GAA Coaching

[Celt_Man]

Lads and lassies, just throwing together a thread regarding coaching where we can throw any ideas back and forth...  Suppose the best place to start would be a few sites which I have found useful enough.

The Ulster GAA website is a great starting point, hard to go wrong from there http://ulster.gaa.ie/coaching/

Few others aren't too bad
http://www.dublingaagamesdevelopment.ie/
http://www.gaa.ie/coaching-and-games-development/
http://gaelcoach.gaa.ie/main.html

The Moy club website is meant to be good too.

I'd love to hear if anyone has used any AFl, soccer, basketball drills when training their team and which ones...

Also, was at a course recently and Terence McWilliams (Ulster Council) was going on about a football coaching book he had coauthored a couple of years ago - would love to get my hands on a copy of it.  Can anyone help me out here??

[Zulu]

The AFL site is a good one and I regularly get stuff there, http://www.afl.com.au

Soccer sites are brilliant too, this one http://www.justsoccerdrills.com/index.html is not too bad but if you just google soccer drills/small sided games then you'll get loads. Basketball and rugby are also good and again all you have to do is google and find games or drills you can modify to suit football/hurling and the level or age group you're working with.

The key is to structure your session properly and have a goal/aim to each session which is building into a 4-6 week overall aim. For example, you might have fitness development as your main aim for the first 6 weeks but would also like to develop defensive strategy and kickout tactics. Your warm up can be used for some work on kickouts and defensive strategy, then use small sided games mixed with running in an interval fashion to further develop defensive alignment and even kickouts while working on fitness. After this you could send the keepers away to work on kickout technique and spend 10-15 minutes with the outfield players on defending at 60% intensity. Finish up with fartlek running and you'll have had a pretty good session which will have set the foundation for the next 4 to 6 weeks.

[Tony Daily]

was actually looking for coaching ideas a few days back and stumbled across a site called www.totalgaacoach.com. The site was under construction. Some very good articles on it regards gaa coaching and fitness and looks like it could be a deadly site when completed - its worth a look

[Celt_Man]

was actually looking for coaching ideas a few days back and stumbled across a site called www.totalgaacoach.com. The site was under construction. Some very good articles on it regards gaa coaching and fitness and looks like it could be a deadly site when completed - its worth a look

Nice spot Tony Daily.  Looks like a good job

[Tony Daily]

Celt_Man just looking at that site there again and noticed a training pogramme of Timmy Hammersley (Tipp Hurler)interesting stuff actually. Good to see this info of a county player.  never seen info like this b4. funny enough to - completed by a guy called jason moran

[lynchbhoy]

just reading Mickey hartes book right now and before you go on a coaching career or setting out drills for teams - maybe have a read of this first and focus what your objective in coaching players should be !
Certainly the spanish 700 top ranked coaches at underage level and a handful in adult level (with the reverse in English soccer) speaks volumes for putting in the structures and teaching proper football and hurling at kids level before you can really get consistently good players at adult levels..
imo

[dundrumite]

remembered this thread and thought would promote a GAA coaching day for those who perhaps have interest in it...Was at the same event last year and found it extremely worthwhile.

GAA Coaching Day - St Columbans Kilkeel - Sat 14th Januay
"Effective Tackling" - Barney Mc Aleenan
"Break Ball Wins Games"
"Planning a season and a session" - James Mc Cartan
£10 Proceeds to development of GAA in the school

[Rasharkin Gael]

Ulster council running a seris of coaching workshops on particular skills in the ne year. Have a look at their website and events calendar.

[Celt_Man]

that yoke in Kilkeel is clashing with the National Coaching Conference in Croke Park

www.gaa.ie/coaching-and-games-development/games-development-conference-2011/

Pity the one in Kilkeel looks good - wouldn't have minded going

[Rasharkin Gael]

What's the national coaching conference in Dublin like? Is it as good/ better/ worse than uc one in cooks town?

[Celt_Man]

Folks, looking to get a mp3 copy of the Bleep test for a fitness test tomorrow?

Does anyone have it in mp3 format or a link either??

[North Longford]

Celt Man, if you have a means of downloading music and search for the bleep test you should be able to get it that way. Tis how I got it anyway.

[Celt_Man]

I've got the Aussie version no bother but I'm looking for the Irish/UK version!  Can't seem to find it online

[Rasharkin Gael]

I downloaded it as an app for my phone, ther is an android and iPhone one. You can also download it for iPad, all through the app store. If you go down this road you will need a speaker to connect to your phone to get enough volume if you are using it in a hall.

