Hey there, this is Kevin Mulcahy of TMC Strength & Conditioning
I’m the head of Athletic Development with
@DouglasGAAClub
now, and I’m also offering extensive health & fitness options for the wider Douglas GAA Community
We're launching brand new group health & fitness classes
Luke 'Ming' Flanagan tops the poll in Midlands-North-West for the European election. Just 20 first preference votes between FF's Barry Cowen and FG's Nina Carberry in second and third places. No one elected on the first count.
Arranging amateur club football matches for this Sunday morning on the longest long weekend in living memory, after 2 years of various lockdowns is absolutely peak GAA administrative selfishness.
'Someone running from the dugout to hit a player a dig is absolutely disgusting as far as I'm concerned' - The panel assess the flashpoints in Semple Stadium
#SundayGame
#rtegaa
Fuck me
One of the great All Irelands and those clowns on RTE are on about the season and changing the rules for a replay.
What is wrong with these people?
Analyse the fucking game.
We pay ye to do it
30 notes that I believe help coaching (particularly sub elite) and build teams from my experience as I head towards 30 years of it.
Based on observations & experience of what not to do as well as what works well. And some learning and a total commitment to making mistakes
Again. Academies/development squads are bad, end of. They narrow the type of player who can emerge. Picking players, even at club level for an “A team” before they have gone through puberty is a really poor practice. That’s never changing.
I’m an S&C Coach.
And I have absolutely no idea how Peter O Mahoney is actually gone far beyond his previous expected ceiling of athleticism, well into 30’s.
He is a phenom.
I wonder is it psychological. Enjoying the environment so much
I don’t get the bizarre issue with players playing one week after another. The games are easily recoverable from. It’s the coaches who load the shit out of training in between are the problem.
The
@FAIreland
have released a proposal for the future. It’s actually an attack on sport in Ireland and the liberty of kids and putting unbelievable pressure on kids to give up other sports so they can train for soccer 3-4 night a week. This is a disgrace pushed by someone who...
Germany progresses again. The last change while elite level successful wasn’t sustained at either end.
The ability to self assess and accept change is a strength of very few organisations.
Feedback came from the children in pilots, not the parents or coaches!
- no keepers till
Just paid the VAT on a grant for a new coaching start up. No turning back now
Stay tuned, gameCOACH is in the future. An App to help coaches organise coaching AND learn more about it as they go
But we will be looking for coaches down the road to test the product.
#designandlearn
There is a lot of incredibly stupid things around Cork Football over last few years. As much what’s written about them as anything. But this is the most embarrassing thing I have seen.....ever. I feel bad for the good people of Douglas who have their clubs attached to this.
This is the man robbed by fearful administrators of the most important job in Gaelic Games. We lost an unbelievable opportunity for intelligent, progressive & compassionate leadership.
That decision to go with an accountant haunts GAA.
Excellent piece
Recently I’ve had a lot of conversations with physios, IC players and some management members about the injury epidemic in Gaelic Football.
One thing that continually crops up is Osteo Pubis (a new more recent problem) and hamstring injuries. OP is an inflammation issue and a
An absolute lesson in club Gaelic football on in Kerry in Crokes v Dingle
The lesson: only solo the ball if you are taking someone on or in dire trouble in a small space.
Virtually nobody over plays it
Just move it on to the fella in front of you.
It’s a cultural concept
On a 2nd look.
Mick Fitzsimons wasn’t that amazing on Clifford (he was good, not great). Overall Dubs had a very good team defensive plan that worked most significantly.
But D Clifford was at least still “good” and won the battle and any of the under performance was more
Read it.
There is a dark side to the GAA and Soccer in Ireland, led by ego and insecurity. Where adults live their lives through children or use the sport and coaching as a tool for their own bitter expression that at best leads to drop out, or a lot worse
Over training.County managers ignoring S&C.
Trn load so high teams at IC/club level are literally running equivalent 3 games in 7 days. And in some cases +2 weight sessions.
The fast end hybrid & fast twitch machines are most vulnerable.
Need 72 hours recovery.
Maths don’t work.
Offaly GAA chairperson Michael Duignan believes that cruciate knee ligament injuries are at a crisis point within the GAA.
"Why are so many people getting injured, especially cruciates? It seems to be out of control with GAA players. Whether it is to do with the training load or
Some excellent proposals here. I would get rid of all competitions with trophies etc to u13. Some Cup competitions at u9/10/11/12 have become pseudo championships and coaches are excluding kids to try and win them. It’s a real GAA issue
Principles of sport, play & your team.
Short 🧵
One of the significant elements missing in modern sport is basic understanding of the principles of the games, indeed of sport in general. We could call this “game IQ”
Some sports or regions do a better job than others.
👇
I don’t get the knickers twisting over Kerry Clubs being successful.
