HOW TO TRAIN 16 YEAR OLDS TO A COUNTY CHAMPIONSHIP and how it changed my life.

PAUL MUST GET All OF THE CREDIT FOR THIS AS HE TRAINED THEM SINCE THEY WERE 8 YEARS OLD. Paul literally brought them to the finish line, all I did was get them over it.

I once trained under 8s for a year & the organisation of it is not easy nor having the patience to teach them the basic skills and rules of the game, especially when you have 15 players all running after the one ball in one corner of pitch & only a few elsewhere 😂.

I learned later after my degree that the way to train these kids was in 2's, 3's & 4s where everyone touches the ball so firstly you need 10 to 20 football's at least where as training under 16 you can do a good training session even only with one ball. Face the Sun so their backs are to it when teaching & keep the learning skill as simple as possible, break it down without the ball first especially for jumping.

Most of the skills of game & kinaesthetic intelligence are formed between 0 to 16 years of age, I & a lot of sports people started walking at 10 months, after 17,18 it's about sports psychology, fitness & tactics but the cream always comes to the top. For example our clubs greatest ever player was a sub for our team for an under 14 all Ireland semi but his character ultimately forces his body to train harder & never give in so keep going & play the games you love.

At under 8 they really stand out, when I was training them it was more organising, one kid called Evan although small stood out amongst all the rest in terms of skill & by the end of the year I told his Mother, he had the talent to play for the county in a few years. Evan would have 7 players chasing him at times 😂 which happens alot at this age. I'm not sure how he progressed but I hope whatever I did helped.

By the end of the year I realised I was way to competitive for the under 8's at my mind set at the time was about winning not the development of as many kids as possible which it should be at 8. I was more suited to the 16's at that time which I helped train to a title.

To be honest though I was just brought in to get them over the line & if it wasn't for the fact I trained them for 3 months for a final & a replay I would not write this article at all. Paul was the man that trained them since under 8's. Paul very shrewdly brought me in & changed their training times to just before my own about a year or so before I started training adult teams professionally. There was no way I could get off work for both so he put the training directly before the U21's which I played as left full back in the final & semi, quarter the previous year & cost me my place through injury this time. I was doing too much it would come back to haunt me.

In fairness to Paul & his assistant Dave who gave these young lads the right attitude, listening skills, work ethic & determination, not to mention talent. For the first match it was just a case of getting them at peak fitness which we did through sprinting, muscular endurance & plyometrics. They were a bit stunned, ill never forget the captain telling his troops to appreciate it as it was way harder than the County training. All the ball work was done & we just had to peak. I'd never actually seen them play yet. It must be emphasised what a super team attitude they had, there was not one word out of place from them, If there had been I probably would of stopped & I think they knew it. Paul & David HAD DONE A SUPERB JOB ON THEM & through great management & had kept 25 or 26 players all together which is not easy.

THE ATTACKING PERFORMANCE & SHEER guts I seen from that group in the final was one of the best attacking underage performances I'd seen & when Conrad Reilly caught the ball from our kick out in the last seconds of injury time to to run the length of the field & kick over accurately from far out with the last kick of the game I knew I'd done what I was asked to do, watching from behind the goals beside keeper ill never forget cursing my luck & then shouting no, one more chance. It was a huge sigh of relief when we drew level & Paul for some reason put all the credit on me in the changing room, another ref would of blown it up, that equalising point to bring it to a replay was probably one of the most important points in our new clubs history because of what that group players would go on to achieve in the following decade. Winning keeps a team together & although they gave me a huge cheer in dressing room, my mind was already on the replay & to the shock of some the club committee members I forced the players to leave the dressing room & do the first cool down in the clubs history before the days of sports science, one committee member that I have huge respect for to this day complained we shouldn't of been doing that as the seniors weren't even doing it. In fairness to him, they should have been!!

I didn't care about what any other team did & as long as these lads were under my control they would do what they were told, prepare & recover for the replay & avoid injuries. Cool downs are imperative for removing lactic acid & returning muscle fibres to normal length & prevent delayed onset muscle soreness through stretching so we could be ready to play game or train the following week. Its what we had done after every training session & I wasn't going to change now despite knowing the eyes of the club were on me. If that made us the most prepared team in club then so be it, the seniors were not my problem & I wasn't there to please others, I was there to get the very best from this special group of players & win hopefully so I wasn't going to waste my time preparing or recovering badly.

Looking back on it Paul was so shrewd letting me do my thing, he knew if he intervened I'd probably walk away, he was even shrewder in the next training session. Paul had won an adult County championship as a player & was a very experienced ref & I learned from him how to deal with referees and players, most importantly he had the exact right balance of being able to kick them up the backside when needed & joke with them the next & that was definitely needed as I was very strict back then, most importantly he knew his own strengths & although I definitely wouldn't call it a weakness he realised I was a defender & asked me to take over the defensive talks & tips to players as I made my first & only senior appearance the week before when I was given Man of the match by Manager Robbie after marking Alan Daly against the All Ireland finalists Garrycastle who we prevented winning league that day. Paul was an attacking player when playing & would teach attackers himself.

