The Coaches/Administrators Thread - All Sports

Started by Dinny Breen, October 27, 2015, 11:02:52 AM

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Dinny Breen

Just putting this thread up here as I believe we have a lot of coaches on the board and not just GAA coaches. So it's just an opportunity to share ideas and opinions.

My own background is that I have coached rugby for the last 10 years, I am level II (highest amateur level) qualified and have coached underage (16s-20s) club and rep and have coached club senior men's club and rep. Next year though I will be coaching boys u6s rugby and hopefully girls u8 football and maybe boys u6 football. That will be an interesting transition for me but I already have ideas formed and hopefully I can develop a philosophy that ensures everyone has fun but learn new skills as well.

I am a firm believer in a multi-sports approach for kids, and they should be at least 16 before specialising in one sport. Studies have shown that kids who play multiple sports staying playing sport longer into their adulthood, get injured less and have a wider skill base.

A bone of contention for me is the length of season for all sports. For u6-u12 I would limit a season length to 4 months and for u13-u18 6 months maximum. Of course this would be a Utopian dream as it would involve respective sporting bodies sitting down and working on a calendar that fits all, considering most struggle to get any kind of calendar out at all it would probably take divine intervention.

Also if anyone is thinking of coaching stick to underage, to coach adult men not sure about women you need a Phd in Psychology, ironically I have more success in terms of winning trophies at this level but find it the most demanding and least rewarding. Most players at that level at times are quite simply selfish c**nts. Excuse my language.


#newbridgeornowhere

Declan

Similar background to Dinny but in Soccer and GAA. Found myself managing/coaching adult teams exclusively over the last few years and took a step back this year because of the sheer frustration of dealing with them.

Hoping to go back refreshed to underage/academy next season.

Everyone I know preaches coaching the correct way rather than the results driven way but in my experience the greatest barrier to this are the parents of Johnny and Mary who think their kids should be playing with Man U, the country etc

Life long participation in a healthy environment should always be the goal

Dinny Breen

Quote from: Declan on October 27, 2015, 11:33:00 AM
Similar background to Dinny but in Soccer and GAA. Found myself managing/coaching adult teams exclusively over the last few years and took a step back this year because of the sheer frustration of dealing with them.

Hoping to go back refreshed to underage/academy next season.

Everyone I know preaches coaching the correct way rather than the results driven way but in my experience the greatest barrier to this are the parents of Johnny and Mary who think their kids should be playing with Man U, the country etc

Life long participation in a healthy environment should always be the goal

I find many coaches don't practice what they preach. Ego is a hard thing to contain, 15 minutes to go in a tight match, you have one substitution left, Johnny great attitude but technically deficient, do you run the risk of losing the game to give Johnny quality game time to aid his development or sit back and hope the lads can finish the game out and win?
#newbridgeornowhere

Declan

QuoteEgo is a hard thing to contain, 15 minutes to go in a tight match, you have one substitution left, Johnny great attitude but technically deficient, do you run the risk of losing the game to give Johnny quality game time to aid his development or sit back and hope the lads can finish the game out and win?

Thankfully our leagues and the club in soccer have specific rules that guarantee everyone minimum game time so Johnny has to get game time  - haven't seen this formalised in the GAA but then again its a few years since I was directly involved at underage level

AZOffaly

It is 'formally' in the GAA at Go-Games etc, however some coaches were pulling the piss and it has almost become self defeating. It is more 'advantageous' (quotes intentional) to turn up with 14 or 15 for a 13 a side Go Games, as the rule is all players have to get at least a half. If we turn up with 18 or 19, then we have to play them all (rightly). So some clubs were actually leaving lads at home! Talk about short sighted  ::)

Dinny Breen

Quote from: Declan on October 27, 2015, 12:20:37 PM
QuoteEgo is a hard thing to contain, 15 minutes to go in a tight match, you have one substitution left, Johnny great attitude but technically deficient, do you run the risk of losing the game to give Johnny quality game time to aid his development or sit back and hope the lads can finish the game out and win?

