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Match Demands of Elite Youth Gaelic Football - Brian Reilly
Without sport-specific published studies as reference, many Gaelic football junior coaching staff preparing and prescribing training loads for their players have relied on personal experience, anecdotal observations or research from other football codes.... keep reading
Gaelic Football - What to Analyse - Rob Carroll
One of the most common questions I get asked as a Performance Analyst is what ‘stats’ I look for when I analyse a game. I have worked at all levels of the game from Senior Inter County, Club, College and Juvenile grades.... keep reading
Low Cost Recovery Strategies: What to do and When to do it? - Jason Moran
The Demands of Gaelic games - Kieran Collins
How can coaches prescribe training if the demands of the game are unknown? The data outlined below is old data and from experience does not wholly reflect the Gaelic games in 2012. Applied practitioners require the updating of the information outlined below.... keep reading
Work Rate Analysis of Elite Hurling Match-Play - Kieran Collins
Global positioning system (GPS) monitoring of movement patterns is a method for quantifying the work-rate of athletes. This data provides a conceptual framework for the development and prescription of sport specific training regimes... keep reading
Seasonal Variation in Anthropometric and Performance Characteristics of Elite Hurling Players - Kieran Collins
The seasonal change in anthropometric and performance characteristics is well documented in many team sports though no data are available on elite hurlers. The information may be useful in identifying effectiveness of training regimen.... keep reading
An Examination of Home-Field Advantage In Gaelic Football 2001 – 2010 - Kieran Collins and Rob Carroll
The existence of home-field advantage has been examined and established in a number of international sports (Clarke, 2005; Pollard, 2006). The aim of the current study was to examine if home-field advantage applied in Gaelic Football... keep reading
The Reverse Plank – More than a ‘Core’ Exercise - Dave O'Sullivan
The common exercises for the core include the front and side planks. The reverse plank concludes the plank series but is often forgotten about. This exercise is much more than a typical ‘core’ exercise (with demonstrations from Jerry Flannery - Munster Rugby)... keep reading
Heads Up - Paul Carke
Very often the most effective open or game-based drills can be among the most simple on paper. That is not to say though that simple means easy. The drill below covers and trains a lot of game demands, both physical and from a game-sense point of view.... keep reading
Can ACL Injury be Prevented - Enda King
“I was going up for a ball and when I landed down on my right leg, my knee fell inward and I felt extreme pain. I found it very difficult to walk and it blew up like a bubble very quickly”...keep reading
The Force is Strong in Them! - Paul Clarke
Invariably when we distil on-field performances to determine the best field sport players we see that the best players are also the best movers. They tend to have wonderfully developed acceleration, deceleration, agility, balance .... keep reading
Anterior Cruciate Ligament Rehabilitation in Practice! - Dave O'Sullivan
As we are all too aware there are many victims to ACL injury in the GAA. High profile victims include the players below among many others. The following video is a case study from our expert contributor Dave O’Sullivan... keep reading
10,000 hours to mastery....or is it 4,672????? - Paul Clarke
Ever since Daniel Coyle (The Talent Code) suggested that 10,000 hours of preparation/training is the magic number in terms of attaining mastery level at a chosen discipline internet blogs, Twitter tweets and Facebook updates have been alive with debate as to the merits and flaws in this line of thought. .... keep reading
Training Vs Coaching - Martin Kennedy
If you are an athlete or player participating in any level in sport in Ireland have you been trained or coached throughout your sports career? There is a difference as...keep reading
Fitness Testing in the GAA - Barry Solan
Fitness testing is now widespread at all levels throughout the GAA from club underage to senior inter county. ...keep reading
Why? - Paul Clarke
Probably one of the best skills any player can develop is the art of critical thinking and the ability to ask “why?” and “why not?”. That’s not to say that players question every decision and every statement made by their coaches.... keep reading
Major Phases of the Kicking Skill - Stuart Lierich
It is fair to say that the grip and subsequent drop of the football to the kicking leg are paramount in determining accuracy and distance. This perhaps is the most important step in preparing to kick....keep reading
Coaching – more than drills and games?? - Paul Clarke
Every successful coaching program is built with for main pillars as it mainstay; Physical, technical, tactical and mental. Very often it is the mental pillar which receives the least attention, more often than not due to lack of understanding on the coach’s part. .... keep reading
Taking On Your Man - Paul Clarke
Whether playing against a blanket defence or simply working the ball from defence, the ability to gain possession and then take on and beat a man is hugely valuable in Gaelic Football... keep reading
