CRYSTAL CLEAR MESSAGE

Waterford man John McGrath has drawn from his GAA roots to help Luvo Manyonga rise from drug addict to Olympic silver medalist and insists such a journey offers inspiration to all

JOHN McGRATH doesn’t have much interest in cricket. Growing up in rural west Waterford, he passed the time playing hurling and road bowls. Still, when he heard that Dawid Malan, one of England’s few success stories on their doomed (current) Ashes tour, hit his maiden test century at the Waca, he couldn’t get the smile off his face.

Malan had been derided as ‘a no-name batsman’ prior to the tour but, even with his lack of cricket knowledge, McGrath knew he would rise to the occasion. He had seen how hard Malan had worked. The South Africanborn batsman arrived back in his native Paarl, about 40 miles outside Cape Town, stuck in a rut. He was introduced to McGrath, who runs a gym nearby. Now flying high, he credits the Irishman for turning his career around.

‘I don’t know much about cricket myself,’ McGrath explains, ‘but, when I am working with an athlete, the sport doesn’t matter. It is about the journey that the athlete goes on and joining them on that journey.’

The 50-year-old strength and conditioning coach is most readily associated with one journey, though, that of Luvo Manyonga, the world long jump champion. They make an odd couple. McGrath, a former international rower who has performed as a Coney Island strongman, from the tiny village of Knockanore, and Manyonga, the former crystal meth addict from the sprawling township of Mbekweni, who has so much raw talent that some believe he could become the first human to jump more than nine metres.

‘I love the underdog. I want to work with the underdog,’ McGrath enthuses. ‘There’s something in the Irish psyche that makes us automatically side with the underdog probably because that is how we see ourselves.

Despite his natural gifts, Manyonga was very much the underdog when McGrath first met him. Indeed, he had spiralled so far into drug addiction since becoming world junior champion in 2010 that McGrath was told there was no point in trying to save him.

‘I was warned to stay away from him, that there was no point. But that just wanted me to do it more,’ he recalls. Manyonga had been initially mentioned to him when he worked as S&C coach for the South African women’s tug-of-war team at the 2013 world games in Colombia. He was settled in Paarl by that stage, having emigrated from Ireland in 2008 after ‘falling in love’ with the Western Cape on a holiday. ‘And there wasn’t much opportunity in Ireland back then,’ he remembers

It took five trips into the township before he even found the athlete, and he conducted his search with no preconceived notions.

‘Before meeting Luvo, I didn’t google crystal meth, or “tik” as it called here. I didn’t want to know anything about the drug. I didn’t want it to have a hold on me or colour my perception of Luvo. I wanted to get to know him as a person first before understanding anything about the drug that had this hold on him.

‘In 30 years, travelling to different countries and seeing different athletes in different sports, I have never seen anyone as gifted at anything as Luvo. I have seen him jump over cars lengthways. And I had to drum that message into him, that jumping was his thing. It was his gift and he had to pursue it.’

It wasn’t plain sailing. It took time for the message to sink in. There were relapses. As McGrath points out, Manyonga went to the Rio Olympics having competed only once internationally in the previous four seasons because of his difficulties.

He missed out on the Olympic gold medal (to Jeff Henderson) by one centimetre. Twelve months later, he claimed the World Championship with a massive jump of 8.48m in London. It wasn’t even the longest jump of last year – he soared to 8.65m during the season – underlining the belief that Manyonga will eventually threaten Mike Powell’s world record of 8.95m, which has stood since 1991.

‘I’m very proud of Luvo. I think that he will jump 9 metres. All it will take is one lucky day. He has the talent to do it, but the greatest thing for me is not that he is world champion or Olympic silver medallist but it is his story and that he continues to write that story because it shows how everyone can have hope.

‘That drug is devastating, it has destroyed families and communities. But Luvo has shown that he is able to beat that addiction. And if one person can beat it and go on to achieve what he has achieved, that can give hope and encouragement to so many other people.’

McGrath believes that empathy is the critical ingredient that allows him to relate to characters as diverse as Manyonga and Malan, as well as countless rugby players.

‘Empathy is critical when it comes to coaching. If they can relate to you, then it is easier to communicate with the athlete. Having had a difficult life myself in many ways, I have empathy with people in difficult situations and can understand why some things are blocking their potential. Sometimes, we find it difficult to see potential in ourselves. We can be experts in everybody else’s lives without seeing what is wrong with our own.’

Along with Paul McGinley and Stuart Lancaster, McGrath (below) will talk at the GAA coaching conference in Croke Park next weekend, after a chance meeting with fellow Waterford man Pat Daly (the GAA’s director of Games development) last October.

It’s fitting, in a way, as his coaching career began in Gaelic games, having worked with the Mount Sion team that claimed three successive Waterford titles as well as a Munster crown in the early 2000s and the Carlow hurlers who claimed the Christy Ring Cup in 2007.

He reckons that the empathy comes from his Gaelic games background. ‘The big thing about the GAA is that you understand where someone is from because they are living among you. They are from your own parish. The club is the hub of the community. And within your own club, there are people who have been struggling and are struggling, so everyone can relate to the players. ‘The community spirit of the GAA is a truly remarkable thing. It is only when you are on the other side of the world that you appreciate that. And it is the amateur nature of the GAA is the thing that makes it so real. Players should be compensated for their time and their expense, should get meals, travel and gym paid for, but I would be against it going any further down the road of professionalism. ‘You only have to look at what has happened rugby in South Africa. Games are being played to almost deserted stadiums. There is a disconnect between the clubs and their community. When a sport goes professional, it becomes all about “me”. What is special about Gaelic sports is that sense of community and the idea of seeing a lad that you grew up with and went to school

with, representing the county, and the pride you feel because of that.’ McGrath never represented Waterford. As a teenager, his powerful frame was spotted when he was in a swimming pool and a coach suggested he try rowing. By the late 1990s, he was rowing for Ireland and named national rower of the year in 1999.

A back injury curtailed his time in the boat, though, so he sought other challenges and took to martial arts, specifically the Korean art of Hapkido at Masters Temple club in Bray. His development in that discipline saw him eventually learning under Ji Han Jae, who was once Bruce Lee’s teacher.

Within four years, he was kickboxing for Ireland in the European Championships – at the age of 39. ‘That wasn’t a burning ambition. Bruce Lee never fought in competition. But I wanted to do it once, to test myself, to challenge myself that I was capable of it. As a nation, we are good at martial arts, good at all combat sports, be it boxing or MMA, so to represent Ireland like that was a proud moment.’

McGrath is just as proud to be at the vanguard of coaching talent that this country now seems to be producing.

‘I HAVE NEVER SEEN ANYONE AS GIFTED AS LUVO, I’VE SEEN HIM JUMP CARS LENGTHWAYS’