On Saturday the 7th of November, Monaghan Coaching & Games organised their bi-annual Coaching Conference. This year the conference took place in Our Lady’s Castleblayney, after St Macartan’s College and Patrician High School hosted the first two conferences.
It was a busy day for the delegates who attended the conference with a wide range of workshops and presentations taking place on the day.
First up was a Keynote address from Diarmaid Marsden (Ulster GAA Club Coaching & Games Development Officer) on the importance of our clubs and the benefit of a good coaching structure. Diarmaid talked about a range of topics and looked at what other clubs in Ulster are currently doing to improve their structure. After this, the coaches in attendance had a choice of workshops to attend, with Owen Lennon & Patrick McCarron taking a workshop on Analysis to Field Practice: Effective Kickout Strategies, Emma Carragher (Senior Football Team Physio) presenting on Injury Prevention, Effective Warm-Ups and Recovery Methods and finally Kevin Kelly (Ulster Hurling Development Officer) took a practical session on developing attacking play in hurling.
Next up was Ryan Mellon (Ulster GAA Player Welfare Officer) who presented on a very relevant topic at the minute, what is player welfare and how can clubs help address this issue. Ryan has a wealth of experience and knowledge in this area and it was great that he could share this with us at the conference. After lunch former Armagh and current Crossmaglen manager Oisin McConville had a keynote address on setting the standards within your club. Oisin talked about his own experiences with his own club and hopefully the coaches can take some of the key messages Oisin talked about and start implementing them in their own club.
In the afternoon, senior football team coach Ryan Porter took a practical session on the effective use of the ball to develop fitness levels. Ryan ran through quite a number of different games and drills. He included a number of different variations to each game/ drill which the coaches can definitely use with their club teams. For the final section of the conference, which is usually referred to as the ‘graveyard shift’, a question and answers session involving county football team manager Malachy O’Rourke, senior county footballer Dick Clerkin and Conor McManus, senior county hurler Pauric Dowdall and former county star Eugene ‘Nudie’ Hughes took to the stage with Northern Sound’s Sean McCaffrey acting as the MC for the event. This was by no means a ‘Graveyard Shift’ with a lively debate taking place between the interviewees, Sean and the coaches in attendance. The Q+A covered a wide range of topics but they all had a theme relating back to coaching within both the club setting but also the county setting.
All the presenters were given a small plague in appreciation for their involvement in the conference and Monaghan Coaching & Games would just like to take this opportunity to thank the presenters for giving up their time and come and present at the conference.
Secondly, Monaghan Coaching & Games would like to thank Our Lady’s Castleblayney for hosting the event. It was a great venue for it and we would just like to thank the school for also providing tea and biscuits both in the morning and during lunch. Also, thanks to the students who came and helped out on the day as well.
Thanks to Platinum Tanks for their continued sponsorship of the conference. Your help is greatly appreciated and the money goes along way to make the conference a great success. To Anita Finnegan, Marion Donnelly and Irene Connolly thanks for helping out at the registration in the morning.
Finally, thanks to all the coaches and clubs who came and attended the conference. In total there was 86 coaches in attendance which was slightly short on the first two years of the conference but still a good number. Hopefully they took something out of the day and can start using it within their clubs.
You can download each of the presentations/ session plans by clicking on the link below.
Diarmaid Marsden – The Importance of our Clubs and the benefit of a good coaching structure
Owen Lennon & Patrick McCarron – Analysis to Field Practice: Effective Kickout Strategies
Emma Carragher – Injury Prevention, Effective Warm Ups and Recovery Methods
Kevin Kelly – Developing Attacking Play in Hurling
Ryan Mellon – What is Player Welfare and how can clubs help address this issue??
Ryan Porter – Effective use of the ball to develop fitness levels
You can view photos from the conference by clicking here
