Экс-тренер Гейлика предупреждает: ограничение передачи руками может снизить количество ударов по воротам

Pat Spillane has warned that restricting consecutive handpasses could have an unexpected effect on Gaelic football: encouraging players to kick the ball even less. Writing in his Irish Independent column, the eight-time All-Ireland winner drew on his 35 years of experience as a coach and PE teacher to question the proposed restriction. Spillane regularly used a three-handpass limit in training games. However, he found that players could become so preoccupied with completing their allocation that they lost sight of other opportunities. Pat Spillane Warns Three-Handpass Limit Could Actually Lead To Less Kicking His concern is that a rule designed to encourage kicking could instead make three handpasses the default approach to possession. Take the limit on the number of hand-passes for example. As a coach and PE teacher for over 35 years, I’m well accustomed to conditioned games and I regularly limited the number of hand-passes to three.  The result? The kids became so focused on completing three hand-passes that, all too often, they actually forgot about kicking the ball at all. A maximum of three handpasses does not require a team to use all three before kicking, but his experience suggests players can begin treating the limit as an instruction. Advertisement Spillane believes that could undermine the very purpose of the experiment, warning that “by extension of restricting hand-passing, we might actually get less kicking as well”. Recommended The restriction is among the changes being brought forward for trials in the third-level Division One league by the Kevin McStay-led Expert Advisory Group. Any permanent change would depend on the outcome of those trials and subsequent approval. The proposal has already prompted questions about whether teams would simply complete three handpasses before delivering a short kick to restart the sequence. Advertisement Speaking to Stephen Grealis on Midwest Radio, McStay acknowledged that concern and accepted that the number could change if the initial trials exposed problems. He also made clear that the group would be prepared to increase the limit to four or abandon the restriction if it proved unworkable. Spillane’s reservations also come with a recent precedent. Advertisement Let’s not forget, this isn’t the first time we’ve seen this proposal, which was trialled in the 2019 pre-season competitions with a view to introducing it into that season’s league.  But such was the outcry from players and managers that the plan was scuppered before the league even started. On January 19, 2019, Central Council voted 25–23 to discontinue the handpass restriction. Four other experimental changes continued into the National League, but the three-handpass rule did not survive the pre-season assessment. Advertisement The forthcoming trials will give the idea another examination in a different setting. Spillane’s experience raises a specific question for those assessing it: will players recognise opportunities to kick earlier, or become more concerned with counting their handpasses? SEE ALSO: ‘When Kobe Comes In, The Intensity Lifts’ – John Maughan On Crossmolina’s Returning Star SEE ALSO: What An English Designer Learned When He Re-Imagined All 32 GAA Crests