Championship nutrition mistakes | Avoiding heavy legs | Truth about carb-loading
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What should carb-loading actually look like for a GAA player? Can dehydration really explain calf cramps? And what should you eat after a late training session when you have no appetite?
Performance dietitian Eva Hoey (@evahoeynutrition (https://www.instagram.com/evahoeynutrition/)) joins Kevin to explain how players can fuel properly during the club championship.
Eva has worked with Dublin hurlers, Ballyboden St Enda’s, Scotstown and other top sides, while also supporting athletes individually through her online nutrition practice.
She explains why many players focus too heavily on match day while under-fuelling throughout the rest of the week, leaving them flat for training and struggling to recover between championship games.
In this episode, we also cover:
• Why nutrition information is useless without practical application
• The most common fuelling mistakes made by GAA players
• How work, travel and late training affect a player’s nutrition
• What carb-loading should look like in the 24 hours before a match
• Why eating considerably more food can leave players feeling heavy
• How nerves can affect appetite and digestion before championship games
• The possible causes of calf cramping
• Whether regular coffee drinkers still benefit from caffeine on match day
• The best half-time fuelling options
• Sports drinks, gels, wine gums and Jaffa Cakes
• What to eat after a late training session
• Eva’s path from clinical dietetics into performance nutrition
• What she learned while working with Daniel Davey
• The realities of delivering nutrition support within a county setup
Whether you are preparing for a championship match, struggling with energy at training or unsure how to recover between games, this episode offers a practical approach to fuelling your performance.
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5 Aug 2026
Sports psychologist behind Dublin's 5-in-a-row | Why teams collapse under pressure | Danger of 'gurus'
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Why do talented teams suddenly collapse under pressure? Can players train concentration in the same way they train strength or speed? And are GAA teams taking risks by hiring unqualified people to deliver sports psychology?
Anne-Marie Kennedy has spent more than a decade working in elite sport, including roles with the Dublin footballers, Galway footballers, Clare hurlers, Cricket Ireland, Cycling Ireland and Swim Ireland.
She joins this week’s episode of Humans of Gaelic to explain what sports psychology actually looks like inside a high-performance team.
Anne-Marie discusses the Mindful Athlete programme developed during Jim Gavin’s time with Dublin, how the players trained concentration and emotional regulation, and why visualisation must prepare athletes for realistic challenges rather than perfect performances.
She also breaks down the psychology of a collective team collapse, what happens to decision-making when panic spreads through a team, and how coaches can prepare players for momentum shifts before match day.
We also cover:
• How Anne-Marie moved from finance into yoga and sports psychology
• Why Jim Gavin was ahead of his time in developing Dublin’s mental preparation
• The role of mindfulness, breathwork and visualisation in high performance
• Why concentration may be the most important mental skill in sport
• How routines can help free-takers perform under pressure
• What happens inside the brain when a team begins to panic
• Why teams must prepare for opposition purple patches and momentum shifts
• The dangers of unqualified people working as sports psychologists
• What an embedded sports psychologist does during a typical inter-county week
• Why trust, relationships and time inside the environment are essential
Whether you are a player trying to handle pressure, a coach shaping a team environment, or someone interested in how elite teams prepare mentally, this episode provides a rare look inside the work of a sports psychologist.
➕ I've got some great guests coming up. Make sure to subscribe so you don’t miss any episodes.
Stay Connected
Subscribe to the Humans of Gaelic podcast wherever you're listening.
⭐ Leave a Review: If you found value in this episode, please give it a rating and review - it helps me get more top guests.📢 Share the Episode: Know someone who’d benefit from this? Share it to help spread the word!
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22 Jul 2026
Sleep coach for GAA | Stop chasing perfect sleep | The 8-hour myth
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Should you always go to bed at the same time? Is eight hours a myth? And why is your sleep tracker maybe doing more harm than good?
With club championships now in full swing, I sat down with Emmett Lynch, a professional sleep coach trained in cognitive behavioural therapy for insomnia, to break down what's actually happening when GAA players can't sleep before or after a big game.
Emmett works with county players, club players and elite boxers through his practice in Derry, and he's blunt about the myths doing the rounds: the eight hour rule, mouth taping, magnesium tablets, obsessive sleep tracking.
His whole approach flips the usual advice on its head. Instead of chasing sleep harder, he tells players to try easier.
In this episode, we also cover:
• The most common issues GAA players bring to him
• Why "tired" and "sleepy" are two completely different things
• The truth about bedtime routines, screens and phone scrolling before bed
• A simple write-it-down method for a racing mind the night before a game
• Controlled rest periods versus naps on match day
• Getting to sleep after a night game full of adrenaline
• Whether elite athletes actually need more sleep than everyone else
• Sleep trackers - are they helping or hurting your recovery?
• The truth about melatonin, magnesium and mouth taping
Whether you're a player struggling to switch off before championship or a coach trying to help your squad recover better, this one is worth your time.
You can follow or reach out to Emmett on his Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/adultsleepcoachni/)
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1 ratings
Spotify
4.8 / 5
20 ratings
Podcast Authority Score: 56 / 100
A composite of feed quality, social presence, YouTube performance and engagement. Read the methodology.
Quality
81
Social presence
0
YouTube
76
Engagement
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