The culture is huge, they play more football than most all the way up. Their knowledge of the game is extensive.
They learn in the game, while everyone else is complain about playing every week.
It’s fair game
To be honest, the media commentary of Shane Walsh is turning into bullying and harassment.
Absolutely no logic or balance to it.
The bitterness towards his transfer is quite something.
He did not play as good as he could.
He’s hardly the first guy. Give it a fucking break ffs
🗣"He missed a lot of the year playing with the club."
🗣"They won the All-Ireland. He got to celebrate it with strangers."
🗣"Then he went off to Australia."
Did the move to Kilmacud Crokes lead to Shane Walsh's poor performances for Galway?
@AIB_GAA
#TheToughest
Garda Vetting in Ireland is incredibly poorly done. Having to do it multiple times is just stone fucking mad. I doubt it actually stops anything worth stopping tbh. Crazy over the top bureaucracy. It must turn some people away from coaching and other volunteering
If you are coaching kids/youths from 8 to say 17, and winning trophies is front of your mind in any way, change your thinking or stop coaching.
It’s about you. Not the young people
And you will be biased and make poor decisions continually if that’s your mindset.
Change the
Kids sport is not about you adults winning something.
It’s about making friends, staying healthy, having fun, learning skills and learning about failure in a psychologically safe place.
This is a multi sport 15 year wide study.
Early results mean very little - I’ve always anecdotally believed avoid winning at all costs in team sports till after 15/16 or post puberty.
Earlier the selection, the worse the retention - don’t specialise too early. It’s neither
Taking my own experience in 3x3 Basketball and the Olympic feel to Gaelic Football.
5x5 last night.
1. If you retrieve the ball in play (turnover) you just work it outside the zone before you can score
2. 3 points for a point out side the zone
If you
3. Points and goals inside
🧸 READY TEDDY GO 🧸
Endless possibilities when kids bring their fav🐻 to practice 😊
👌High catching
👌Shielding in possession
👌Get used to tackling with 1 hand
👌Catching at full pace
We noticed 👀
-Less grabbing tackles
-More bursting forward with ball
-FAMILIES HAVING FUN
If you want to know what’s wrong with coaching , coach education and general common sense & basic knowledge of what works for children in Gaelic Games. Read the responses to this below.
The Gaa decision is 100% right, I’d go older. But will they follow up with the sanctions?
The GAA is clamping down and will sanction those involved in competitive games for players under the age of 12. Particular impact on blitzes. No keeping scores at games, no semi-finals or finals, no cups allowed. Full story below 🔽
The GAA (Croke Park) is run by the same people/sect of Irish society as those putting people on the streets now in government. People utterly disconnected from modern life.
Everything Joe wrote there is true.
Why are we surprised by any of this?
The day they choose Tom Ryan
There is a particular skill in coaching 5-9 year olds.
And it has very little to do with have you played the game or not. Of course people with technical and playing experience should be part of the process. But character and personality and an ability to reach these kids is a
📣 U6 hurling sessions now being added to the site/app 📣
Games, warm ups, session plans and coaching videos galore
#GAA
📱App available on IOS & android 📱
🏎️👀 Top Gear 👀🏎️
#BeginYourGameBasedJourney
These journalists and ex players won’t be happy until they ruin the club game again
As if a Sunday Indo poll is an indicator of anything, it’s naturally attracts the most negative.
The IC scene finished just before competitions with EPL among other
I may regret this, but for now, David Clifford is still a bit over rated and judged still by Minor exploits.
He is an amazing player, and could be a great. But to be calling him best player ever now is mad talk.
He has been shut down numerous times in last 2 years.
Usual guff about work rate, hooks, blocks etc.
Fact is Limerick are tactically way smarter than everyone and know how to change up the game.
Their positioning wins the games
They a good look at what you are doing and change up based on principles of overloads and space.
Not
You might as well ask the guy down the pub does he understand your kickout strategy as ask a player “for understanding”. It’s a pointless exercise.
We might be wasting a lot of time in meetings presenting strategies or phases of play. Run them at training first and then discuss.
Hurling Puck Outs Practice.
Useful concepts for any re-starts, using puck outs (PO) for hurling here. The re-start in the Irish national game of Hurling.
👇
This kinda rubbish from u12 coaches does nobody any good. It's u12, it's a league. There wS a photo with it of a load of 12 years looking like they had lost their grand dad. It's just mental. Young lads see this and feel it from coaches. Who is it all about is real question?!?!
Nothing will ever do more to show the painful banality and inappropriateness of drills and kids standing in ques .
No research tops a child giving it the two fingers
It’s looking like the Dublin Footballers might be relegated based on present form and the games to come.
A Rome like collapse.
Maybe now people will start to see money has f-all to do with it. Great coaching and a freakish bunch of players coming together we’re key.
