Over 250 Coach Developers attend Community event in Croke Park:
By John Harrington
The strength of the Gaelic games coaching network was in full view at Croke Park last Saturday when over 250 Coach Developers attended a Coach Developer Community Event in Croke Park.
Coach Developers are tasked with delivering learning opportunities to Gaelic games coaches across the country and around the world and so play a critical role in the promotion of our games.
Saturday’s event was a recognition of the great work they, the provinces, counties and codes do in coach development, an opportunity for them to network with their peers, and an exercise in upskilling.
“Coach Developers can oftentimes be the first point of contact for volunteer coaches when they come into the coach pathway, so they’re ambassadors, role models, and standard bearers for our whole coaching community,” said Martin Kennedy, the GAA’s Head of Coach and Player Development.
“So, it’s really important that they are valued, supported and resourced in order to perform at the top of their game. We all need to remember and be grounded by our core values and be aligned on what we collectively need to do to educate, support, and serve our volunteer coaches.
“That’s what the event was about at the weekend – appreciating, resourcing, upskilling and helping our Coach Developers to be the best they can be so they in turn can continue to do their best for our coaches.
“There was a choice of various parallel sessions provided on the day ranging from player pathway, skill acquisition and updates along with two practical demos from Craig Mc Courtney with Badminton and Dave Garvey in Sailing which brought to life the important skill of a coach developer in providing feedback and reflection on coaching tasks. We had a keynote with Gerry Duffy about relating to our values and the event was hosted and mc’d by Liam Moggan who is chair of the Coach Development Advisory Group.”
“Perhaps traditionally the role of a coach developer would have been very much focused on delivering formal coaching courses. This will continue to be the case however the role has expanded now into other areas of coach development like helping and facilitating communities of practice in clubs, delivering specific workshops, signposting towards webinars, seminars and conferences, mentoring and also just being on the grass a little bit more with the coaches in their own setting where this is feasible,
“Above them then there’s the Trainers of Coach Developers and Coach Developers Support Team members, or CDAs as Sport Ireland Coaching refer to them, who act as trainers, assessors and mentors for all of those coach developers and who were also in attendance at Saturday’s event.
“We had a great diversity in attendance on Saturday, from those starting their journey as Coach Developers and others who have been doing it for decades.
“It felt like that brought a great energy to the day and people were mingling and sharing and bouncing off each other – it just felt like there was a good vibe overall.”
The Coach Developer’s role can be a challenging one. There has been a number of recent initiatives run in collaboration with the provinces and codes to give them more of the support they need to carry out their work in clubs and communities around Ireland and indeed across the globe.
Saturday’s event saw the launch of a learning space for Coach Developers on the online Gaelic Games learning resource, TOBAR, as well as a Coach Learning digital brochure which can be viewed and downloaded at the bottom of this article.
Both dovetail nicely with the new Gaelic Games Coach Pathway and Learning Space which was launched in December.
“What we tried to do at the weekend was really explain in more detail the Coach Pathway, which now mirrors the player pathway, as well as the Learning Space to the Coach Developers, bringing them to life more for them, as they will in turn be explaining it to the volunteer coaches,” said Kennedy “We also launched the digital brochure that now sits alongside them both”.
“At each stage of the Coach Pathway where a coach might be volunteering, for example F1 Nursery, F2 Go Games or F3 Youth, we have outlined a stage specific learning space, a ‘one stop shop’ or card. This is made up of what we believe to be engaging, thought provoking and accessible learning opportunities. For example, formal courses, workshops, e-learning opportunities and practical demonstrations, which should be helpful for them at the stage they are coaching at.
The Gaelic Games Coach Pathway.
“It’s not just a resource for the volunteer coaches but, as we shared with the Coach Developers at the weekend, it’s a resource for them too because they can go in and deliver their formal courses or deliver their workshops and they have something extra to signpost and share with the volunteers to complement and add to what they’ve just delivered.
“What is even more exciting is that we now have the ability to acknowledge this engagement with their learning on TOBAR, the newly updated e-learning system for Gaelic Games. Coaches can now gain points and badges to acknowledge their learning as well as achieving milestones over time, reflected in their own personal dashboard on TOBAR”
Upskilling Coach Developers can have a hugely positive domino effect for the Gaelic games associations.
The 500 or so qualified active Coach Developers in the system upskill thousands of coaches who in turn work with hundreds of thousands of players and so the knowledge of good practice is passed around in a very organic way.
“There’s the potential for a hugely positive ripple effect,” says Kennedy. “I think we saw it and felt it at the weekend. That Coach Developer group must truly feel that they’re respected and valued.
“We definitely know we need to acknowledge and celebrate the role of the Coach Developer more because of the hugely positive impact that they have and are going to continue to have. Our goal was that everyone left Croke Park on Saturday with a pep in their step, having renewed pride in the contribution they make and the role they play. We have sought honest feedback from all the attendees, so hopefully that will have been the case.”
“We’ve a really strong coach development community team across the provinces and codes however we know we still have a lot of work to do. This is particularly the case when it comes to our communication, listening to them and their needs and then in getting key messages out to both coach developers and coaches in a clear and consistent way.”
“That was one of the pieces of constructive feedback from the weekend – ‘it’s great to do events like this…can we do more?’ So that’s our intention.”