Just as Jason Forde began to formulate the idea of starting his own fitness business, there was a happy confluence of events. The Tipperary hurling star's GAA club, Silvermines, drew up plans to build a gym at their grounds in Dolla, just south of Nenagh.
"It's a super gym, really well equipped," Forde, a PwC All-Star nominee in 2018, 2019 and 2021, tells Balls about the facility which was finished just before the Covid-19 pandemic hit.
"To have a space to work out of was the push to get the thing off the ground."
The two-time All-Ireland winner began to take a greater interest in strength and conditioning after he finished studying at the University of Limerick.
Through the GPA's partnership with Setanta College, Forde earned a diploma in Personal Training and Strength and Conditioning.
"Once I got the qualification, I was doing a bit in the background with the club," says Forde.
"We launched an academy in the club, working with players from U13 to U16, U17, getting them used to functional movement. The older group would have been about the resistance training side of things. That's where it kicked off."
Last year, Forde took a career break from teaching. His CID (contract of indefinite duration) being in place provided a safety net as he took the leap to start the business. In January, he launched JF Performance.
"If I was going to do it, I was going to do it at 100 per cent," says Forde. [The career break has] given me the time to put my energy and focus into that.
"You learn a lot in the early stages of it. The social media side of things, I'm still getting to grips with. I wouldn't have been a huge man for it but that's where businesses are promoting themselves now.
"It's such a big thing that you have to buy into it and get your name out there and give a bit of value as well. People get to know what you're offering, number one, and they trust you a little more when they come to you."
18 August 2019; Jason Forde of Tipperary celebrates with Séamus Callanan of Tipperary, left, after the All-Ireland Senior Hurling Championship final against Kilkenny at Croke Park in Dublin. Photo by Eóin Noonan/Sportsfile
The business has three prongs: One-to-one personal training, classes and online coaching. The classes, which he runs two to three times a week, tend to last for 45 - 50 minutes and are split between cardio and weight training. Virtual coaching has been the biggest challenge.
"Everyone will be different in terms of where they're coming from with their own setups and experience in the gym, experience with diet and nutrition, what stage of life they are in," says Forde.
"It could be people who are after having kids, so there are [challenges] around their sleep. You’re implementing techniques to achieve the goals that they have. You're all the time learning on that as well. It's not a cookie-cutter job, you really have to be checking in with people all the time and try to update and adapt.
"Getting clients that would have been there for a 10-week programme and then come back again is really satisfying. They are putting that trust in you and it's reaffirming what you've been doing with them.
"It's a large scope of people. I have GAA athletes who are looking to work on certain performance markers. Increasing speed and acceleration is a big one I've had over the last number of months.
"Especially now that you're in the off-season, people try to work on different things. We have various ways of testing those and putting parameters on their sporting goals.
"You have people looking to lose a bit of weight, get back into the shape that they were in previously, just improve their overall health."
Forde will be 30 in December, and next season will be his 12th as part of the Tipperary panel. In switching careers to the fitness industry, he joins GAA players like Andy Moran and TJ Reid, who run gyms in Castlebar and Kilkenny, respectively.
Moran was nearly 34 when he was named PwC GAA/GPA Footballer of the Year in 2017, while Reid, now 36, won his seventh PwC All-Star award this year.
"You'd be hoping so," says Forde when asked if his career change could lead to similar longevity on the hurling pitch.
"The lads you mentioned there, I'm sure they gained a lot of knowledge through going into the fitness business just in terms of how they look after their bodies. They are two prime examples of guys who have gone late in their 30s playing to an exceptionally high standard.
"It does give you time because you're in the gym and getting a chance to do that extra bit of mobility that you might put off if you weren't there.
"If you're trying to get across to people to make changes in their lifestyle, you need to be doing that yourself as well, take control of all the things you can look after in terms of your diet, mobility and recovery.
4 September 2016; John McGrath, left, and Jason Forde of Tipperary celebrate after the GAA Hurling All-Ireland Senior Championship Final match between Kilkenny and Tipperary at Croke Park in Dublin. Photo by Eóin Noonan/Sportsfile
"As you become an older player, the recovery side of things is massive then. You build up a good few years of strength and conditioning, putting on muscle mass and increasing your lean mass, and while you'd still be looking to do that, the recovery side of things is probably more important now. I need to make sure my body is in a position to train as hard as [Tipperary management] need me to.
"You have to manage your time well. Inter-county setups these days, there's an awful lot of hours in a week that goes into it. It's becoming more topical now that you're seeing lads in their early 30s deciding to step away.
"If you manage your time really well, it actually gives you a really good structure in your week. You get into a routine of knowing where you're going to be each day and how your day is going to run.
"In fairness, with the personal training, I can put forward what hours I'm available. It's not really going to be affected by the training in Thurles."
His first year of business is almost in the books, and Forde is already envisioning some growth.
"Putting a big emphasis on the social media side of things and trying to reach a larger audience, that's one side of it," he says.
"The other side would be looking at increasing the amount of classes that are being offered. Even looking at maybe splitting time between the gym in Dolla and another facility in Nenagh. I'm looking at that at the moment as being another option."
See Also: The Seven Players To Win Hurling All-Stars As Backs And Forwards
