In The Spotlight: Adam Sheehan

We catch up with Cork-man Adam Sheehan on his role of Strength & Conditioning Coach with Munster Rugby.

A native of Blarney St. in Cork City, and a former pupil of the North Monastery A.G. (An Gael Colaiste Mhuire) secondary school, he played rugby for Dolphin RFC right through the age grades from U14.

Always keenly interested in sports and fitness, he originally completed a Recreation & Leisure and Business Management degree in CIT which incorporated a number of Personal Training and Coaching modules – his first introduction into the realm of Strength and Conditioning.

Following work experience under the guidance of Paudie Roche (then Munster Academy S&C, now Arsenal Academy S&C), Adam continued his studies at UCC before heading to the University of Edinburgh to complete as Masters in Strength & Conditioning.

Continuing to pick up invaluable practical experience, in his first year abroad he worked with the Scottish Rugby Union youth structures (U16-U20) before – in his second year – becoming a graduate intern with Edinburgh Rugby for Season 2012/13 and the Scotland national team for the 2013 RBS 6 Nations.

That summer Adam joined Munster Rugby on an internship, also becoming the S&C lead for Ireland U18 Clubs and Ireland U19 7s (for the 2014 FIRA tournament in Portugal) – his final steps on the road to joining the Munster Senior set-up.

This season saw him promoted to the role of Strength & Conditioning Coach for the Senior squad while also continuing his work with the national U18 Clubs side.

Adam chats about the daily duties of his role within the province.

“My role covers two main areas – S&C and GPS. Working with others in the S&C department we look at a number of areas including strength, speed, mobility and conditioning. We design and implement programmes whilst planning these sessions throughout the season to coincide appropriately with games. We also look at the technical aspects of all training, making sure the players use and keep good technique, and fully understand the elements of what we do. Education is a big part of player’s ‘buy-in’ – knowing the reason for a specific training approach. The goal is to get guys as strong & powerful as possible.

“The other part of my job is tracking the GPS system we use to monitor players. I analyse and report on the information we get we get from each player at training and during matches. The player wears a GPS device and this monitors everything like speed, movement and collisions. We use this information live pitch-side, and afterwards for analysis, to monitor the load and intensity of training and matches.

“This analysis can be done for individual games or sessions, or over longer periods like a block of PRO12/Champions Cup games, or for the season as a whole. In other words we can look at things on a micro and macro level.”

Adam on duty at the World Club 7s in Thomond Park last August.