Next generation get their coach on

Munster’s next generation of young coaches will face the first test of their credentials as a hugely successful Level One course comes to an end later this month. Twenty budding coaches have been taking the course, which was run over the past two weekends in Ashton School, to prepare themselves for the forthcoming season, where they will inject new ideas and enthusiasm into the underage sections of the clubs and schools they will coach in. Level One tutor John Hobbs, who has been working with fellow tutors, John Dennis, Phil Oakley and Caroline Collins over the duration of the course, said he was delighted with the attitude and commitment of the group.

“We have a great bunch on the course, who are really eager to learn and develop their coaching, with their help we have a great chance of further increasing the playing numbers and technical levels of the underage players in the province,” he said. Hobbs says the course’s main aim is to give coaches the correct technical advice on many of the individual techniques which are essential in the sport. This allows coaches to recognise and correct technical faults within their own players with a view to increasing skill levels. “There is a major need to move away from coaching drills to coaching real game situations,” he explained. “Many of the popular drills that are used when coaching teams don’t challenge the decision-making of our players, and are not hugely relevant to how we achieve success in games. This is an area all coaching can improve within the province.” “Once coaches can break down individual techniques, then they can really create their own exercises within training sessions to solve their team’s problems on match day. This, for me, is one of the real benefits of formal coaching courses, the other being the sharing of ideas within a group of your peers, where perhaps even more learning takes place.” The group of coaches that are attending the course come from various different sporting backgrounds, and all are bringing experience from the other sports they play. Iain O’Driscoll is new to hockey coaching, with his primary sporting background being football and soccer, regularly turning out for Clonakilty in both codes. Iain completed a six-week introduction to hockey coaching course in CIT as part of his Recreation & Leisure Management studies, and has decided to continue his coaching development on this summer’s Level One course.

Iain is joined on the course by his classmates Michael Mullane (hurling and football), Sinead Morrissey (Thai boxing) and John Neville, who plays corner back for St Finbarrs hurling and football club. CIT are providing funding towards helping these players upgrade their coaching qualifications. Other participants include Waterford’s Laura Griffin, who at 18 is the youngest coach on the course, and Stephen Willis, who is travelling from Kilkenny to take part. All of the participants now have a two week break from the course to prepare for their assessments which will take place in Ashton School on the afternoon of the 25th of July.