Learning language of the coaches

Within every drill is a game trying to shine through, writes Dr Ed Coughlan

Drills are games in captivity. When coaches meet, invariably at some point in time during their conversation, one will ask the other the age-old question: “Do you have any good drills?”

‘Do you have any good drills?’ is the same type of roll-off-the-tongue question that we do as we pass an acquaintance on the street and flippantly inquire, “How are you?” Often we don’t expect anything in response beyond an equally flippant “I’m grand. Yourself?” However, sometimes you’ll be stopped in your tracks with something more, something enthralling.