Coaching In Cork Conference 2006

County Cork Local Sports Partnership held its second ‘Coaching Cork’ conference on 8 April 2006 in the Trabeg Sports Centre, home to Nemo Rangers GAA club. The conference, which was informed by feedback received from delegates who attended the 2005 conference, comprised of a mix of presentations and workshops throughout the day.

The Conference kicked off in the morning with a key note presentation by Jim Kilty of SAQ Ireland and coach to Derval O’Rourke. Jim’s address to the delegates was entitled “The Changing Face of Coaching in Ireland” and made particular reference to his work with Derval and many other top class athletes from a wide variety of sporting disciplines.

The second key note speaker was Anne Marie Hughes of the Irish Sports Council. Anne Marie’s address focused on the Code of Ethics and Good Practice in Children’s Sport, a subject of great importance to every coach and club.

The main block of the conference consisted of 2 workshop sessions during the day with a choice of 3 topics. The topics and presenters included:

• Coaching the Fundamentals (Terence McWilliams, Ulster GAA Master tutor and adviser to primary schools on PE curriculum delivery)


• Mental Preparation for Sport (Liam Moggan, Coach Education Development Officer at the NCTC in Limerick and adviser to Ken Doherty and the Athens Paralympic Athletics team)


• Introduction to Weights training for Sports (Colin Buckley – Director of Coaching with the Irish Amateur Weightlifting Association and certified conditioning coach with the IRFU)

In addition to the above, a closing panel of John Treacy (CEO Irish Sports Council and Olympic Silver Medallist), Gillian O’Sullivan (Ireland Race walker) and Eamon Ryan, (Coach to Cork’s successful Ladies Football Team) took questions from the delegates.