[7-min read]

Introduction

The intermittent, chaotic demands of Gaelic Football will require players to perform high-speed, short-duration efforts of multi-directional, anaerobic movements in between longer periods of light to moderate aerobic efforts. On top of this, technical activities must be performed to contribute towards success in the game such as winning possession of the ball, evading opponents, and ‘breaking’ tackles while running at high speeds, Cullen et al (2017). 

Over the past decade, sport science has become an integral part of preparation/training within Gaelic Games certainly at elite inter-county level. The introduction of both subjective and objective load monitoring and athlete readiness advancements such as GPS, force plates, RPE ratings & wellness questionnaires have given coaches/practitioners the ability to dive deeper into how their players are responding to training and use load management to optimize performance and prevent injury. 

GPS Technology in Gaelic Football

Since the introduction of these technologies, external load metrics derived from GPS have heavily influenced the planning of individual training sessions and even entire blocks of training. Planning of training loads will be viewed from an ‘entire session’ perspective rather than the drills that the entire session is composed of. 6,000m total distance and 1,200m of high-speed running distance may be useful to know at the end of a session from a physical perspective but technically, tactically, and psychologically how were the players challenged?

Prescription of training drills should be underpinned with the goal of providing an adequate stimulus from a physical and technical skill standpoint to improve or maintain the conditioning of the player, completely depending on the time of the season, Ford and Whelan (2016).

GPS Derived Metrics

Drill Classification and Load Management

Currently, in Gaelic football, the total load/physical demands of each training session will be used to inform practice and the following training sessions for the week, this is extremely useful from a load management perspective however it does not tell us much about the composition of the session. Each drill performed will provide different physical, technical, and tactical stimuli, which should be taken into consideration particularly when preparing to play the game with certain principles or within a ‘system’.

Previous research by McGahan et al provides categories to best describe traditional training activities commonly performed in Gaelic football training. However, to date, no published research has examined training drill activities and their relationship with competition demands within Gaelic football.

The categorisation system employed to classify the different session’s practice activities was adapted from that used by Ford and Whelan (2016). Ford and Whelan (2016) assessed the practice activities of four youth football teams from each of three professional clubs in England. Drills were classified into 2 main categories; active decision making and non-active decision making with sub-categories inside these two categories.

Data around the expected output of each drill can be extremely useful for coaches/practitioners in planning their sessions with load management in mind. A practical example of this could be during training week where two sessions have been completed and planning for the third and final session of the week is taking place while aiming to achieve a set amount of total distance, high-speed running distance, accelerations, and decelerations in order to provide a weekly load which is optimal for the squad.

Instead of monitoring the session live and simply ‘calling it’ when players reach these pre-determined numbers, if we plan the session with a general idea of what the physical output will be from each player in each specific drill or general drill classification, we can begin to focus on quality coaching rather than having load management as the main priority in our heads during the session.

Table 3 below provides an example of the average physical output that can be expected of some Gaelic football training drills.

From the data above, coaches/practitioners can then begin to determine which drills will provide adequate physical stimulus without compromising the football-based factors of development. Practical examples of these dilemmas may be where the team has received a high volume of high-speed running distance in their previous session and the upcoming training session aims to be football-focused without the demand for high-speed running distances. We know that a drill such as “2 v 4 Open Space Tackling” will allow football-based training to occur, with a higher amount of accelerations and decelerations than other drills and a reduced amount of high-speed running. 

Relating Training Data to Game Data

Above all else, the ability to perform in competitive football games should be the priority of all training. As a coach, it is a useful exercise to sit down with the physical output data from your drills and ask, are we training a similar way to how we are expected to play? Have the players been pushed to adequate volumes and intensities over training blocks in the lead-up to competition? Do our drills replicate physical, technical, and tactical situations that will arise in competitive gameplay?

There is a bulk of research available currently to provide insights into the physical demands of club, Mangan et al (2020) and inter-county, McGahan et al (2018), level football for coaches to gain an insight to general demands of their game, however, it will always be recommended to base your training from your team’s contribution to games where possible rather than general research.

Summary

In summary, it is becoming increasingly important to consider the composition of training sessions as well as the session as a whole in the planning process. GPS data can play a large role in load management by monitoring the physical training loads placed upon each player in training and competition, this data however needs to be complemented with technical and tactical feedback to determine if the desired training outcomes are being achieved in competitive performances.

References

1. Cullen, B.D., Roantree, M.T., McCarren, A.L., Kelly, D.T., O’Connor, P.L., Hughes, S.M., Daly, P.G. and Moyna, N.M., 2017. Physiological profile and activity pattern of minor Gaelic football players. The Journal of Strength & Conditioning Research, 31(7), pp.1811-1820.
2. Ford PR, Whelan J. 2016. Practice activities during coaching sessions in elite youth football and their effect on skill acquisition. In: Allison W, Abraham A, Cale A, editors. Advances in coach education and development: from research to practice. London (UK): Routledge; p. 112–123.
3. Malone S, Solan B, Collins KD, Doran DA. Positional Match Running Performance in Elite Gaelic Football. J Strength Cond Res. 2016 Aug;30(8):2292-8. doi: 10.1519/JSC.0000000000001309. PMID: 26694505.
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7. Hoffmann, J.J., Reed, J.P., Leiting, K., Chiang, C.Y. and Stone, M.H., 2014. Repeated sprints, high-intensity interval training, small-sided games: Theory and application to field sports. International journal of sports physiology and performance, 9(2), pp.352-357.
8. Mangan, S., Collins, K., Burns, C. and O’Neill, C., 2020. The positional technical and running performance of sub-elite Gaelic football. Science and Medicine in Football, 4(3), pp.182-191.
9. McGahan J, Burns C, Lacey S, Gabbett T, and O’Neill C. 2018 An investigation in to the positional running demands of elite Gaelic football players: how competition data can inform training practice. Journal of Strength and Conditioning