[Zulu]

Here's a few games/drills I've used with U6, U8 and U10's. Starting with warm up games, most of which are not football specific but are fun and can aid developing fundamental movement patterns. I'll post a few skill development games later if I get a chance.

Warm up: - Copycat

Kids copy actions of the coach, for example;
1.   Arm swings
2.   Marching on the spot
3.   Jogging on the spot – opposite arms/legs
4.   Jogging around court
5.   Dog crawl, dog crawl with limp, supine crawl
6.   Side to side moving
7.   Changing the gears
8.   Squats
9.   Single leg balance
10.   Have kids run around court and on whistle call a number, e.g 4 and the kids must get into groups of 4, you can also ask them to make shapes or touch body parts, for example call out the number 3 with elbows touching, so the kids get into groups of 3 and have their elbows touching. Change numbers but finish with 2 so that you can start the next activity.

KIDS LOVE THESE NEXT TWO GAMES AND I'M OFTEN ASKED TO PLAY THESE GAMES AGAIN, IF I HAVEN'T EXPLAINED THEM PROPERLY IT'S WORTH GETTING CLARIFICATION OFF ME

Warm up: - Fun game with movement development & defensive principles

Fox & Goose;
1.   Make 4 teams - 1 team are the foxes, 1 the head of the goose, 1 the wings and 1 are the tails
2.   3 kids join together to form a goose with a head, middle and tail by holding onto the hips of the kid in front
3.   The fox stands in front  of the 'goose' and to win the fox must tag the tail of the goose
4.   The head of the goose should have hands spread out wide and the 3 kids of the goose must work together moving to keep the fox in front of them.
5.   Don't allow the goose to run away from the fox, instead encourage the goose to shuffle from side to side. This develops, among other things, shadowing or reacting to the movements of a player and is a good drill for defensive footwork.

Dogs Tail;

1.   Break kids into groups of 5 or 6, where they must line up one behind the other and hold onto the player in front by the hips. This is the 'dog' where the front player is the head and the end player is the tail.

2.  The front player must try to tag the back player but the dog must stay together.



Warm up: - Fun game with movement development, defending & handpassing

1. 4 teams must each form a circle and handpass around the circle, trying to get as many HP's in a row as possible. If they drop the ball they must start counting again. Develop to HP with weaker hand.

2. Develop by numbering every player from 1 to 7 (if you have 7 players in a team). Again the teams pass around the circle but when you shout out a number that numbered player from each team must leave their own team and try to get the ball off one other team. If the defender wins the ball they must hand it back to the team and they try to get it again. Every time the defender wins the ball they get 100 points for their team.


Warm up: - Fun game with movement development, defending & handpassing

1.   4 teams must race from one end of the court and back while handpassing to each other. Player with the ball can't move so their teammates must move ahead of them to transfer the ball the length of the court. Once the player has passed the ball they should move ahead of the player they've passed to. Any team that drops the ball must do 1 press up.
2.   Develop by repeating race but using weaker hand and if the ball is dropped then all the players must do 1 body squat and 1 handpass.
3.   Develop by having the teams take turns handpassing and moving with the ball around the court. Send in defenders from the other teams one at a time until a max of 3 defenders are in trying to get the ball.
4.   Teams are timed to see which team can retain possession longest and the defender who gets the ball is awarded 10,000 points for their team.


Warm up: - Fun game with soloing

1.   4 teams line up behind a cone each. Balls (as many as you have) are at other end of court
2.   First player on each team must race down to the balls (give them different ways of moving, e.g. hopping on one leg, running backwards etc. and change for each group of players) and foot solo back, if they drop it the ball goes back to the group and the player returns to their group empty handed.
3.   Winner is team who gets most balls back safely.
4.   Can develop to having defenders trying to dispossess players but only if most players are quite strong at soloing.


Warm up: - Fun game with kicking (on the ground)

1.   First divide the players into two teams. Position the teams to either side of the court.
2.   Place a ball(s) in the middle of the court and big goals at either end.
3.   Hand each player on either team a number from 1 to the amount of players on the team. Both teams should have the same numbers.
4.   To start, call out two of the numbers you gave the teams, e.g. 2 & 7. The teammates who have those two numbers come together and stand back to back. They lock elbows and then race to the ball in the middle.
5.   The teams then try to kick the ball into each others goal.
6.   Continue until everybody has had at least one go.
7.   The team with the most goals wins the game.
8.   You can have more than one ball in play and more than two pairs playing at one time.