LAST week I was involved in the delivery of a couple of very enjoyable and informative webinars, the first from Fermanagh GAA on ‘Planning A Better Session’ and the second being endorsed by our very own Gaelic Life on ‘Getting The Most Out Of Half-time.’ Such was the interest it will be shown again next Tuesday night.

I suppose as a teacher your life revolves around planning and preparation. Standing in front of a class without having planned your lesson is an accident waiting to happen, as I mentioned on the Fermanagh webinar.

Planning a lesson is just the short-term measure though, planning a block of lessons is known as a scheme of work and it is designed to help carry you through the term or section of the course or subject you’re delivering.

The same principles should apply to coaching; you must plan long-term for the season, then monthly/weekly and finally for individual sessions.

I have worked as a senior club manager for the last 11 seasons and without a plan we couldn’t map out where we are going and your squad could end up heading in a direction you don’t want to go. It’s vitally important that you and your management team make the plans known and that they are transparent to the squad. Transparency really is crucial when you’re involved in management.

In club football I like to map my year out into five different phases. Phase one will be pre-hab, phase two will be the pre-season, phase three will be early season, phase four will be mid season and phase five will be peak season.

Depending obviously on when your championship falls, the peak season may arrive earlier in the year but in Down, championship and play-offs tend to happen towards the end of the year.

Unfortunately this year planning has gone completely out the window due to our unprecedented circumstances but it is a great opportunity to sit down with a blank sheet and plan what you will do when we do eventually get the green light.

Launching players back into full training straight away might not be the best thing, so there are elements of these phases that players could be performing now.

Each of the four phases will carry a different training element as listed below:

Pre-hab:

This is a critical phase for working on injury prevention methods through pilates, one-on-one physio corrective work, screening players, working on flexibility, core strength and resistance training. There is a great opportunity during Covid for players to perform these.

Pre-season:

This is where your stamina and speed endurance base are entrenched. This phase is also an opportunity to build on the work done in pre-hab phase. Sessions will generally last 70 minutes plus, don’t forget to include plenty of the ball. In the Covid crisis, players could be doing a lot of this themselves, particularly the conditioning element so that when they do return, they are fit to play football.

Early season:

When league games commence and all players are still trying to establish ‘match fitness’ it is important to maintain the speed endurance element once a week along with some multi-directional agility work. Also begin to establish a game-plan and a pattern of play.

Mid season:

Focus on reinforcing your pattern of play at training while also maintaining speed, multi-directional running and quickness. Start to introduce some on-field power work in preparation for the peak season. League matches at both senior and reserve level should keep players match fit.

Peak season:

This is when the quantity of training will decrease slightly but the quality and intensity rises. There will be a huge emphasis on game-play at pace and also an emphasis on conditioning through power, speed and multi-directional agility exercises. Sessions will generally last approximately 50 minutes in this phase.

That is a general overview of a normal year into phases, but each of those phases must be broken down into months, weeks and individual sessions that take an enormous amount of time and effort.

The days of just showing up and taking a team are long gone, teams expect and want the best and to be the best you have to follow the three Ps – Plan, Prepare and Perform.

Be ready for when we kick off all the madness again!

comment@gaeliclife.com