Kildare GAA take another novel approach to hurling development
Attendees at the recent Kildare GAA Hurling Coach Development Clinic in Maynooth University. Photo credit: murriedmedia.
By John Harrington
An interactive approach proved very fruitful for Kildare GAA when they held a workshop for over 70 youth/adult hurling coaches recently.
The sold-out Hurling Coach Development Clinic in Maynooth University featured a high calibre panel of experienced coaches that included Kildare senior hurling manager Brian Dowling, Kildare U20 hurling coach, Johnny Enright, and Dublin goalkeeping coach, Paul Dermody.
The clinic provided practical insights across five key areas – hurling defending, hurling attacking, hurling goalkeeping, hurling skill development, and hurling athletic development.
Most importantly it gave attendees the opportunity to engage directly with the speakers during their on-pitch presentations.
“The idea about it was it was a work-shop for coaches where they got to interact with expert guest speakers or expert coaches in a different format than the usual which would be to go to a hall and listen for an hour,” Kildare Games Development Administrator, John Doran, told GAA.ie
“This was much more interactive. We had our expert coaches and players on the pitch and the attendees were in the stand watching on. The key to it was that it was interactive between the coaches in the stand and the experts on the field.
“The experts took an area each and in their area they had principles of what they were working on and the games that they had designed tied in with that.
“What worked really well was that the attendees got to tease things out with the guest speaker. So, for example, if a youth coach wanted to know how a particular game might work best with an U15 group they could have a discussion around that.
“That sort of interactivity was what we were really looking for. It wasn't just go up there and get 36 new gamesk, it was interacting with the speakers, teasing things out and developing your own thoughts. It worked well and the feedback has been absolutely incredible.”
Attendees listen to Dublin senior hurling team coach and former Kildare hurler, Paul Dermody, at the recent Kildare GAA Hurling Coach Development Clinic in Maynooth University. Photo credit: murriedmedia.
Kildare GAA have a good record of rolling out novel hurling coaching workshops in recent times and Doran intends to build further on the success of the inaugural Hurling Coach Development Clinic
“After this Hurling Clinic a lot of emails came back afterwards looking for a date for the next one," he said. "One area we're going to go after next s the same format again but we'll do it for the child coach.
“Definitely there's a need for workshops to holp those who are coaching children as well. Same format, same idea we'll just tweak it based from the feedback on the ground for what those coaches require.
“We'll also revisit the youth/adult coaches in a similar format again down the line because there's a huge demand for it.
“When we've gone to clubs they've always responded really well. The concept of this was borne out over the last couple of years in terms of getting feedback on the ground level as to what coaches really want.”
