Real development

[Mrs mills]

Time for a chat about player development I think. One of the biggest challenges faced by county and club managers at senior level is that we, the supporters, believe in what may be a myth. Player development is not what we think it is. Let me give you examples from some different areas. If you train as an Irish dancer you will try to perfect different steps with increasing fluency and at a variety of speeds. They must become second nature to you and you must work at them every day to become the best. You will be required to become fitter and stronger but you must work at your technique more than anything. If you are an American footballer you must work to become stronger and fitter but you must also learn your specific role for as many as 50 plays and stick to that role. If you are a top basketballer you must become fitter and stronger (and taller) but up to 80% of a top player's time is spent perfecting new skills to fit different situations.
So, what am I getting at? We may think that the same attention to technical and tactical detail is given by managers and players in Gaelic football. It is not!! Development is mostly centred improving fitness and strength for we have allowed a culture to grow among our younger players of letting them play as they see fit.
Therefore, by the time a senior club or county manager gets his hands on them, he has very often got the player who, technically and as a decision-maker is where he is and will continue to be. There are exceptions, but they prove the rule. Think about it - if you take on a player whose first instinct is to solo rather than look up and pass, that's what you will get. If you take on a player whose first instinct is to mark from behind, that's what you will get. If you take on a player who tends to rush into a tackle and get his balance all wrong, that what you will get. If you take on a player who tends to ball watch rather than be aware of his opponent, that's what you will get. There are countless more examples. My point is that, as a senior manager you are restricted in your choice by the culture of Gaelic football from the youngest up; you will inherit the blueprint and you will be restricted in most cases to getting him fitter and stronger (which will mask some deficiencies until the sh** hits the fan). You will, from time to time, hit on a few gems; but they will have grown naturally, like oysters; they will not be the product of brilliant work done before they reached you!! By the way, watch this weekend's championship games and you will see most players make the same mistakes they did at underage. It's the culture we created. They will never work hard to eliminate faults; they will never learn specific roles and they will never change anything other than their fitness, strength and conditioning levels. Now, debate that!

[Hardy]

Good post, Mrs. Our players don't practise the skills nearly enough. Most don't practise them at all. In many sports even the top players, that you might imagine already have all the skills they need, practise the basics for hours daily. That sharply illustrates the contrast with football and hurling. (Not to mention handball and rounders. Which I just have.)

So I agree that development players should be practising their skills continually. But not just the young players - all players should be constantly working on skills and execution of tactics. More of that and less of slaloming through lines of cones or hoisting heavy weights would be great for our sport.

[brokencrossbar1]

Good post, Mrs. Our players don't practise the skills nearly enough. Most don't practise them at all. In many sports even the top players, that you might imagine already have all the skills they need, practise the basics for hours daily. That sharply illustrates the contrast with football and hurling. (Not to mention handball and rounders. Which I just have.)

So I agree that development players should be practising their skills continually. But not just the young players - all players should be constantly working on skills and execution of tactics. More of that and less of slaloming through lines of cones or hoisting heavy weights would be great for our sport.

Slaloming through cones is useful if the ball is in the hand though!  I agree totally but there does need to be continuous physical training but this should be tempered to conditions and the frequency of games.  If you think about it your average club team plays a game a week and trains twice there is nothing wrong with Tuesday hard running, Thursday hard ball work.   

[magpie seanie]

Excellent post and replies. Don't have a lot to add to that except well said.

[Zulu]

Not sure where this idea that training is mostly physical came from but it's incorrect. Football is an amateur game and therefore it is played by people who must work or study during the week and it is coached by volunteers, especially at club level. Consequently the people involved neither have the time (players) or expertise (coaches) to perfect all the technical aspects of the game. I think our players are exceptionally skilful considering the amateur nature of the game. You only have to look at soccer to see many top level players who are uncomfortable on their weaker side whereas plenty of IC lads are two footed.

In my experience most coaches use the football as often as possible and the current footballer is a far better player than what's come before.

[brokencrossbar1]

Not sure where this idea that training is mostly physical came from but it's incorrect. Football is an amateur game and therefore it is played by people who must work or study during the week and it is coached by volunteers, especially at club level. Consequently the people involved neither have the time (players) or expertise (coaches) to perfect all the technical aspects of the game. I think our players are exceptionally skilful considering the amateur nature of the game. You only have to look at soccer to see many top level players who are uncomfortable on their weaker side whereas plenty of IC lads are two footed.

In my experience most coaches use the football as often as possible and the current footballer is a far better player than what's come before.

I would agree that overall the skill level has improved and teams have less 'passengers' than they used to have.  Gone are the days when you could really isolate individual players as they are significantly weaker than the other team mates, certainly at the top levels.  The one thing though I would say Zulu is that as the game has evolved the skill set of the players has changed, there is less accurate footpassing longer than 35 yards, there is less high fielding in the MF area with teams focusing on 'secondary possession'(monaghan giving a master class of it yesterday), less long range scores as most teams are looking to get inside the 'zone' 35 metres from the goal to guarantee possession.  However, players are more comfortable on the ball individually, they are quicker of thought generally as the speed of the game has increased and physically they are in better condition, or so it seems.

