Setup: Pairs in a 20×20m square, no ball yet, one bib per pair to mark the leader. Helmets on and faceguards down before anything else happens tonight.

How it works: Defensive footwork first. The leader jogs, side-steps, stops dead and changes direction; the shadow stays a hurley-length off, side-on, mirroring on the balls of the feet and never crossing the feet over. Thirty seconds, swap. Round two, the shadow carries the hurley in the two-hand tackling grip, bas up, and shows the leader one side — always shepherding them toward the same shoulder. Finish with five seconds of the pair's fastest mirrored footwork, then swap partners and go again.

Setup: Pairs face to face, 3m apart, one ball per pair, spread across the grid so no swing reaches a neighbour. A mentor walks the line the whole block.

How it works: The front block, taught close and brave. The striker strikes from the hand at sixty percent, straight at the partner. The blocker spreads the hands on the hurley — top hand on the handle, other hand down toward the bas — steps IN toward the strike and drops the full face of the bas over it so the ball smothers dead at their feet. Round one, the striker calls 'now' before every strike. Round two, no call. Round three, the blocker must block and then flick the loose ball away to finish the job. Count clean blocks out of five, then swap. The step in is the whole secret; say it until they dream about it.

Setup: Channels 15m long, 6m wide, cone gate at each end. A carrier queues at one end with a ball, a tackler rotates in from the side. Two channels running so nobody stands long.

How it works: The clean dispossession of a runner, hurley on hurley. The carrier solos the ball on the bas down the channel; the tackler tracks alongside and just behind on the ball side, times the moment the ball is balanced or bouncing on the bas, and flicks it away with a quick, flat tap of their own bas — a flick, never a slash, and never across the body. Win the ball clean and it is the tackler's point; get it to the far gate and it is the carrier's. Thirty-second duels, both rotate off. A slash, a pull across the body or any contact with the carrier hands the carrier a free run through — the culture is the point.

Setup: 40×30m pitch, two teams of 6–8 in bibs, cone goals (4m) at each end. Spare sliotars with a mentor at each end line for fast restarts.

How it works: Real hurling with a scoreboard that loves the steal. Normal play, score by striking through the cone goal below head height. The twist: a score inside ten seconds of a clean turnover — a block, a hook or a flick that your team then gathers — counts double, and the mentor calls the loud ones. There is no reward for a foul: a pull across the body, a bump or a slash gives the other team a free strike from where it happened. So the whole team learns to hunt the ball with the hurley and pounce the second it turns. Let them play; save the talk for water breaks and name the clean steals as they happen.

Setup: Hurleys and helmets off and lined along the sideline — after a contact night they earn a guard of honour. Circle up beside them.

How it works: Easy walk one width shaking the arms loose, then circle stretch: forearms and wrists first, then shoulders, hamstrings and groin, fifteen seconds a side. Finish standing for the question, then gear gathered and counted.