Thankfully our leagues and the club in soccer have specific rules that guarantee everyone minimum game time so Johnny has to get game time  - haven't seen this formalised in the GAA but then again its a few years since I was directly involved at underage level

I like that rule. At what age is this up to?
#newbridgeornowhere

illdecide

I coached the U16 (GAA) lads this year and it was def testing but enjoyable too especially when i seen how far they came on from i had them in Feb/March time, i took our senior team for a year a few years back and TBH it was really tough mentally and physically and as stated you def would need a Phd in Psychology although for some strange reason i'd def like another go at it just not sure when.

Our Club are trying to coach the kids as long as possible and i think their taking on it is they're afraid of losing them to soccer but i dunno i think you need them to have a good break from it too.

I was told if i wanted to coach next year that from U16 upwards you will have to have level 1 coaching badge in place...have any of you heard this?
I can swim a little but i can't fly an inch

Dinny Breen

Quote from: AZOffaly on October 27, 2015, 12:30:10 PM
It is 'formally' in the GAA at Go-Games etc, however some coaches were pulling the piss and it has almost become self defeating. It is more 'advantageous' (quotes intentional) to turn up with 14 or 15 for a 13 a side Go Games, as the rule is all players have to get at least a half. If we turn up with 18 or 19, then we have to play them all (rightly). So some clubs were actually leaving lads at home! Talk about short sighted  ::)

I was aware of this in go-games, fantastic initiative but sad to hear coaches manipulating it, again ego is hard to contain.

I have a simple rule for all my teams if you are in the squad and are fit you get substantial game time and these are 15 year old up to 20 year old young men, it helps it rugby though that you can make 12 inter-changes, roll on roll off. I have lost games because of it but I have never lost a player because of it.

Also I had a young player who had to give up rugby and GAA because he signed schoolboy forms for a soccer club in Dublin and his "contract" forbid him from playing other sports! Is this a common occurrence?
#newbridgeornowhere

illdecide

Quote from: Declan on October 27, 2015, 12:20:37 PM
QuoteEgo is a hard thing to contain, 15 minutes to go in a tight match, you have one substitution left, Johnny great attitude but technically deficient, do you run the risk of losing the game to give Johnny quality game time to aid his development or sit back and hope the lads can finish the game out and win?

Thankfully our leagues and the club in soccer have specific rules that guarantee everyone minimum game time so Johnny has to get game time  - haven't seen this formalised in the GAA but then again its a few years since I was directly involved at underage level

Declan not so much ego but ive been in a similar situation at senior level where you are struggling for a win (at a very successful team in the past) and you're down around the bottom of the league fighting for survival. You're in a tight match and think you need to change things to try and get the win, you look over at the bench and you see a guy who's not very good but fit and committed and beside him is a guy with skill hanging out of him and has the ability to win a game on his own but his attitude stinks and trains when he feels like it...You're really struggling for the win as the club members are mouthing off at you and relegation is looming over you...Who do you put on?

99% of people who have never been in that position will say put the guy on who's committed but in truth most people would play their granny if thought she's win them the match...Ive been in the position and went with the skilful guy with bad attitude and it didn't work which i really regretted afterwards (suppose that was a lack of experience). I'd def do it different next time but under the pressure it's strange how your mind works differently.
I can swim a little but i can't fly an inch

AZOffaly

Quote from: Dinny Breen on October 27, 2015, 12:49:44 PM
Quote from: AZOffaly on October 27, 2015, 12:30:10 PM
It is 'formally' in the GAA at Go-Games etc, however some coaches were pulling the piss and it has almost become self defeating. It is more 'advantageous' (quotes intentional) to turn up with 14 or 15 for a 13 a side Go Games, as the rule is all players have to get at least a half. If we turn up with 18 or 19, then we have to play them all (rightly). So some clubs were actually leaving lads at home! Talk about short sighted  ::)

I was aware of this in go-games, fantastic initiative but sad to hear coaches manipulating it, again ego is hard to contain.