Ya that basketball stuff is ruining Gaelic football 😳
Magic, schools football should be our template. It’s brilliant in its talent/level, but perfect in its freedom.
For some reason after this we constraint players to be less creative
I think we can make a case for Rory Grogan as the most underrated footballer in the game.
A creator with a gigantic Game IQ very like Mark Collins of a few years ago.
All Ireland Group Series | Group 1 | Rnd 2
FULL TIME:
Two from two for the lads ✅
Ard Mhacha: 3-17 (26)
Doire: 0-15 (15)
#ArdMhachaAb
ú
#BringTheOrange
An uncomfortable truth for many of the nostalgic types.
Gaelic football is far tougher now
It just used to be dirtier.
It’s a significantly better game these days
We are just saturated with narcasstic clowns like Brolly etc
@EamonMcGee
I watched back the 1991 final recently, always heard of how tough men were back then! Most of it was just dirty elbows to the head and knees in the back, nothing tough about that. So many fouls and stoppages in play. Frees from the ground slowed the play down.
@lacey_trevor
What the guy who has produced 3 terms worth of local work and advocation for his constituency, no matter what their political stance?
The guy who stands up to power and “the way it always was”
That Luke Flanagan?
This is an absolutely outstanding article on COD. This along w/work of
@DocSoph
and others tells us we need to work on COD and other Biomechanics in a structured way in tandem with broader agility and movement approaches and practice
Thread: Developing Hurling Skills & Conditioning concurrently. This will be very long. But some practical animated games included near the end too. If you are a hurling fundamentalist wedged into doing things the way you always did them - jump out now and we can’t fall out😉...
The one thing I would love to see in Ireland in time is “sporting clubs” like they have in Portugal and Spain. Team Cork having Hurling/football/Soccer/handball/hockey/rugby teams - male and female, young and adult, all working out of the same venue u set the one banner
Latest article with the Echo.
Around moving away from some of the less useful old ways, some solutions and staring some cold realities of our practices which may not be helping
Sport is too focused on the 'way we always did it' instead of moving forward
Gaelic Games & Amateur Coaches everywhere:
In Season, only train once a week fully, and even then limit volume, have longer breaks and break up the practice generally.
There is short term fatigue and long term fatigue and both can lead to injury.
A Tuesday or Wednesday
Just bought a ticket to go see Benfica and Sporting on saturday for 2.50. TWO FUCKING FIFTY. It's more expensive to go see Junior A Championship that refs turn up late to. About 4 tines that price in fact. Wow we are getting ridden
A myth that needs busting.
Hard work doesn’t always beat lazy talent.
It just doesn’t.
Sometimes genetics wins, just because.
Let’s stop selling “hard work” as a solve all. In sport it leads to people doing an endless list of stupid stuff that’s only wasting time, and money
This is what 5KM looks like when you break it down for more specific training for field sport.5k runs are ok for a release every now and then but for many any kinda distance training can lead to injury or soreness.We need to train more specifically to combat added sedentary lives
Brilliant to see so many GAA players playing for Munster Rugby now. Players playing multi sport as old as 19 and still end up playing the highest level of club professional rugby is a wonderful advertisement for staying as multi sport as you can for as long as you can
As we head towards championship at local levels, remember this.
Because the high level coaches talk players through games doesn’t mean it’s of any use.
Short lines/1-words cues related to principles (embedded &worked on) may help a message, but that’s about it.
Watch the game
Training short and intense the night/day before competition, even big finals, is far more effective than moderate, safe & unopposed training 48-72 hours before a game.
Too many teams/coaches clam up and get over protective before games.
Ramping up your nervous system is king
This is a fascinating point from Sean Quigley, I wonder do people agree?
If you’re travelling to any of the games over the weekend-maybe you stick on the GAA Social in the car.
🏐Fermanagh v Derry BBC2, 4.45
🏐Tyrone v Monaghan BBC2, 1.45
🎙️Podcast here
In the “How Coaches can develop better decision makers” mini course we will discuss and explain how task simplification and attachment to simple principles can help players learn in a contextual fashion, at their own pace from very young ages.
The ideas here in the animations
What are we working on here coaches?
What may emerge from this practice?
*please share for those who may be interested
Gaelic football but concepts transferable anywhere.
/////////////////////////////
This is a rotating team game. It’s a Kickout Game with a bit more. Every
An awful lot of talk about investing in sport. Most of it is political point scoring.
Be very careful where you put it and with who
One of the biggest wins would be primary school PE teachers. And PE/exercise time should be daily. And PE teachers in primary should be a family
“Invest in sport. Look how positive it makes everybody.”
“There should be two PE days a week… follow the GAA model and have athletics coaches going into schools.”
Excellent RTÉ chat on how we can build from these Olympics by increasing funding.
