Big Honor for Doc

A HUGE HONOR for NOLA Gold Tighthead Prop James "Doc" Irey who started training with me when he joined NOLA as a practice squad player because he got stationed at Belle Chase.  

He was an older player who was (and still is active duty Navy). By his own account he was fat, out of shape, not that strong, and body beat up from Deployment so when COVID locked the world down he expressed a desire to get better.. here he is at 37 still playing at the professional level in the MLR!! 

I’ve always preached for my athletes to be ready and fit so when you’re number is called you can shine and force them to never forget you!!  I have witnessed players get buried down at the far end of the bench because when the team needed them they weren't ready.

I remember Brungy, my Spurs boss having guys who didn’t play 20 minutes do conditioning for 20 minutes after games or prior to the next day’s practice... I was in charge of those players.

Doc had to go in at the 13th minute and played the entire game (80 minutes).

Made player of the week at 37 years old!!! 

Maybe I’m on to something making my athletes strong but they have to be fit as well!!!

He does work capacity circuits inside of his strength training and even though he’s in-season he will do 1 strongman circuit a week and for speed conditioning he does a lot of build ups (short shuffle into sprint or multi directional jogs into the sprint for speed instead of starting from a 2 point stance and putting too much of a beating on his achilles.

I told my brother Fergus Connelly that if I had an accent like his I would be coaching Rugby especially in the USA!!  I mean I only trained some of the studs of the world in sports like Rugby, Basketball, Bobsled, Throws and so much more!!! 

You can check out who I've trained by clicking here!!!