Bluffers and snake-oil salesmen are a dime a dozen in modern GAA
In the majority of games, it’s very rare that a lack of fitness causes a team to lose a game and it’s not possible to improve skillset and decision-making by running laps.
The world is a much smaller place because of technology. Anything we want to know is immediately available at our fingertips 24 hours a day. You don’t even have to use your fingers anymore if you don’t feel like it. If I want to find out the temperature in Tibet, ask Alexa, virtual assistant developed by Amazon.
Information has never been so freely available on everything and anything you could possibly want to find out more about. There is no excuse for not being better informed.
Take GAA coaching as an example. I’ve written numerous times about the need for coaches to continue to be open and willing to learn to develop their craft. In 2018, the association spent a record €11.1 million specifically on coaching and games development. Most of that money goes to the full-time staff who deliver an extensive games development programme in schools and clubs throughout the country.
Central to any such programme is the idea of creating sustainable change. That can only occur in a GAA context if each county is working towards improving the standard of coaching across the board, and not just the inter-county sides. Among many other projects, that involves providing learning opportunities for all club coaches, from the nursery age groups right up to senior level.
There have never been more chances for coaches to learn. Never more opportunities to attend conferences, courses, workshops, or tap into the full-time staff for up-to-date information on what is best practice in Gaelic games coaching right now.
I get at least a couple of calls and emails every week asking about different coaching ideas, or to expand on something I mentioned somewhere. I always respond by trying to give the very best information that I have available or else direct them to someone who can give them a better answer.
No matter what club or county they are contacting you from, if somebody takes the time to reach out they are showing a genuine interest in improving how they operate and that is always something that should be acknowledged and respected.
Over the weekend I read a tweet that had me shaking my head in disbelief: ‘Senior football team training since mid-Jan, haven’t touched a ball yet. Have done laps, 400m & 200m runs. Played challenge recently, beaten well. Cue more running, “they weren’t fit”. Footballs expected to make a return some time in late Feb. Players deserve better than this.’ It was from Shane Smith (@shanesmith197) who coaches Kilmacud Crokes lamenting that this type of training still passes as acceptable in the Gaelic games in 2019.
I don’t know exactly whom he was talking about. I don’t even know if it’s true. But judging by most of the comments that flowed in, it was clear that the picture was far more common than I would have thought possible today.
It should be pointed out there is absolutely nothing wrong with doing a month and a half of just laps, 400’s and 200’s — if you are training for athletics. But not if you are trying to improve at Gaelic football.
This is part of the old school mentality that leads to far too many younger people giving up Gaelic games every year. Firstly, it isn’t much fun. And secondly, and more importantly, it won’t improve your football.
Periodisation was originally developed by Russian sports scientists who were trying to prepare runners for the Olympic games every four years. The traditional principles which govern the theory don’t support its use in a team sport context who never have one singular event to prepare for every few years, rather several games, often only days or weeks apart.
An expert in the sport science field, like Dr Fergus Connolly in his excellent book Game Changer, describes periodisation as having “too many negative associations and conclusions to be relevant for team sports”.
He cites the more applicable work of sprint coach Charlie Francis, who transformed the way sprinters were coached. One of his key adaptions was placing more of an emphasis on intensity in training, as opposed to volume. This idea that coaches are still setting aside large blocks of the year to run the legs off players with little or no ball in sight is misguided at best, and completely avoidable, with a willingness to educate themselves a little more.
Of course, coaches must incorporate conditioning work throughout the season. Most clubs don’t have the financial luxury to be able to afford a professional strength and conditioning coach, but they can get by just fine without one. Much of the conditioning can be done through integrated and games-based coaching, where the game is still the central theme of every session, even in the pre-season.
If you look at the majority of matches, it’s very rare that a clear and obvious lack of fitness causes a team to lose a game. More often than not, it’s a combination of skillset deficiencies and poor decision-making that determines the outcome of most contests between two good teams. And it’s not possible to improve those aspects of Gaelic football by running laps around a field chasing a time on a stopwatch.
It’s disappointing that this type of dark age training is still (apparently) prevalent within the game when it is completely unnecessary.
By all means, incorporate speed endurance work into your sessions. But please take the time to go away and find out how to specifically target the energy systems that most accurately reflect the demands of the game. Essentially, that is what you are trying to prepare a team for – the game.
Bluffers and snake-oil salesmen are a dime a dozen in modern GAA, particularly at club level, though not exclusively. They dip in and out of different circuits looking to making their quick buck before disappearing off into the sunset. Too many are still ripping off clubs with lazy and out-dated methods that bear little or no resemblance to the requirements of Gaelic football or hurling.
Every coach should be about working smarter, not just harder for the sake of it.
