Exciting new initiative as Duhallow GAA break the mould

The Duhallow GAA Coaching Conference brought a buzz to Kanturk GAA last week as leading coach Pat Spratt delivered an insightful programme for local coaches.

Across a series of hands-on sessions, Spratt explored skill development, session planning, and creating enjoyable training environments for young players.

Attendees from clubs across Duhallow engaged enthusiastically with a large crowd in attendance.

The conference showcased the division’s commitment to continuous learning and high coaching standards, which was Spratt’s brainchild with IT expertise coming from Tracey Walker.

This is a positive news story for Cork GAA with Spratt’s experience and knowledge coming to the fore. He explains why now is the time to roll out this new plan.

“I suppose in my time as a GDC with Cork GAA, I’ve gone out now to clubs year on year, making out club plans and putting club structures in place, but I find that maybe with executives moving on and coaching officers changing on a regular basis in clubs that plans get lost and structures get lost in clubs.

“For a long time I suppose I wanted to put something like this together and put a structure there for a player pathway, so for instance, if I’m a six-year-old, what should a six-year-old be able to do? One of my sayings when I go into clubs is that a sixth-class boy does sixth-class maths, so it’s important that we don’t steer away from that.

“It’s all aid-specific training and session plans and just ideas really for coaches that they can work off and something that they can have, you know, when they go on to the pitch.” 

While the initial plan is for this to roll out to coaches in Duhallow, the expectation is that it will be county-wide before too long.

“I’ve sent the plan out to a good few coaches already, 25, 30 people, and when we looked at the analytics of it there last night, there’s over 600 people after seeing it already on our new website, it’s gone all over the world really.

“The world has changed. People are busy now, and they don’t really have time to think about the training session that evening, and it’s very important that we coach kids, that we just don’t go down training them, and there’s a huge difference between the two. Having the curriculum for them is very, very important to me.

“Being able to develop the skills slower, at the child’s pace and at their own age, is very, very important to me.” 

Spratt is a vastly experienced coach, who has trained Glanworth, Éire Óg, Castlemagner and Ballylanders in Limerick to name just a few, and has been involved as a selector with the Cork minor and U20 football teams in the past.

Looking to the future is always the motto for the Buttevant clubman.

“Look, it’s a work in progress. We’re constantly evolving and having to change with the world, really.

“But yes, Rebel Óg and Cork GAA have good fixture plans and good programmes out there now for kids and for adults as well. Maybe when I see kids coming into development squads, that kind of highlights it to me a small bit.

“At 13, when players come in, they might be only kicking off their strong foot and not being able to tackle properly.

“I suppose that comes back to what I’m trying to do here with this new plan. I’m trying to give the coach an idea, a structure of what they should be able to do and how they should be able to do it and at what time in a boy or girl’s career should they be implementing those skills.” Spratt concluded.

Duhallow Coaching has launched its new website, a dynamic online platform designed to support the development of Gaelic games across the Duhallow region.

The new website serves as a central hub for players, coaches, parents, and clubs, providing easy access to coaching resources, training templates, courses information, and the latest news from Duhallow GAA Coaching initiatives.

The new website can be found at www.duhallowgaacoaching.ie