I have been involved in GAA teams’ preparation for over 20 years. Over this time, I have had the opportunity to work with some amazing field coaches. Also during this time I have worked with many poor field coaches. Unfortunately, ego and arrogance are crippling facades for both S&C and field coaches. Instead of communicating honestly, […]
Goalkeepers in Gaelic football have been entrusted with being the ultimate protector of their team’s goal. Their aim is to be there for the rest of their team whenever they fail to keep an attack out. They need to be at their utmost best in order to limit the amount of three pointers their opponents […]
With a number of high-profile Armagh GAA footballers very recently calling time on their inter-county careers, it brings into focus the fact that your playing days do not last forever. James Morgan, Rory Grugan, 2024 winning captain Aidan Forker and cult hero Ethan Rafferty have all decided to retire within the last few weeks. In […]
The longer I’m in the game, the more ambiguous the subject of taking — or not taking — the breeze has become. One of the main reasons for this is that anecdotal evidence is really the only source of information we have. There is no definitive statistic pointing to the success rate of teams that […]
TO reach the top and become the best takes a massive amount of time and effort to perfect your goalkeeping. You will spend hours and hours refining your skills with the aim of improving your performances between the posts. Ultimately, it is important to understand that perfection is unattainable because each time you improve and […]
With the club championship season entering the knockout stages in the majority of counties, once eliminated the time then turns to some well earned down time and a chance to rejuvenate the batteries for next season. For some it will be a chance to take a complete break until the new year, maybe even squeeze […]
In youth Gaelic football, we often group players by one simple factor: their age. But two 14-year-olds can be in completely different stages of development. One might already be physically strong, fast and powerful. The other might be smaller, less developed and still waiting for their major growth spurt. If we judge both players purely on […]
SO, what is this? Let’s think back to our younger days playing Gaelic Games. I often recall having a warmup to start the session. It was usually a couple of laps around the pitch followed by stretches. We would then perform a few drills for the main body of the session, with a match at […]
“This compass does not point north… It points to the thing you want most in this world.” – Captain Jack Sparrow THIS is a quote from Hollywood blockbuster movie ‘Pirates of the Caribbean,’ starring Johnny Depp as the flamboyant and estranged pirate Captain Jack Sparrow. The film follows the serendipitous antihero as he bumbles his way […]
IN modern Gaelic football, strength and conditioning is no longer just about gym programmes, sprint sessions, or GPS numbers. The best S and C coaches in the GAA understand something far more important, how they communicate with players. A coach can have all the knowledge in the world, but if players don’t connect with the message, […]
