TRADING SPORTS
TV show gets you thinking
A number of years ago, revolutionary baseball figure and well-known soccer nut Billy Beane gave his opinion on Gareth Bale, then the English Premier League’s best player for Tottenham Hotspur.
“In the U.S., he’d be playing widereceiver for the New York Jets or centre field for an MLB team,” said Beane of Bale.
The point was pretty clear: Beane considered Bale to be an all-around athlete, someone who had the necessary makeup to compete in any sport and be successful.
It’s a great pub debate. Could LeBron James be a competitive tight end in the NFL? If Tom Brady returned to baseball, would he be an all-star catcher?
And that’s pretty much the premise of an Irish TV series.
The Toughest Trade sees elite athletes from different sports and different countries engage in a weeklong swap as they step outside their comfort zones and test themselves in vastly unfamiliar environments.
Already, the likes of former Montreal Expos catcher Brian Schneider and ex-Miami Dolphins wide receiver Roberto Wallace have visited Ireland to try their hand at the country’s national sports.
And this year, the show will feature ice hockey for the first time.
Retired NHL goaltender Alex Auld — who spent five years with the Vancouver Canucks, in addition to stints with the Ottawa Senators and Montreal Canadiens — has already visited Wexford, in the southeast corner of Ireland, to get a taste of hurling, the fastest field game in the world. Played with curved sticks and a small, firm ball that can move at speeds of up to 180 k/hr., it’s a thrilling and absorbing spectacle.
As part of the deal, the Canucks are getting 24-year-old Lee Chin — a high-profile hurler whose experience in a rink is practically nil. That’s largely because outside of Belfast, Ireland doesn’t have one.
So, in terms of the ‘trade,’ Auld has certainly got the better end of it. Yes, there are the mechanics and the intricacies to learn about hurling but at least he can move freely.
“After Day 3 of training in Ireland, I’m feeling more at home on the pitch with a Hurl in my hand,” Auld tweeted Feb. 3. “Loving every minute of this adventure!!”
Chin, however, had to master the skating before being able to concentrate on anything else.
“There’s a total mixture of emotions,” he says. “One minute you’re falling over and it’s good fun and the next minute it’s just disappointing. It’s a very technical sport. But it’s the small details that are getting me over the line.”
Chin easily falls into the allrounder category. Back home, he has also played Gaelic football to the highest level and represented Wexford’s local side in Ireland’s domestic, semi-professional soccer league.
But the ice has been an unforgiving foe.
“The way I skate at the moment, I use a lot more energy than they would,” he says. “They skate with a technique that conserves energy. Also, they’ve been doing it for years. I’m in a different ball game, using completely different muscles to what I’m used to. I use a lot of glute action when I’m running but, in ice skating, you’re using a different part of your glute in a different way. Pushing outward on the skates uses a part of your hip, too, and I’d never used a motion like that.”
Hurling is an ancient game — some speculate it’s been around for 2,000 years — and many would see links between it and hockey. Scotland has its own version of hurling — shinty — which explains the Canadian term for recreational pickup games.
Chin, however, feels the only similarity between the two sports is visual. In practice, he believes them to be world’s apart.
“There are absolutely zero similarities,” he says. “Even something like the stick in hockey — it’s longer, it’s heavier, it has a different look, a different feel. Nothing I’ve done at home plays a part here, other than some physical things. I’d be fit and have some degree of glute strength and core strength, which you need to keep your balance and stability.
“In any sport at home, particularly on grass, I’d be in control of what I was doing. At the moment I don’t feel very much in control. There’s always that hesitancy or fear factor: ‘What’s going to go wrong here?’ I’m trying to let myself go, but it’s difficult when there’s so much thought needed.”
Chin has been training with the Vancouver Giants, in hopes of featuring in an upcoming Canucks Alumni game. It’s baby steps but he’s making progress. And he’s also got quite a few teammates hooked on hurling, too.
“Some of them are keen to get home and start YouTubing,” he says.
“The reaction to it has been very positive. They think it’s rough and can’t believe we don’t wear any padding. One guy told me that he loves it so much he wants to go to Ireland and watch a game. He said he used to get some games on the TV over here in the 1970s and he used to watch it every week and he’s just desperate to get over and see a full game in action while he’s there. The whole thing is an experience I’ll never forget. It’s just been so welcoming and there’ll definitely always be a place for the Canucks somewhere inside me.”
The Toughest Trade episode featuring Chin and Auld will air on March 10, and also be available on AIB’s YouTube channel: www.youtube.com/aib