Laois man Marcus Shortall has had a remarkable career in Performance Nutrition that looks set to continue and grow.
Shortall, who went to Stradbally and Knockbeg and plays football with Annanough, has already completed placements with soccer teams in Thaliand, worked with American college football players hoping to make it into the NFL and was part of the Connacht set up when they won the Pro 12.
Marcus has also completed a three-year term in Laois footballers, who he says had the same commitment levels as full-time professional athletes he has worked with.
Marcus now works as a Performance Nutritionist with the Women’s and Men’s 7s teams in the IRFU.
When did you know that you wanted to be a nutritionist?
I think it was third year in University when it became a real focus for me. Sport Science didn’t have the profile back then that it does now and the pathways to becoming a Performance Nutritionist weren’t very well known.
I was hugely interested in all things sport (despite not being very good at any of them), and I was particularly drawn to Nutrition as well as Strength & Conditioning as I had started getting into going to the gym myself at the time.
I then searched through all the big teams and organisations and looked at the profiles of their Nutritionists and Strength coaches and mapped out a route for myself based off their paths to the respective roles. One of the people I identified was Ruth Wood-Martin who is now my nutrition manager in the IRFU.
What route did you take to becoming a nutritionist?
I did my Undergraduate studies in Science in TCD. I then did a Masters in Human Nutrition at University of Ulster, Coleraine and another Masters in Sports and Exercise Nutrition at Loughborough University in the UK.
I was on a Sport Science internship with a professional soccer team in Thailand and a Performance Nutrition Internship at EXOS in Arizona.
The internships in the Thailand was great as I got to see a lot of South East Asia while picking up some valuable experience along the way.
EXOS are a company that specialise in preparing elite athletes. I interned there in the Spring of 2011 during their NFL combine preparation period. The most promising college prospects came to train at EXOS prior to taking part in the NFL combine.
During that time I learned first-hand how nutrition programs for elite athletes were put together. Some of the athletes that were there in 2011 have gone on to become huge NFL stars. I learned quickly that most were just normal people but who were probably the top 0.1% from an athletic point of view.
In 2011 I also started helping out with the Laois Footballers when Justin McNulty was the manager and stayed for another 2 seasons. I worked closely with Barry Solan (now at Arsenal and Mayo GAA) and the rest of the backroom team and coaches to help prepare the players for training and matches.
I can say for sure that the commitment shown by a lot of the Laois players is comparable to what I would see in a full time professional athlete on a daily basis.
By 2014, I had been lecturing on the Sport Science and Health course in IT Tallaght for two years and had moved from Laois to take up a part-time Performance Nutrition role with Connacht Rugby.
I was living in Dublin at the time and part of the routine was getting up at 4.30am every Monday morning to be in Galway for work at 7.00am. I’ll never forget those long drives on the M4.
I was part of the team when Connacht won the Pro-12 and at the end of that season I moved to the IRFU to become Performance Nutritionist with the 7s programs.
Where are you working now? What does your work with the IRFU involve?
The role with the IRFU is full-time and I am based in Lansdowne Road, which is where the teams are based. The work is quite varied but a large aspect is working closely with players individually to educate them on how to fuel properly for the different training sessions and to reach desired body compositions.
The 7s teams play all over the world so another part of the job is packing foods and sports products that the players use during tournaments. I think I’m pretty close to this packing mastery at this stage!
Have you ever been slightly star stuck by anyone you’ve ever worked with?
Not really. You find out pretty quickly that all teams are made up of normal everyday people. The people and personalities are similar no matter what level they play at.
What does the usual work day for you involve?
Most days start off with a meeting to go through what the training schedule is on that day/week. Each player will have an individual plan based on whether they are injured/training normally/doing extras which will mean I may need to meet the player and advise on how they can adjust their food accordingly to account for increased/decreased training.
The team’s logistics manager and I will sort out hotel menus or pack bags for upcoming trips. I may also be in contact with other nutritionists in the provinces where there is crossover with players involved in the 7s. The nutritionist in Connacht, Laura Mahony, is from Laois too!
What work do you usually do with athletes?
You try to be as systematic as possible. I’ll assess the player’s body composition regularly using skinfold measurement or DEXA scan.
The head coach, Strength and Conditioning coach and myself will set out goals for that athlete and then I will put together a nutrition plan for the player. The detail of the plan will depend on how much exposure the player has had to nutrition input in the past.
In meeting with the player, we will agree on a time frame for the goal to be achieved by and then we’ll plan a time to review progress. This process repeats itself until goals are achieved.
What would be your top two nutrition tips for young athletes?
Buy a cookbook, if you can follow a recipe then you can cook.
Plan to pack your gear bag with snacks that you can have before and after training e.g. fruit, rice cakes, cereal bars, milk, yogurt, sandwiches/wraps; this will help your performance and recovery but also get you into the habit of being organised. I see it all the time at every level that the more organised players perform more consistently.
What do you find are the biggest misconceptions about nutrition?
I think one of the biggest misconceptions about sports nutrition is that it is a ‘black box’ where players are given these crazy diets to help them do these amazing things.
In teams/programs where nutrition is well established, the players benefit from a consistent approach based on scientific evidence and also from being very committed to their individual goals.
In more general terms, I hear the term ‘everything in moderation’ on a regular basis. This would be true if people were good moderators, most are not. Qualified nutritionists or Dietitians can help people with a nutrition plan and support them while they are implementing those changes.
What’s the strangest thing to have happened to you on your travels?
I went on one of the team building retreats when I was in Thailand with the soccer team.
This was more of a Junior C than a professional team retreat in terms of the beverages chosen so you can probably imagine what was going on.
Part of the weekend involved groups of players putting together little skits to be performed in front of team, management and owners. I wasn’t to be left out and was given some lines in Thai to perform (without a translation). The head coach wasn’t impressed with those few lines, hilarity ensued but I never found out what those lines translated as.
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