Periodisation of Hurling Training - Kieran Collins
Coaches and hurlers are constantly seeking new methods to improve skill and performance, hurlers must prepare through a training process where the physiological objective is to improve physiological function and optimise performance... keep reading
Improving Support Play - Paul Clarke
One of the skills and tactical elements of Gaelic Football that tends to let teams down is the breakdown of their support play at key times in matches. This may take the form of lack of options for the man on the ball, badly timed runs or badly angled runs... keep reading
Video Analysis on a Budget - Rob Carroll
Performance Analysis often conjures up images of specialist coaches working on laptop computers and, where the budget allows this will usually be the case. There is however everyday equipment available, that won’t break the bank ... keep reading
"Developing Attacking Play - An Introduction" - Miichael McGeehin
As coaches we encourage our players to transfer the ball as quickly as possible to Zone C, the Scoring Zone, in which we have the best chance to score and win the game. We want to play the game in Zone C not in either of the other two zones... keep reading
Na Fianna Senior Football Strength Program - Robbie Bourke
The program is for a Gaelic Football team with little experience with a structured strength Program. I must add that this is still not the same program for everyone. Some will not bench due to shoulder pathologies, and everyone will have different mobility... keep reading
Athletic Development Training Theory - Cedric Unholz
This article is an amalgamation of my thoughts, opinions and information from various sources I have been studying over the past few years. The goal of this article is for it to act as a work-in-progress document that allows me to clarify and refine my coaching philosophies... keep reading
You are only as strong as your weakest link!! - Dave O'Sullivan
Today I am going to explain why I put so much emphasis on improving an athlete’s ability to move and why I think improving ones movement patterns is the quickest and best way to improve and succeed in your goals. ... keep reading
The Importance of Single Leg Training - Jason Moran
Probably the question I get asked the most by players is “how do I get faster?” There are very many variations of this question including “how do I get more powerful?”, “how do I jump higher?”, “how do I improve my acceleration?” ... keep reading
Recording Statistics from Matches
As statistics become more commonplace at all levels within the GAA, we are hoping this template will provide some ideas for management, coaches and players in relation to assessing their performance ... keep reading
Developing and monitoring training program design and load for elite amateur U21 Gaelic football players - Barry Solan
Gaelic football is high intensity intermittent contact sport. Gaelic football has many similarities with other football codes, especially Australian Rules football... keep reading
Training Programme for Tipperary Hurler Timmy Hammersley - Jason Moran
The Importance of Warming Up Correctly - Barry Solan
In attending any GAA fixture throughout the country nowadays at club or county level the time, planning and energy invested in a team’s warm up routine has massively increased... keep reading
Train as you Play and Play as you Train - Miichael McGeehin
Gaelic Games are simple in design but require an extensive array of movement and decision making skills. The design of a Gaelic Games Training Program preliminary focuses on five interdependent areas of development... keep reading
Recovery Methods In Professional Sport - Dave O’Sullivan
Over the last decade or so there have been some major breakthroughs and advances in sport science. The emergence of such garments such as ‘Skins’ and compression stockings are a testament to this... keep reading
TASS – Olympic Weightlifting Workshop Review - Dave O’Sullivan
I recently attended a Talented Athlete Scholarship scheme with the Great Britain Olympic Weightlifting Coach, Tamas Feher. The notes I took from the course are below... keep reading
Vestibular Dysfunction: The Forgotten Cause of Poor Balance - Shane Lawlor
Balance information in the body comes from three main sources, these include the joints, eyes and the vestibular system. The vestibular system is made up of three semi circular canals that are filled with fluid... keep reading
Hip Mobility - Shane Lawlor
The hips are one of the most important joints for Gaelic Players because poor mobility or any small restriction of movement will lead to an increased risk of injury... keep reading
No More Sit-Ups and Crunches - Anthony Renna
Although they have never really been much of a staple in my program design, I have stopped doing any sit-ups and crunches with my clients. In the past, I have had my clients doing some stick crunches...keep reading
I can’t remember where I first heard the above phrase. However throughout the past few years I have heard it repeated and repeated in many aspects related to organising and analysing teams, players, training plans and programs...keep reading
Design and Implementation of a Specific Integrated Functional Resistance Training Programme for Gaelic Football - Barry Solan
Gaelic Football is a high intensity intermittent contact sport. With the nature of movement and muscular demand involved being similar to that of other contact sports...keep reading