STEVEN POACHER: A world of opportunities

15 YEARS ago in the PE office in my former school in St Columban’s I had an idea of a fund raiser for the PE department and GAA within the school – a Coach Education morning.

In its inaugural year back in January 2009, we had 57 coaches come through the doors and one of the greatest coach educators in the game, the late great John Morrison, was the first to present at it.

Since 2009, the day has grown significantly, with 440 coaches attending last year making it officially the largest coach education event in Ireland. What separates our day from the rest is a number of variables: it’s a non-profit day with all funds going towards the development of GAA and sport within our school. The cost of the day 15 years ago was £10 and is now only £20. The players on the day are Down minor footballers, so the quality presentations are delivered with great clarity. The Coaches presenting are all delivering a different theme, but we are seeing them all coach which is important for observing a variety of coaching styles. The promptness of the day and how slickly it runs is also what keeps bringing people back to it.

Our annual day is Saturday, November 30 in St Joseph’s Newry, starting at 10am and we have an unbelievable line up this year, possibly one of the best we have assembled. Kicking off proceedings on the day will be Damian McErlain, the successful Derry minor manager who won back-to-back Ulster and All Ireland titles in 2023 and 2024, a remarkable achievement.

Damian’s theme will be “Challenges faced coaching young players,” a hugely significant and relevant topic as we know in the modern-day society there are extreme challenges working with young players.

Following Damian will be former Mayo manager James Horan. James will talk about “Behaviours associated with a high performance environment.” James, who won six Connacht titles and led Mayo to four All-Ireland finals carries a wealth of experience and quality to share on the day.

Finally, our pitch session will be led by Tyrone footballer and former Footballer of the Year Kieran McGeary, Kieran will deliver the theme “Transitioning with Pace and Purpose.” Kieran has great experience from both his playing days and also having coached at club, county and schools level.

I am an advocate of shared learning or sharing knowledge. I believe it’s an extremely effective way of improving you’re coaching by picking up ideas, thoughts and methods from other coaches and it’s something I would do quite regularly. I cannot understand this philosophy we tend to have in GAA where coaches “cover their homework” as such and don’t share any ideas or good practice with each other; I believe it’s hugely detrimental to the future development of our games. It simply doesn’t matter if you give someone ideas they can bring back to their training because it’s not the game or the drill that matters but how it’s delivered is the key!

I always insist, we should be educating our coaches a lot more, because for me better coaches make better players. The greater volume of qualified coaches we have, the better chance we have of improving our players. In soccer in England there are 1,178 fully qualified “UEFA A” (basically top level) coaches, in Germany there are 5,500 and in Spain there are amazingly 12,720. Maybe this contributes to the technical efficiency of the Spanish players in comparison to English, but they are qualified with an official qualification and that’s the key

In the GAA the same principles could still apply, how many fully qualified coaches have we actually got coaching teams whether that is underage or senior teams within the club? How many clubs have run Coach Education mornings? I am a huge believer in non-stop learning when it comes to coaching and a club/county that provides its coaches with an opportunity to learn is without doubt a forward-thinking club/county.

Our day on Saturday, November 30 is a great opportunity for coaches at all levels of the game to absorb a fountain of quality coaching, a wonderful learning opportunity and a priceless chance for coaches to upskill heading into the off season.

To book a place contact myself with your name via stevepoacher@hotmail.com or 07779780919.