STEVEN POACHER: Skills of the game must be nurtured in training

AFTER-SCHOOL football is well and truly back in full flow throughout the province of Ulster with the countless number of schools back training, relying on the good will of dedicated staff.

School, in my opinion, is without doubt the bedrock for the development of young players. Unfortunately there are horror stories in the past of youngsters being sick with the volume of running they’re exposed to. I’ve heard of youngsters being asked to complete 8am training sessions before school even starts.

Some are even doing double sessions, some are running up mountains, hills and around lakes and the same questions keep popping into my head when I hear this, “What is the point? Is it relevant to the game we play? Will it make the young player a better thinking footballer?

Before I go on I must stress, I am not disagreeing that a one-off mountain, hill or sand dune session won’t build camaraderie, team spirit and a mental/physical toughness but that’s where it should end, a one off.

Players and, in particular, young players have a reasonably good level of fitness and any physical fitness work should be done through small-sided games with the ball.

Nearly 25 years ago, when the now famous Jose Mourinho secured a coaching job at Portuguese side Leiria, he was surveyed a location for pre-season training with the president of the club; the president gazed at the nearby hills and valleys and commented to Mourinho that they would be ideal for running and lots of it. Mourinho’s answer was, “Forget the scenery, my players will only work on the pitch with portable goals and small sided games.”

At all the clubs Mourinho coached or managed, he worked closely on the training field with his fitness coach, playing small-sided games such as double penalty box, wing men, give and go games, overload games.

It not only conditioned the players but the players would be learning all the time in game related situations. On regular occasions the fitness trainer would consult with Mourinho on when to extend the pitch, widen it, increase the intensity of a game, change the speed, and limit the touches or whatever.

With a bit of creative thinking the same principles can be applied to coaching in Gaelic football. I firmly believe it can all be done with the ball; every coach now should have the knowledge of the type of demands associated with the game of Gaelic Football.

Coaches should know players will be involved in multi-directional speed endurance running, and they should know players will tackle, roll, fall, jump, squat, lunge etc.

Knowledge of the demands means planning your session becomes easy. Don’t look for the easy option of lining players up on an end-line and running them to a standstill – it has no relevance to the requirements of the game, so how will it help players develop their thinking and decision capabilities during a game?

Any coach that is taking a Gaelic Football session in school cannot seriously consider doing anything without a ball. The majority of the session should also be based around small-sided games, these can be 3v3 to 7v7 depending on numbers and space. When planning your session, pick a theme such as break ball – focus on break ball from your dynamic game related warm-up to small sided game relevant situations. This way you will make players solve problems, come out of their comfort zone and most of all allow them to enjoy their football by getting fit with the ball at the centre of everything they do.

We are very lucky here in St Joseph’s Newry that we have a number of teachers with GAA backgrounds who give up their time after school to help in the development of our youngsters.

We are also fortunate that we have 10 feeder clubs from Down and Armagh feeding into our school and just this week we had Newry Bosco with 15 St Joseph’s pupils, past and present reaching their first Minor A championship final in over 20 years, defeating red-hot favourites Kilcoo.

This was a hugely significant win for Newry, and also for the Newry Bosco club. It was followed up with success for Newry Shamrocks who reached the final of the B minor championship, where they will face another local club Ballyholland Harps. It has been far too long since Newry produced a single senior intercounty footballer for Down and hopefully these lads are on the right path.