When you are starting out in a new season, don’t waste weeks. Just doing 6 weeks running is loosing 12-18 training sessions that could be helping towards developing your strategy, game plan, game model or whatever.
It’s crazy still that teams separate conditioning from strategy.
Training Tip: Do Hill sprints .
Brilliant for power, general strength, conditioning, ankle & hip mobility. One of the safest conditioning tools there is
Examples for off-feet training for maintenance/developing an athletes system when injured, or an older athlete who doesn’t need the full menu of on field training.
Also useful for fit athletes to close personal conditioning gaps when training heavy
non exhaustive list obviously
Derry are gone.
Crocked.
Maybe over trained, maybe just end of the cycle.
But the injuries and drop in discipline is a real sign of a fatigued team or worse a demotivated side.
This is such a disgrace.
This is a male beating up a woman, sanctioned by the Olympics/boxing cos they are weak and afraid. People should be sanctioned for this.
Anyone who even sparred in their lives knows why there is weight classes and sex divisions.
This is what western
Kilmacud Crokes are the most cynical club team I’ve seen at top level, ever.
Good players and good high delay (which allows set up) but they are getting away with incessant fouling in every single game especially between the 45’s.
This is from O Gara in relation to elite sport, tbh I think it’s the same at every level. Always 3 groups. Uber involved & committee, disruptive & selfish and a middle tier. Winning the middle tier is key
I’m often asked about practicing puckouts or Kickouts in Gaelic Games.
There is general and specific training and there is a small game/big game approach. What you use will vary depending on the needs of the team, the level and time of the season.
Think about theming your …
Dublin footballer who benefitted from massive advantage of always playing at home, even for “neutral” games, in a shocking defence of Dublin maintaining a clear advantage over teams they play.🙄
I really like the Dublin of last 15 years, but this is and always has been an
Inter County Hurling is goosed because of coaching, or lack of. There is a serious lack of depth to the coaching of the game.
Limerick have a principled based strategic approach. We would call this the 80:20 idea. 80% of what you do is principle based and always stick to it.
I’ve been on 2 pitches today already that had games cancelled that are completely playable. The day is now, granted windy, but dry and bright.
GAA in particular has got lazy and is allowing over zealous groundsmen far too much control.
We are soft. Our generation.
Not the
The arrogance of some Inter County GAA managers/teams is staggering sometimes.
Wtf thought it was a good idea to do collective training?
12 month suspensions all round
This alone is a major challenge coaching in Gaelic Games as players have not been coached to have a high Game IQ.
So much of the game only starts when the ball comes to them. Ideas like “rest attack” and “rest defence” can really help your team be a full, total football/hurling
It’s mad that this needs saying.
The idea that you can lose fitness or skill in a week is everywhere.
Repetition is seen as a keep safe, and it’s nonsense.
I’ve seen “good hurlers” come back after 5-10 years and play a game. Within 15 mins they more or less have their “touch”
Topical because that well known centre of skill acquisition that is the Sunday Game are suggesting Tony Kelly’s goal yesterday was made out the back against a wall. Classic Hurling correlation and folklore over causation.
Firstly , we can be as sure as research allows that you
People often miss the nuance or take personally comments I make on coaching. So I think I need to be clear on this one.
If you are forcing 15 year olds up to adults to run 3-4 5k’s a week and testing them or giving spurious targets.
You are an asshole.
I hope that’s really clear.
Mcgeeney is just a quality character
Love the way Armagh have invested in him and the team, been patient and thought long term.
They can be frustrating, but only because I feel they are so good and talented. And the handbreak is definitely released a bit. A definite dark horse
🗣️ "Mickey Harte gets destroyed for pushing up on kick-outs, we get destroyed for not."
🗣️ "One of these days someone is going to tell me what actually is the right thing to do!"
Kieran McGeeney chats to
@Jhiggins3
after Armagh's draw vs Galway.
@AIB_GAA
|
#TheToughest
So this is from someone who proposes to want to “save” or “grow” hurling. And is very loud about it.
This is kill hurling 1.01. Or kill any sport for that matter. It’s narcissistic control.
Absolute lunacy.
Sport is supposed to be about challenge, fun, friendship, community,
A great game that transfers to many sports, have used in hurling, hockey, Gaelic football, soccer and Aussie rules. This has 2 main tenants- using the width v. overload/underload and use of space and possession. Use wingers well and doesn’t matter that you are 3v5
Coaches this is the exact same reasons when at training.
“Difficult kids” might be having a difficult time.
Un-coachable needs to be struck off the vernacular of coaching
Your Game Model is basically the way you want to attack and defend.
At a very basic level that’s it.
I believe in a hierarchy of principles. Unfortunately the higher level principles of movement, invasion sport, making space and the individual principles of games are lost and