It was an enormous honour to present on skill development at the Gaelic Games conference in November. My presentation, alongside many others, is now available:
Some key points covered within the presentation:
We cannot talk about skill acquisition without first defining skill. Skill is interconnected cycles of reading the play and adapting the movement to solve the problem the moment presents. That definition of skill has implications for practice design.
Coaches should not think about a single Gold Standard session that everyone should follow. Instead, coaches need to think about a Goldilocks session: how to create practice that is just right for the learners.
There are many different ways in which you can deliver an effective practice session. There is no one gold standard but that doesn’t mean that you can do any combination of activities or provide feedback in any way; there absolutely are effective ways to practice.
As we become focused on designing and delivering better practice sessions, it’s vital that we don’t forget about the value and promotion of informal play.
Skill Acquisition doesn’t have all the answers; that’s why we’re called scientists, not sages. As scientists we are intrigued by the problems that players and coaches face and we are always learning.
There was a lot of work in the creation of the framework; thank you to everyone who supported the process.
The framework for Skill Acquisition in Gaelic Games that we created is available here:
https://online.fliphtml5.com/fhqhq/sikj/#p=1.
For all the presentations at the 2024 Gaelic Games conference, see:
https://learning.gaa.ie/CoachingConference2024
Dr Phil Kearney is the Course Director of the MSc Applied Sports Coaching within the PESS Department here at the University of Limerick.
View Phil’s profile here: https://pure.ul.ie/en/persons/philip-kearney
Contact: Email: philip.kearney@ul.ie (for MSc inquiries please email ASC@ul.ie ORCID ResearchGate Google Scholar
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