Its an interesting point that I learned during my masters degree, most forwards are optimists that expect the ball to run a a certain way for their team & defenders are naturally more cautious & pessimistic, they expect the defender in front of them, their team mate to drop the ball & are ready to sweep up. It was either the end or start of session I'm not sure which & we were all in a circle on pitch in which all mentors complimented the attacking skills of the team but when it came to my turn I wasn't happy. I complimented their superb attacking performance but told them from 1 to 15 we were atrocious defensively, I cant remember how long I ranted on but it was long enough for Paul and Dave to walk a lap of pitch. I remember that & pushing the tallest player back, far taller than me to show the smallest players on team to show no fear so Paul asked me to teach the defenders in which we would play attacking v defence 12 v 12 all the time in which we never lost, reason being is because defenders will always get you a score but attackers don't know how to defend, I'd heard that from some prem manager.

For the replay we only conceded 6 scores & again put on a masterful attacking performance, the players deserve all the credit, they listened to every word I'd said & from 1 to 15 plus subs they were one of the first teams in the country to have forwards chasing their men, long before seniors started doing It. My main trait is resilience & competing for every ball, if you watch the video the centre back did exactly what I told him in knocking the ball out of forwards hands in the air & the concentration was never dropped for a second when the team captain harried his troops to remain focused until final whistle. When skill and fitness are equal, the most resilient, tenacious, focused team always wins & if you watch the video the players got the the hand in every chance they could & never gave their opposite number one second peace. They knew we'd accept nothing less & our mantra on every training session of mine was getting this down to a T WHICH they sung loud and proud upon lifting the cup😀 .

I had yearned to join the players and celebrate with them but I had to warm up for an under 21 final I'd played in the year before, the problem was this time I was injured for semi from sprinting too much 2 to 3 times a week with my team and the team I trained. I'd missed the semi through injury & despite getting man of the match in my first senior appearance against the all Ireland finalists Garrycastle, before the final I asked my old manager Davey in the warm up if I was playing in the team I'd only missed one match for 12 years if I was starting, he said we can't change a winning team. I was gutted & still am today as it would cost me a County medal I'd always craved. I'd forced Paul to get me pain killers before the game just incase my calf got sore again & he did in fairness but even now, even today I heard a premier league manager on talksport the other day saying its very hard to change a winning team.

Do I regret it ? To be honest I don't know & I probably wont know till much later in life, on one hand that position was mine for 12 years straight every single game. If I didn't train these young lads I'd never of got injured as it wasn't a bad injury & could have played & was too inexperienced as newly qualified fitness instructor to know I could of got through it but I've always been a team player & put them first, story of my life. I had remembered of Terry Phelan pulling up injured in 94 World Cup costing team a goal & didn't want that for my team. I was delighted both teams won but personally gutted. It was the right decision though & I never complained about it or not getting on. I wouldn't have changed defence either, I just warmed up as normal & encouraged my team throughout, I'd never been a sub before so I just couldn't sit down so I spent the whole game standing, walking side-line cheering my team mates.

Those 16 year olds never knew what I'd risked to train them & there was a few points I nearly walked a way. It will be a surprise to them reading this now to know the truth as I never vocalised it. They just thought I was a sub & sympathised with me that I never got on. It was a massive moment in my life, theirs and the clubs, who knows if Paul never asked me to train them I may never have gone on to train an adult hurling team to a county championship & may not be writing this article here now. Fergal had not been happy that I refused to play the semi & in fairness to Sam he deserved his chance & played well. I had kept our centre back out of the team the year before so I'd now seen both sides of it. I started training teams directly after that and never even went to a senior training session as I'd completed my goal of playing senior successfully, I was too busy and knew they were going nowhere as it was a drinking club at time. I knew it would take a few years for both my teams to come through & when they did I was in England doing my degree & gaining work experience with Wolverhampton Wanderers. I definitely would of played semi uninjured but would we have won? most likely yes but we will never know, would the u16s have won if I didn't train them? probably not, they wouldn't have been fit enough to equalise in last kick of game but Paul may have got someone else in, who knows.

All I know now is the Chairman said it was the greatest day in our new clubs history, both them teams would go to to play in one of the best senior sides the County ever seen, winning multiple Championships & getting to a Leinster final, 2 steps from winning an All Ireland. They learned a lot from that year, giving them the fitness & defensive resilience to win a further Minor & U21 Title with possibly the greatest underage manager the clubs ever had in Paul. I'm a team player I'd mostly play on left despite being right footed, the team was most important although I played my best football on right winning a Provincial with County against Dublin at underage, A TEAM PLAYER NEVER SAYS NO TO ANY REQUEST so I couldn't turn Paul down although I probably should have. One day I hope to manage a Senior team although this will stand me in good stead I don't have the playing experience for It. For different reasons I would never go on to fulfil my potential on pitch & I must accept responsibility for that as I valued something else more but off it I suppose I now own physicaleducation.net & most of the best PE domains on earth. WOULD I HAVE GONE DOWN THIS PATH IF I DIDN'T TRAIN THEM? I DONT 100% KNOW. EVEN NOW THOUGH I'M BITING MY THUMB, GUTTED NOT TO HAVE EARNED A COUNTY MEDAL WITH TEAM I GREW UP WITH AND PLAYED FOR 12 YEARS. I DONT KNOW HOW TO FINISH THIS ARTICLE I'M STILL GUTTED 😂 AND WILL NOT KNOW IF IT WAS THE RIGHT DECISION UNTIL LATER IN LIFE. THE PLAYERS now KNOW I GUESS WHAT I RISKED TO TRAIN THEM AND WHAT A GREAT BUNCH OF LADS THEY HAVE TURNED OUT TO BE. PROUD TO HAVE been involved with them. THANKS PAUL & to my own team for the memories, most compliments are due to both teams mentors on their success in following decade but it was a huge day I'm proud to have played a small part in.