[DuffleKing]

The major differentiating aspect of Gaelic football from the other sports mentioned is the finite time available to prepare a team given the amateur nature of training. I guess professional sports teams build in a full gammit of holistic requirements to develop and achieve at their sport to preseason and season training plans but can an intercounty team do likewise?

I'm guessing that priorities have to be identified, certain work entrusted to players on their own time and certain facets entrusted to the development that has taken each player to they point they are now at - and a gamble that this is adequate.

Given how the game has developed it would appear that the most return is harvested from a focus on physical and tactical progression currently.

If there are 5 sessions a week to develop a group of footballers how much time do you allocate to strength / power, aerobic fitness, speed, speed endurance, agility, flexibility, individual tactical awareness, team tactical awareness, distribution skills, out of possession skills, one to one coaching, decision making, problem solving, mental toughness, goal setting, dead balls, set plays, etc...

[Mrs mills]

The key, long term, is to review the roles of coaches and create positions for those who specialise in either defensive / offensive work or possession / non-possession coaching. We have goalkeeping coaches and fitness coaches but we still tend to give two huge portfolios to one field coach.

[Dinny Breen]

In rugby Leinster take the best 125 fifteen year old club players based on a skill screening and spend the next 12 months upskilling these players further - they do no zero game play or tactical work with them. After the 12 months these players are reduced to 50 - again only skills is coached. Eventually after 2 years they are cut to 30 and form the Leinster youths where they introduced to more more specific game play but skills is still the priority.  They are introduced to S&C at 15 but those early years is purely functional with no load. Only 2 of these at most will go on to earn an academy contract.

Does anyone know how that  would contrast with county development squads I do know that the cross-over players seem to play a hell of a lot more football matches than would rugby in Kildare/Neath/Laois

[Jinxy]

I'd say they play a lot more rugby than football matches in Neath anyway.

[fearglasmor]

The key, long term, is to review the roles of coaches and create positions for those who specialise in either defensive / offensive work or possession / non-possession coaching. We have goalkeeping coaches and fitness coaches but we still tend to give two huge portfolios to one field coach.

I would not agree with this approach at all. If you are looking at Rugby and American Football as models you have two games where there is absolute position specialisation with little or no potential for players to switch from one position to another.
Gaelic football has been moving in the complete opposite direction to this over the last 40 years. Players have become much more comfortable with all the skills of the game. The Dutch soccer total football concept is more appropriate.
Absolutely spreading the load is a good idea and from my experience does happen at club and intercounty level. But having multiple position specialist coaches is restricted by the fact that this an amateur sport and not a professional entertainment business.

[Mrs mills]

The Dutch soccer model demanded highly developed technical skills, total awareness of how to play competently in 10 of 11 positions and made use of specialist coaches to hone player development. Think of it this way - could Tomas O'Connor of Kildare  be a better full forward with sustained specialist coaching? Might James Kielt of Derry become a top class midfielder with same? Would Ryan Bradley of Donegal improve his decision-making with dedicated instruction?  Am I mad?

[brokencrossbar1]

The Dutch soccer model demanded highly developed technical skills, total awareness of how to play competently in 10 of 11 positions and made use of specialist coaches to hone player development. Think of it this way - could Tomas O'Connor of Kildare  be a better full forward with sustained specialist coaching? Might James Kielt of Derry become a top class midfielder with same? Would Ryan Bradley of Donegal improve his decision-making with dedicated instruction?  Am I mad?

Of course they all could but the reality is that as amateur sportsmen, with no real level of funding available to them and with coaches also working on a part time basis with them, who are also restricted by finances, then it is impossible for there to be the specialist work that you discuss.  You mention Irish Dancing and the perfection of steps.  As someone who has a daughter who Irish dances I see her bouncing about and perfecting herself as she is skipping around the street or the living room or wherever she can.  The difference between the irish dancing class and the football team is that you are dealing with smaller numbers and there is a set way of dancing and the jig or reel will not change in anyway from class to class bar a few wee embellishments for artistic purposes.  Also it makes no difference what size the dancer is they can all perform the same steps.  And finally, the dancers do not have to perform these steps while one of the other dancers is trying to bate her off the stage in order to get her chance to dance!!!

The key to it is to imbue in the kids as young as possible the beauty of the basics, I have watched many different training regimes and been involved in a few where there is a over emphasis on movement/spatial awareness and the ability to 'break the tackle'.  All this is no good if you cannot control the ball on first touch and I think most teams at the top level work on that.

[ONeill]

Don't agree with the premise here atall.

Compare skill levels from 20-30 years ago. Players can now score off either foot, solo with either, foot pass with either, execute handpasses under severe pressure etc - all at breakneck speed.

Maybe foot passing is not used as often but to suggest skills have wilted coinciding with the improvement in fitness and strength is wrong in my opinion.

[Mrs mills]

Who will answer my question about the 3 players benefitting or not from specialised coaching over a period of time? All 3 are going to be needed by their respective counties next season. Will they be the same players they are now if the normal format is followed between September and February?