Agility Training For Gaelic Games – Part 2

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Agility Training for Gaelic Games – Part 2
Taking It Beyond the Basics

In Part 1, we looked at the core building blocks of agility—shuffles, cuts, and cross-over steps—and why even experienced players often need help mastering those foundations. Now in Part 2, we’re stepping it up a gear. This is where agility training moves from just “doing drills” to actually building a system—a progressive and purposeful approach that matches your players’ needs and development.

Most of what I believe in when it comes to agility training is influenced heavily by the work of EXOS and Dr. Ian Jeffreys, two thought leaders in the space. If you're not familiar with their work, I highly recommend diving into it. It’s practical, readable, and hugely relevant to field sports like Gaelic football and hurling. I would also say a huge thanks to Ciaran Deely who over coffee one day shared with me his ASAP principles that was hugely beneficial to me in aiding my systemising of training these modalities. 

Why You Need a System

Coaching a team—especially at club or county level—is chaotic. With so many moving parts, it's easy to fall into a cycle of doing what feels right instead of what is right. That’s where having a system, or at the very least a framework, becomes invaluable.

One useful concept I’ve borrowed from strength and conditioning is the idea of exercise levels. You've probably heard something described as a “Level 1” or “Level 4” movement. This isn’t just jargon—it’s a way to logically progress exercises within a family. For example:

  • Level 1 Core = High Plank Hold

  • Level 5 Core = Ab Wheel Rollout
    Same muscle group, same intention—but miles apart in difficulty and coordination.

You can think this way with agility training, too. If you’re asking athletes to perform movement skills they’re not ready for, you’re not developing them—you’re potentially setting them up for injury or frustration.

Agility Paradigm

Reactive-based agility work, a classic drill called mirror box, this drill has a place but in hindsight, more game-based work like 3v2 or 2v1 drills would have been better for this cohort. 

Breaking Down Movement: Beyond Just “Agility”

Agility isn’t just about fast feet. It’s about navigating the chaos of a game with control, confidence, and composure. To train for that, we need to identify how players actually move.

Here’s a snapshot of the GPS data from one of my players in a county hurling match. How many straight lines do you see? Almost none. The game is full of curves, decelerations, directional changes, rotations, recoveries, and explosive breaks. That tells us one thing: training in straight lines is not enough.

GPS of A player and the movements he made in a hurling match, how many straight lines are there?

That’s why I break agility training down into:

  • Drill-Based Agility (technical development)

  • Game-Based Agility (decision-making under pressure)

And within that, I further identify movement planes:

  • Linear

  • Lateral (sideways)

  • Backwards

  • Rotational

Your training should hit all these boxes over time.

The Complexity vs Specificity Matrix

This is where I start to map out where a team or player is on the agility development ladder.

Imagine this chart below:

  • The horizontal axis = Complexity (simple to advanced movement)

  • The vertical axis = Specificity (generic drills to game-like scenarios)

If a team is still shaky on fundamentals (generally my schools rugby guys live here a long time), I’ll keep them in the bottom-left quadrant: basic, controlled drills like shuffles to cones, or backpedal-and-cut patterns.

If I’m working with a more developed team—county seniors or elite minors—I shift to the top-right: chaotic, decision-rich environments like 3v2 chase games, no-arm tackle squares, and reaction grids.

This matrix isn’t a rigid rulebook. I break it all the time. But it is a guide—and when you’re coaching 20+ players with different needs, that kind of structure can be a game-changer.

The Direction of Modern Agility Training

The current consensus—and it’s growing louder—is this:

The more match-specific your agility training is, the more valuable it is.

That doesn’t mean drills are obsolete. Far from it. It means we need to progress from isolated drills toward integrated movement challenges that mimic the decision-making and unpredictability of games. That’s the sweet spot.

So in other words, this chart at least identifies all the movements you probably should include when training a team. Of course, actually playing the game does tackle all this, but, we are talking about making your players the best movers they can be so it's worth refining and ironing out deficiencies. 

The gauntlet is a nice way to get a more reactive game-based agility training done with teams. But even here you can see some players who lack the basics and need to be coached one-to-one in either the cut, shuffle, etc. 

Agility work of this kind can be useful for return to physio work. 

Summary & Takeaways

  • Do your homework: Look up EXOS and Dr. Ian Jeffreys. Their frameworks are gold for coaches.

  • Build a system: Use levels, charts, or progressions—whatever works. But don’t just “wing it” every session.

  • Coach movement every week: Whether it’s 5 minutes or 15, make movement skill a staple.

  • Reinforce the basics: Mastery comes from repetition. Don’t be afraid to repeat movements—but make them engaging and progressive.

  • Make it fun, make it challenging, make it game-like.

Agility isn’t just about cones and drills—it’s about creating athletes who move intelligently. And when your team starts to move better, everything looks smoother: tackling, supporting, defending, breaking lines. It all improves.

Until next time—
Happy Coaching.

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