Ex-Ireland winger admits he was ‘too scared to do extras after Leinster training’
Andrew Conway in action with Ireland
Retired Ireland winger Andrew Conway has revealed his feelings of ineptness with one aspect of his game during the early stage of his career.
The 34-year-old won 30 Test caps following his switch to Munster and has since founded 5XFlow, the sport and business performance strategy company.
Reflecting on his playing career, which was ended by a knee injury, he has now provided a startling insight into how he felt “too scared” at Leinster, even though he won multiple trophies with the Irish province during the 2010-2013 Joe Schmidt era.
What troubled Conway was his lack of ability in the air, a weakness in his game that was shown up at training by Isa Nacewa. It left him scared to do extras after training at Leinster, but he eventually overcame that issue and was capped at Test level by Schmidt’s Ireland in 2017.
“I was so inept in the air…”
Looking back at this transformation from a passenger and driver phase perspective, Conway opened up in a LinkedIn post about the issue and how he solved it.
He began: “Passenger phase – There was a time, I was so inept in the air, that the great Isa Nacewa would come from way out of position to do my job and catch high balls for me.
“I was too scared to do extras after Leinster training with the back 3, for fear that my true lack of skill would be highlighted further.”
Conway then explained how he rectified the problem, including a video that showed him walking up and down the Munster training ground in Limerick on his own after training.
“Driver phase – Take some f***ing ownership. Peel the layers back and build a strong foundation. Just a ball and myself, pre- and post-training, every day. Repetition, repetition, repetition.
“Ingrained in my muscle memory the intricacies of the spin, the feeling of its first contact point with my fingers, which arm is preferable to be the lead etc, etc. The devil is in the detail.
“Not rocket science. Just deliberate and focused practice – day after day, week after week, month after month, year after year.
“Turns out, if you can relentlessly invest your focus, energy and attention correctly, you can go from the very bottom, all the way to the top. Whether you are an athlete or not, the same principle applies.
“Lock in on a specific skill, break it down to its core, invest so much time and energy that it would be unreasonable not to become world-class, leverage a new ‘superpower’ to progress career. Rinse and repeat.”
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