GAA Podcast: Using the shutdown — Dr Ed Coughlan on the benefits of practice when you can't train

Dr Ed Coughlan discusses how athletes and coaches can use the unprecedented shutdown on collective training to reset and reeducate and come back better.

Mon, 16 Mar, 2020 - 18:21

Dr Ed Coughlan discusses how athletes and coaches can use the unprecedented shutdown on collective training to reset and reeducate and come back better.

Ed (@DrSkillAcq) has vast experience on GAA touchlines as well as working as a practice coach with top golfers all over the world. He lectures in sports science at CIT and UCD.

On this podcast, he discusses how athletes, coaches, parents and kids should approach the shutdown.

He talks about the benefits of reflective practice, about how coaches can use this time to probe their athletes' creative sides and create autonomous athletes, and how managers, who always want more time, should now use this period to challenge themselves.

He answers readers' questions. Should individual player programmes go into pre-season mode or attempt to keep players ticking over? Ed believes in the 'staying ready' approach.

But he warns against the temptation to binge, instead focus on training smart.

Throughout the show, Dr Ed lists a range of resources that athletes and coaches and parents can turn to for training ideas for athletes at all levels — from inter-county to the club under 6s.

Here are some of those mentioned:

RESOURCES

BelievePerform.com

UKcoaching.org

Mike Carroll @Fit_For_Golf

Kelly Starrett's The Ready State @thereadystate or www.thereadystate.com

Visualisation and meditation: @InsightTimer

scienceforsport.com

complementarytraining.net

Rob Carroll @thevideoanalyst

www.footblogball.wordpress.com Mark O'Sullivan (@markstkhlm)

Magic Academy Challenge Cards @TheMagicAcad