I have a simple rule for all my teams if you are in the squad and are fit you get substantial game time and these are 15 year old up to 20 year old young men, it helps it rugby though that you can make 12 inter-changes, roll on roll off. I have lost games because of it but I have never lost a player because of it.

Also I had a young player who had to give up rugby and GAA because he signed schoolboy forms for a soccer club in Dublin and his "contract" forbid him from playing other sports! Is this a common occurrence?

That happened me. I was told I would have to give up the GAA if I wanted to play soccer in Athlone. I was on the minor panel at the time, so I turned them down.

As regards the coaches thing, my position on this in our club is that if we are sitting in the pub congratulating ourselves as coaches because we won an U14 championship, but we only did so because we had a couple of big strong lads and everything went through them, and ignored all our 'weaker players', then we have failed as coaches, not succeeded. In 4 years time the big lads will be the same size as everyone else, and we'll have lost the so called weaker players.

charlieTully

I helped out coaching the under 8s at our club this year, it was enjoyable for the most part but I struggled at times to keep the attention of some of the more rowdy ones. Club putting on more courses this year which will be a big help I hope. I had a parent come up to me at halftime one match and told me bluntly I needed to sort the midfield out.

blewuporstuffed

Quote from: charlieTully on October 27, 2015, 01:17:10 PM
I helped out coaching the under 8s at our club this year, it was enjoyable for the most part but I struggled at times to keep the attention of some of the more rowdy ones. Club putting on more courses this year which will be a big help I hope. I had a parent come up to me at halftime one match and told me bluntly I needed to sort the midfield out.

I do a bit of coaching t u8 level and get this sort of thing all the time as well  ;D

I always try and get all the players playing in the all different positions at that age, but this leads to parents coming up to me and giving out about playing wee johnny in defence/attack/midfield as he is a natural forward/defender/midfielder (delete as appropriate)

Its a thankless task at times  :-[
I can only please one person per day. Today is not your day. Tomorrow doesn't look good either

gawa316

Coach my sons U4 soccer/footy team. 12 of them, at least 4 have ADHD...it's like herding bee's.

BenDover

I've been involved with our clubs U6s for 3 years now, took on co-ordinating the whole thing last year which was good in its own way but because I was overseeing the session that I'd planned felt I never go to do much coaching. We did play a few competitive games this year which the kids/coaches loved great to see the skills being put into games.

For the coming season I'm going to try and get the youngest cub (3 in Nov) started with our nursery group and the eldest will be moving to U8 so I'll probably lend a hand there as well.

Regarding the length of season for our U6s we are starting our winter program in Nov for 5 weeks take a break Dec/Jan and will probably resume start of Feb until May (or when the weather picks up to move outside) and then outside we go till mid/end of Sept dependant on the weather. The indoor sessions are all fundamental movement based and the outside sessions all skill work with a ball. We find this works well for us.


finbar o tool

Quote from: illdecide on October 27, 2015, 12:40:49 PM

I was told if i wanted to coach next year that from U16 upwards you will have to have level 1 coaching badge in place...have any of you heard this?

"The policy, approved by GAA Central Council last June on the back of a recommendation from the Football Review Committee and a proposal from the National Games Development Committee, will require all Inter-County management teams in both hurling and football to contain an Award 2 coach from 2016. All Club management teams must contain an Award 1 Coach. From 2018 the Head Coach in both cases must be qualified at the appropriate level."

the above is taken from - https://www.gaa.ie/coaching-and-games-development/news/1101142013-mandatory-coaching-standards-for-2016-announced-at-liberty-insurance-gaa-games-development-conference/

whether this will be enforced or not is another thing i suppose.
i have been trying since last December to get a coaching course and there has been nothing. they only run around this time of year, off season, October/November time. i just missed out on last years. if they are bringing in the above rule the GAA need to make coaching courses way more available to people.
An amateur requires a personal commitment that money cannot buy