Forget Coaching - It's futile!

[Pragmatist]

I am now convinced that the naysayers have been right all along. For years I tried to promote the idea that we can improve players' decision-making on and off the ball, their movement off the ball, their positional sense, their timing of runs and their abilities to adapt to different game plans and attacking options. The truth is that for 90% of players we cannot!!
They bring with them their own inbuilt cerebral limitations for these skills and we can labour for as long as we want and convince ourselves we see glimmers of hope, but the fact is that they will revert to type more often than not.
Just get them as fit as possible, as well-conditioned as possible and as technically proficient as possible and forget the rest.

[dundrumite]

I am now convinced that the naysayers have been right all along. For years I tried to promote the idea that we can improve players' decision-making on and off the ball, their movement off the ball, their positional sense, their timing of runs and their abilities to adapt to different game plans and attacking options. The truth is that for 90% of players we cannot!!
They bring with them their own inbuilt cerebral limitations for these skills and we can labour for as long as we want and convince ourselves we see glimmers of hope, but the fact is that they will revert to type more often than not.
Just get them as fit as possible, as well-conditioned as possible and as technically proficient as possible and forget the rest.

I think a lot of it has to do with the time and amount of exposure GAA players get in these situations. For the average club player you are talking probably the guts of four or five hours per week. Seemingly Dublin and now Donegal at county level have taken this to a new extreme with supposedly two sessions per day over a period of time etc and whether their success can be attributed to this or not, well I don't know. If you take theory as a guide then Erikson suggests that 10,000 hours of deliberate practice is needed to become elite at whatever activity you take part in. Elite in GAA encompasses more variables in terms of decision making than say table tennis. In addition to time, the coaching needs to be relevant and when you think of GAA coaching the amount of straight line drills etc that many clubs and indeed I'm sure counties per take in, is this going to improve decision making and that?

In a nutshell I think the fact it's an amateur sport prohibits GAA players, in that they aren't getting exposure to both quantity and quality of coaching to cover all the bases needed to mould more complete players.

[neilthemac]

There is a place for straight line drills - to become technically proficient and confident with a skill, before moving into a space/game defined drill

however, too many coaches are now going/using to a game based drill without ever checking if all players have mastered the skill used in a simpler line based drill and then onto a more complex game based drill requiring decision making

this is applicable from under 8 up to senior.

[thewobbler]

I am now convinced that the naysayers have been right all along. For years I tried to promote the idea that we can improve players' decision-making on and off the ball, their movement off the ball, their positional sense, their timing of runs and their abilities to adapt to different game plans and attacking options. The truth is that for 90% of players we cannot!!
They bring with them their own inbuilt cerebral limitations for these skills and we can labour for as long as we want and convince ourselves we see glimmers of hope, but the fact is that they will revert to type more often than not.
Just get them as fit as possible, as well-conditioned as possible and as technically proficient as possible and forget the rest.

To be honest I think it depends on a) the quality of the squad you are dealing with, and b) the attitude of your key players towards your coaches.

If either of these are negative, you might as well just get them fit, because when push comes to shove, as a coach you don't have the upper hand.

The best teams in most counties, I find, are those with the best squads rather than best individuals. It allows a coach the opportunity to put a footprint in place.

[dundrumite]

There is a place for straight line drills - to become technically proficient and confident with a skill, before moving into a space/game defined drill

however, too many coaches are now going/using to a game based drill without ever checking if all players have mastered the skill used in a simpler line based drill and then onto a more complex game based drill requiring decision making

this is applicable from under 8 up to senior.

Perhaps you are right. I would argue if county seniors (indeed an argument for club senior exists here also) aren't technically proficient then the system is letting them down. At this level these skills should be automatic.
Automaticity is a big difference between an expert and learner. The learner devotes the majority of his/her attention to executing a skill, where as with automaticity the expert has a vast amount of spare attentional capacity to focus on other things,  and if relevant coaching is being carried out this could be decision making, tactics etc, which straight line drills fail to cater for. In my opinion at this level straight line drills are a waste of time. As I say just my opinion however...
Great thread but WOW getting deep for a sunday morning after the Saturday night before 

[Pragmatist]

Does anyone have access to really good coaching material that might help me restore my faith in player development?

[brokencrossbar1]

I have said it till I am blue in the face, too much time is spent on complicated drills with multi directional running while the basics of the games are consistently ignored.  The team that can do the basics best will win the vast majority of games.  This can be coached i straight lines, waving lines, zig zag whatever direction but if a player cannot control a ball on first touch he may as well not play.

[Orchardman]

bcb is right lads. As a player who has played under at least 7 senior managers and stil seeing the same kind of training session, i'm not a huge fan of straight line drills, but some are too quick to rubbish it in order to sound more advanced. At the end of the day, when i'm in a game i get the ball and run straight ahead of me, 90% of the time. I actually hate that annoying weaving handpassing drill that is done in groups of 3.

I have also seen a ton of different handpassing drills introduced down the years that took a bit of thinking, only because they were over complicated for no good reason.

The original is correct though for most teams, lot of stuff just off the cuff football

[dundrumite]

I'm in no way down playing the basics of the game. Maybe I am bias as I have a hatred for straight line drills, especially when done unopposed without pressure. I think it is a more productive use (at senior level anyway) of time to incorporate whatever basic of the game you want to work on into a situation where firstly pressure is applied and secondly players have to think for themselves. This is much more realistic to how a game goes. A player who can perform the basics and make a correct decision in the heat of battle, is a better player than one who can perform the basics but more often than not make a bad choice.  Anyway I think it's established I don't like pure straight line drills 

[Orchardman]

I'm in no way down playing the basics of the game. Maybe I am bias as I have a hatred for straight line drills, especially when done unopposed without pressure. I think it is a more productive use (at senior level anyway) of time to incorporate whatever basic of the game you want to work on into a situation where firstly pressure is applied and secondly players have to think for themselves. This is much more realistic to how a game goes. A player who can perform the basics and make a correct decision in the heat of battle, is a better player than one who can perform the basics but more often than not make a bad choice.  Anyway I think it's established I don't like pure straight line drills 

I would agree with you there alright, there definately is better ways of doing it. Although i believe in getting the basics mastered, i also feel there is so much more scope for better training that most club are not getting, the expertise just is not there i suppose.

I know when i have a son the one thing i will drill into him (if he likes football hopefully) is to use both feet. I have a middling right foot and a left foot that i swear has never been used to kick the ball. Even if it can be used for a decent dummy solo off the weak foot it would be a good advantage, but i and lot of other players would not be able to do this at top speed.

[AZOffaly]

I'm in no way down playing the basics of the game. Maybe I am bias as I have a hatred for straight line drills, especially when done unopposed without pressure. I think it is a more productive use (at senior level anyway) of time to incorporate whatever basic of the game you want to work on into a situation where firstly pressure is applied and secondly players have to think for themselves. This is much more realistic to how a game goes. A player who can perform the basics and make a correct decision in the heat of battle, is a better player than one who can perform the basics but more often than not make a bad choice.  Anyway I think it's established I don't like pure straight line drills 

I think the point is though, that you have to walk before you run. If you cannot execute the skills comfortably at your own pace, you are unlikely to be able to take that next step. I agree that where possible the skills should be practiced in game similar situations as much as possible, which includes under pressure, at speed etc, but you have to be able to do the thing first. As with most things, there is a happy medium.