I had ran and jumped for the university’s cross country and track and field program and I wanted to continue being involved in athletics. Hurling had intrigued me in the classroom so much that I sought to find a club close to the area—and fortunately I was able to find the Philadelphia Shamrocks Hurling Club. Since I began my first season in 2008, I learned firsthand all the demands of hurling and little by little, season by season I’ve learned more about the sport. After my graduation, I was welcomed back to the Rutgers’ cross country and track and field program to work as an assistant coach (working mostly with jumpers and sprinters). Throughout the past four years, I’ve learned much from experience as both a hurler and a coach and I had made the discovery that hurlers and track and field athletes do very much share the same demands: a hurler must have the running endurance of a distance runner, a hurler must have the speed and quickness of a sprinter, a hurler must have the skill and technique as a jumper, and a hurler must have the strength as a thrower.

While extended long distance running is a surefire method to increase an athlete’s overall endurance and longevity on the field, the other strength, conditioning, and skills need a bit more care and attention. Speed and quickness are both essential to ensure a swift and immediate direction toward a free sliotar. If two opponents are contesting for the ball, the one who has faster leg speed and quicker reaction time will assuredly be the victor. Various plyometrics, agility drills, quick feet exercises, and shuttle runs are effective in providing these quick and fast movements as well as improving the functions of the nervous system and increased lactic acid tolerance. In regards to strength, on the hurling pitch it is absolutely necessary to withstand the shoulder-to-shoulder contact as well as to run faster and jump higher (which is crucial for plucking the slitoar from high in the air). This can be improved through various body weight exercises, squats, lunges, sprint mechanics, etc. However, it should be noted that perhaps one of the most effective methods to improve hurling performance, strength, and conditioning occurs before any play or practice—dynamic stretching. While a more preventative measure, a good dynamic and static stretching routine ensures that the athlete is ready and prepared for the rigors of the game and more importantly will greatly reduce the chance of injury on the field.

Certainly strength and conditioning are a critical part of a hurler’s training regimen, however they mean nothing without the skill and technique required for the game. This is the nucleus of our team and our trainers are skilled in the knowledge, technique, and especially coaching. It is this essential part which is fine tuned with strength and conditioning that will ensure a very successful season for Na Tóraidhe.

Tóraidhe – A Little History

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Just as it is in Philadelphia, the pursuit of liberty is a principle that has an important place in the roots of Ireland. This indomitable belief has in the past led to revolution against a common foe in the form of the British Empire. In October of 1641, one such rebellion in the Irish province of Ulster led to a war that was to engulf the whole Island for 11 brutal years, a war that came to be known as the Irish Confederate War.

Despite some early victories in this war, the lack of man power and a coherent strategy weighed heavily on the Confederate’s campaign. A series of defeats in 1648 and the arrival of the tyrannical Oliver Cromwell in 1649 hastened the war’s end, and after the battle of Dundalk in1650 organized resistance by Irish forces ceased. The terms of defeat were harsh, for those captured it meant death, exile or life as a slave in the West Indies.

The Irish soldiers that escaped immediate capture regrouped in the desolate regions of the Irish countryside. Men gathered in places such as the Wiclow Mountains, the Bog of Allen and the mountains of Connemara to plot revenge. From these remote bases, and usually armed with nothing more than a Pike, they launched a fierce guerilla campaign against the Empire’s interests in Ireland. Garrisons, tax collectors and supply columns bore the brunt of this struggle. These groups of men came to be known as Tóraidhe, an old Irish word that means “pursuer”.

Several attempts to remove the Tóraidhe from their remote entrenchments proved unsuccessful and the Empire soon grew impatient. Eventually, a savage change in tactics led to the demise of the Tóraidhe, as well as inflicting more misery on an already tormented civilian population. In areas that the Tóraidhe were known to operate, a scorched earth policy was implemented and anyone found there would “taken slain and destroyed as enemies”. Faced with such a hostile environment, surrender was not an option. Instead, the bulk of the Tóraidhe were forced to flee Ireland’s shores, with many continuing the fight from afar as part of French or Spanish armies. Some made their way across the Atlantic, planting the seeds of revolution wherever they went.

Super Bowl Sunday

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While the nation’s focus was firmly fixed towards Indianapolis and another milestone in the Manning-Brady era, tucked away in a small corner of Philadelphia, one of the lesser known sports played in the USA was beginning an era of its own by welcoming a new hurling club to the Philadelphia region called Na Tóraidhe. Despite being in existence for little over a week, the club took advantage of the unseasonably good weather and played the first “intra club” game of the season on the grounds of the North East High school in North Philadelphia.

The brilliant sunshine and cool crisp air may have been ideal for a game of hurling, but the pot marked playing surface, inflicted through months of Soccer, American Football and a hastily removed baseball mound, was much less so. This did not worry the assembled team of mainly American born players or the two Irishmen present, however. They just wanted to get out there and play some hurling.

For an early season game the opening exchanges were frenetic, every ball was contested and every tackle telling. This was a completely new experience for some of the players, for others it was about finding their touch again having played hurling at one stage or another in the past. The game was very free flowing aided by the expansive surroundings of the field. As half progressed, the players found their rhythm, first touches improved and passes found their target. The early season rustiness did tell on the score board however, as a succession of missed chances left the score 0-2 to 0-1 at half time.

As legs tired the second half was an altogether more proliferate affair, a flurry of goals in the opening 5 minutes and suddenly the score was 2-2 to 3-1. The pattern of scoring did not continue with quite the same vigor but there were some nice scores taken by both sides.

At full time, handshakes were exchanged as the players left the field, the exhaustion evident, so much so that no one was really sure of the final score. No matter, today was not about winning or losing.

2012 Season Begins

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Practice

Every Tuesday and Thursday at 7:30pm at the Torresdale Boys Club (4500 Linden Ave ,Philadelphia 19114). No experience or equipment needed.