Issue link: http://digitaleditions.uberflip.com/i/1466433
44 | SPRING 2022 | www.ladiesgaelic.ie Development PLAYER Name: David Nagle County: Clare Player Development Programme Age Cohort: U13 What is your role in Player Development Programme: U13 PDP Coordinator, Clare Development Committee Member, Coach, Father... What is it you like about the Player Development Programme that encouraged you to get involved as a coordinator and/or coach for the programme? I was the U14 County manager in 2021. Following the tournament, we felt we needed to improve for the U16 tournament in 2023, by focusing on the following three areas: • Improve the skill levels and fitness of girls. • Increase the number of girls participating. • Create a consistency of coaching across the county. The PDP principles seemed to capture the essence of what we wanted to achieve, so I volunteered to coordinate both the U13 PDP and U15 PDP, for the first year, as I have daughters participating in both. What do you think is important to ensure the Player Development Programme for your age cohort is successful in your County? 1. Support from County board. 2. Buy in from clubs. 3. A coordinator with a plan and an ability to communicate and execute. 4. Good coach to player ratio. 5. Suitable venue and equipment. How many coaches do you have involved in the programme and how did you attract them? We have 29 coaches signed up to support the U13 PDP for 102 girls. However, we have 18-20 regular coaches attend the sessions. Initially, we only had three coaches offering to help in December, so we had to review our approach. We decided to offer the PDP to all 2009-born girls and to all our 22 clubs on one condition - '4:1' condition. For every four girls a club put forward for the 'County' U13 PDP, the club had to provide one coach. If a club wanted to send in eight girls, then they needed to provide two coaches. We encourage clubs to send in a whole team of 16, but with four coaches. How has having coaches impacted on the number of players participating in the programme? Because of our great coach to player ratio, with 16-20 coaches every week, the girls are getting individual attention. Effectively, we have one coach dedicated to four girls for two hours each week. PLAYER DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMME: THE COACH'S PERSPECTIVE We talk to David Nagle, the Clare U13 PDP Co-ordinator, about his perspective on the PDP programme that he is involved in... We are getting high numbers of girls attending. In fact, we are getting requests from clubs to include more girls. We can easily accommodate more girls and, as a result, we might expand it further. What attributes do you look for in a PDP coach and what will they get personally from being involved? Ideally, we were looking for someone who was involved, or who is involved in coaching teams, who might be looking to learn new drills and learn from others. However, we didn't get too many volunteers in this category, primarily as these are the coaches who are busy managing their own club teams. So, we had to further qualify the word 'coach' with clubs. - A parent who is a paid-up member of an LGFA club, has garda vetting, safeguarding as a minimum. Ideally, who would agree to do an 'Introduction to Gaelic Games' Coaching course. We would also accept parents who didn't want to coach, but were willing to help – i.e. manage attendance, collect monies, first aid, female liaison officers, timekeepers, drill set-up, manage cones/ poles, bib, etc. Feedback from the coaches involved has highlighted they have learned how to structure a session, importance of identifying key themes and good drills that assist with gaining a better understanding of how to address errors, as they have the ability to focus on the execution with a small number of girls. In addition, they also have access to coaching material, and a new network of coaches.