Objective of the Course

The objective of this course is to ensure managers, coaches and team mentors working with field sport teams:

• Understands and appreciates the importance of the various elements that make-up a worthwhile training session.
• Is aware of the critical emphasis that needs to be placed on the structure and ordering of the various phases or elements of the training session.
• Is conversant with the coaching methods used to organise the various elements of the training session to ensure that the maximum benefits possible accrue from the training stimulus.

The Course

This short course is designed to help managers, coaches and mentors with an in-depth insight into the theory and practice of how to prepare and deliver a quality, beneficial and progressive training session to their teams – at juvenile, teenage and at adult levels.

The most important ingredient in any training session is not the actual training completed but the order in which it is done during the session. As the old song used to say: “It ain’t what you do, it’s the way that you do it”. This implies that to ensure that players benefit by the training stimulus, the order in which the coach sets out the training session is the key to progression, development and improvement in the components of fitness the session set out to achieve.

The course stresses the key principles of what makes one training session more effective than another and gives the reasons why the ordering of the various sections within each training session is important. In fact the courses goes even deeper than that by also suggesting that each phase or section within the training session should also be ordered correctly.

When a training session is over the hormonal response to training occurs shortly after players enter their deep sleep section of the night’s sleep. What makes the response better can be attributed to many things – many of which occur after the training session such as the quality of the cool-down and the intake of fuel and hydration post-training and of really immense importance the quality of their sleep that night. However two major factors in making a training successful are:

• The quality of the training activities used in each phase of the session
• The order that the training activities are completed

The objective of this course is to educate the coach or manager in how to order the training session so that player will benefit to the highest level possible. However this course goes further by giving insights into the type of training that will make each section even more beneficial to the players.

Course Topics

The course is divided into easy to follow topics which are listed below:

Topic 1 – Introduction to the Course

This topic introduces the course as well as it aims. objectives and the content of the various topics of the course

Topic 2 – The Importance of Planning for a Training Session

Planning is one of the most important aspects of conducting any training session whether the session is for juvenile, teenage, adult or high performance teams. The aim of this topic is to examine why each phase or section of the training session is important to the effectiveness of the training session as a unit. While training is aimed to help players become more skilful and physically fitter to play the game it should also aim to keep players interested and motivated, help them to avoid injury and be suitable for their present level of skill and fitness.

Topic 3 – The Principles of a Training Session

The components of physical fitness for hurling and camogie include skill, speed and agility, strength and power, stamina and flexibility. Each of these components is made up of various elements which the coach must also take into account when designing a training programme and when conducting a competent training session.This topic presents a suggested order in which each element of the session is ordered and gives the reasons behind the ordering process

Topic 4 – The Objectives of each Element in a Training Session

In this importangt topic we present the objectives coaches and managers should have when it comes to planning and indeed delivering the various phases or eleemtns of a successful training session.

Topic 5 – Understanding the Warm-up

As the neuromuscular system is of much greater importance to all Gaelic and other field sport players there is a greater need for the inclusion movement patterns and joint activation exercises to prepare them for the training activity to follow. Thus this topic presents the warm-up to consist of movement variations, dynamic stretching and activation of the muscles that are used in field sports.

Topic 6 – Movement and Innervation Coaching

Topic 6 covers two possible phases of training. One phase can be devoted to motor skill or movement pattern development because to make players faster it is important to coach them to move better and that entails slowing them down a little to develop better movement technique – sprinting, changing direction, deceleration etc. The second phase one can include is Innervation training which is all about developing the ability of the nervous system to fire efficiently so as to promote faster speed development of the muscles.

Topic 7 – Speed in the Training Session

This important topic examines some of the very important elements of speed important in field sports – reactive speed, acceleration speed, deceleration speed, maximum effective speed, skill speed, speed of thought, decision making speed, agility speed as well as speed of limb in the way one strikes or hand-passes a ball. It also covers the concept that training speed and agility aims at developing the players’ nervous system to fire quickly and repeatedly to enable him or her to get to the ball quickly or to use and play the ball faster than expected. It gives clear guideline for coaching in terms of distances used and the number of repetitions needed.

Topic 8 – Skill Coaching and Training

Coaching players to develop the skill to play the ball, the ability to challenge for, gain possession of, hold and eventually deliver the ball to another player or to score is the most important aspect of all the coaching that is done at a training session. This topic examines the importance of the skill coaching and advises on how best to coach skill and how best to organise drills and small-sided games to ensure quality practice follows the coaching of any skill.

Topic 9 – Small-sided and Conditioned Games

This topic defines small-sided games and conditioned games and the objectives to be obtained by their use at training. It further emphasises the fast that one of the best ways to develop specific football skill is through the use of small-sided games and for developing endurance is through the use of well designed conditioned games. Their use is one of the best ways to develop the skills of the players but also overall ability of the players to last the pace of any game.

Topic 10 – Endurance Training in the Training Session

The term strength and conditioning is a very poor term for the work needed to train hurling or camogie teams. Strength is but one aspect of physical fitness conditioning – skill, speed, strength, flexibility as well as stamina are equally as important. This topic addresses the best methods of developing the endurance capacity of the players by giving strict advice and samples of what is needed in the modern game and how to order the stamina into a training session for maximum fitness effect.

Topic 11 – Understanding the Cool-down

This topic defines cool-down as “a period of low impact or slower exercise following a more intense workout to allow the body to gradually return to its normal physiological level” and presents the three important elements in all cool-downs which includes gentle cardiovascular exercise such as running or jogging, some stretching activities and some basic recovery strategies can be carried out in the dressing room environment.

Topic 12 – Influence of the Manager/Coach on the Training Session

This topic examines the importance of the delivery and conduct of the manager or coach at training. While it is true that one of the key reasons behind a team having team mentor is to improve sporting performance of the team as a unit, the team mentor needs to bring so much more to the role than simply achieving results on a scoreboard. According to the Australian Sports Commission, a sports team mentor needs to be – among other things – a manager, coach, teacher, psychologist, physiologist, and confidante. They also need to bring skills such as diplomacy, negotiation, facilitation, organisation, problem solving and motivation. The important ways that the manager or coach can influence the training outcomes are discusses in this final topic.

Course fee

Te fee for this course is €39.95.

Important note:

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The location possibilities are 3: Ireland/Europe (€)     /   USA ($)     /  UK (£)

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