Something that has always fascinated me when watching Gaelic Football is the disparity of foot passes that are attempted and executed during a game. You have seen them all, the daisy cutter, the punt, the Hail Mary with snow on it, the ball behind where the player is running and my ‘favourite’ of all (said through gritted teeth), the outside of the boot, blazed at a teammate from 50-60m away which is coming at the recipient as if shot from a gun with zero margin for error! These passes are there for all to see but what do we as coaches do about them? Sit back, shrug our shoulders and say we can’t control the style of kicking on the pitch or do we set about talking to the players and working on their kicking techniques. I for one am in the latter camp and attempt to work on the players’ techniques.

One Bounce

This to me is the ideal pass. A kick pass to a teammate on the move that is into space in the recipients’ direction of running where he meets the pass after it has bounced once and the recipient can take it at full speed without having to check their movement. When I am dealing with players in training, I actively speak to them about this type of pass, I emphasise it, I design games where we can practice it. If you can improve your players’ ability to deliver this pass consistently in match situations you will have gone a long way to improving your teams’ gameplay, attacking and ball retention all in one.

How to coach the pass

When speaking about this pass I like to use coaching ques. I talk to the player about delivering the ball off the ‘instep’. I ask them to kick to ‘space’ or ‘green grass’ outside where the recipient is moving. I speak to the player about ‘taking the heat off the pass’. By this I mean, if your target is 50m away when kicking the ball, the ball does not have to be kicked the 50m to the target. Kick the ball hard enough for it to travel 30m, the recipient is moving at pace so they will cover at least 20m and they then will meet the ball after the one bounce on the move. By not kicking the ball at full force it gives a margin for error if it is slightly off target and allows for the recipient to adjust their run while the ball is in flight.

At the start of every session from academy ages of 6-7yr olds all the way to senior I would encourage players to get into groups of 2 or 3 and start kicking the ball to each other. For the smallies just being able to kick out of the hands over any distance is an achievement to be praised but as we go up the ages and particularly for u11-12 onwards we need to start honing our kicking techniques. Left foot, right foot, right foot, left foot all the time encouraging both sides. Work on their distance control, ball manipulation, ability to put the ball in an area where they want it to go. Pass and move, increase the tempo and incorporate all this into the warm-up of the group.

For in-play practice at match tempo, I try to design small-sided games. Keep the numbers per grid-down but have them play in a large area, thereby giving loads of space for long kicking and encouraging players to move around the area. After all this, I would then bring this into a full-sided game on the pitch where the one bounce kick pass is constantly sought from the players. Praise it when a player delivers it well and speak to those who are struggling to execute the skill. Don’t be overly critical especially with young players as this leads to nervousness and a reluctance to try the pass. You are the coach, put your thinking cap on and try to figure out ways to help the player to improve this skill

Pursuit of Excellence

The best kickers of the ball historically in Gaelic Football have emanated from Kerry. In the modern game they have been joined by Dublin and only this year have we heard about Tyrone’s endeavours to kick the ball more and look where this got them!! We have to harness a pursuit of excellence in our players’ ability to kick the ball. A number of years ago I brought the club senior football team to Dingle for a team bonding weekend in early February. I arranged for the coach of the local senior football team to take our lads for a session. As he put our lads through their paces on the second pitch, I observed a group of teenagers, 8 or 10 young lads head out onto the main pitch. As I kept an eye on our lads, I watched this group put on their boots and head out onto the pitch with 2 bags of footballs and not a coach in sight. For the next hour or so they spent their time kicking the ball to each other, kicking it over the bar, kicking for goals and just generally kicking the ball! This was not a training session, just a group of young lads putting in the extra practice required to master the craft they love, kicking the ball!!

All skills are learnable!

Go forth and spread the gospel of the One Bounce Pass. if we as a group of coaches in this club can commit to improving our players kicking ability in the years to come, we will reap the rewards of it down the line.

Stay safe and chat soon.