Maybe Eamon Dunphy was right: Bring ‘coaching’ back to street trial and error

A sports conference in Cork last weekend was in effect validating Eamon Dunphy’s thesis about the merits of street football, writes Kieran Shannon

Religion has sometimes been described as the antithesis of science but last weekend at a sports conference in Cork Institute of Technology, there was almost a religious fervour for the findings and possibilities that a new school of sports and coaching science has to offer.

Coaches, speakers, students, and pracademics from all over Europe, and even New Zealand and Australia were in town for the inaugural Movement and Skill Acquisition Ireland conference, with high performance personnel from renowned institutions like Manchester United, England rugby, Olympic-winning GB hockey, swimming and golf intermingling with local soccer, GAA and basketball coaches, all curious for ways to upskill their coaching and further arm themselves to challenge the old orthodoxies.