Molly Dunne's journey from playing to coaching

By John Harrington

An impressive list of speakers has been assembled for the 2024 Gaelic games Coaching Conference which will take place in Croke Park on Saturday, November 23.

One of them is former Galway Camogie star, Molly Dunne, who will contribute to the topic 'Transitioning from the Player to the Coach Pathway'.

Dunne is well qualified to offer some insight here. She has made a successful transition herself to coaching, helping Offaly club St. Rynagh's to consecutive All-Ireland Ireland Intermediate camogie titles and the Galway Intermediate camogie team to All-Ireland glory in 2022.

Last year she was a coach with the Galway senior camogie team and participated in the Female Coach Mentorship Programme overseen by Cliodhna O'Connor, two experiences she learned a lot from.

In a conversation with GAA.ie, Dunne outlined the lessons she has learned along they way and why she believes having a growth mindset and improving your communication skills are crucial to making the leap from playing to coaching.

GAA.ie: Molly, you played at a high level and now you coach at a high level. What was the journey like along the way and when did the transition begin?

Molly Lynch: I work in sport as well as ATU Galway Sports Development officer so I'm kind of steeped in it. I had to finish up playing inter-county because of injury and when something happens like that and it's a decision that's forced upon you rather than something you wanted to do, I think I had to find something to fill that gap. For me, coaching was the obvious thing, and I got stuck into it from there.

GAA.ie: What was the injury and what age were you at that stage?

ML: I finished with Galway in 2016 because I had disc issues in my back. I had a couple of procedures on my back and they were telling me it was time to step away. I was just gone 29 at the time which was earlier than I wanted. I did get back playing a small bit with the club but it was more recreational than anything.

I had always done a bit of coaching with the underage in the club but then in 2017 I started coaching at a more serious level. Initially I found the transition really difficult because you're coaching people your own age. I came from being an inter-county player with that commitment level where you're obsessed with the game and I was expecting everybody to be like that and I quickly learned that's not the case at club level. I realised I needed to come and meet people at their level rather than expecting people to come and meet me at my level.

I did a small bit with my own club at adult level and then got involved with the Galway minor camogie team and St. Rynagh's senior camogie team in Offaly. I was lucky enough to have good success with them, we won two club All-Irelands.

I went so quick into that I was only ever coaching what I knew but I learned and developed a small bit over time. I then went in as a coach with the Galway Intermediate camogie team and won the All-Ireland there and then last year I coached with the Galway senior camogie team and at the same time I got involved with Cliodhna O'Connor's Female Coach Mentorship Programme.

Between both I very quickly realised that, yes, this is the level I want to coach at, Galway senior intercounty camogie, but I'm not there yet. I felt I wasn't being the best I could be at it. Throughout my time on the Programme, that helped me really realise that. While I was probably considered as a strong coach in the Programme, when I got exposed to more high-performing environments in other sports, which was a huge opportunity we got from that Programme, I saw the difference with high performance coaching and the level I was coaching at.

GAA.ie: What high performance coaching environments were you exposed to through the Female Coach Mentorship Programme?

ML: I got to spend time with a Basketball Ireland team. I spent time with an Irish women's hockey team. I spent time with Connacht women's rugby, watching their coaches. And then even getting exposed to higher level coaches within the GAA at senior inter-county level, I was lucky enough to get the opportunity to shadow some of them.

That's where I opened my eyes and was able to say, look, what you're doing is good, but you need to look and learn from other people and take advice from other people and feedback and see how you can apply that to your coaching philosophy. That's really what I took away from being in that Programme.

You go from team to team in your coaching and training and you're doing what you think is brilliant, but when you have a mentor assigned to you and when that mentor comes and watches you and gives you really honest feedback, it really opened my eyes to the importance of letting more people in. More experienced people or people with a different view to mine and get their feedback because there's always a better way of doing things.

I went straight into coaching from playing at intercounty level, got success, and thought I was doing brilliantly, but it wasn't until I saw that really high performance level that I knew that, okay, I'm still not the best I can be at this. That's what I've really been focusing on this year. Putting in to practice the things that I learned from the Female Coach Mentorship Programme, looking at other sports, talking to other coaches and seeing how I can apply some of the things that they do to my coaching so I can try to get up to that high performance level .

GAA.ie: As a player you can be quite insular because your job is to get the best from yourself whereas a coach has to have a broader perspective and that's possibly not an easy jump to make immediately, is it?

ML: No, it wasn't. As a player, while you're aware of all the different things, the moving parts that are involved in a team, until you are at the other side and working as a coach you don't really understand the importance of all those other moving parts and being able to use a bit from every one of them.

So, for example, the experiences of a Strength and Conditioning coach, the video analysis, the nutritionist, they all have roles to play and it's important that you use all of those skilled people and entwine them in your coaching as well. That they're not all separate, that they have to complement each other.

Whereas as a player, while you see the importance in them, you don't realise the work that has to go on in the background to make all that work together in one unit. As a player we can be very selfish in trying to be the best we can be. But, as a coach, your approach is totally different. You're trying to make other people be the best they can be and you have to understand that you have to come to their level of learning, their level of communication, to bring them along the journey with you.

That was difficult for me because when I came in as a coach first I felt I was on a personal journey and I'm going to do all of this. But I soon realised it's not possible to do all that on your own.

GAA.ie: As a coach you obviously have to work on your communication and interpersonal skills with your players, but it's important to do that too with the other members of the management team, isn't it?

ML: It is, yeah, definitely. You have to communicate well with your whole management team and make sure everybody understands what we're doing and why we're doing it. And then it's how you communicate that then to the players on the pitch. A huge thing I have learned over time is that every player learns differently. A player may learn visually really well and another player may learn by doing really well. It's having that understanding that I need to tick those boxes as a coach to make sure that all those different players who learn differently get an opportunity to learn in my sessions.

That was learned through failure where I expected people to know what I was doing but I soon realised by building relations with players that they all learn differently. Definitely those interpersonal and communication skills are vital and you have to be open to change too. Change in how I do things was a huge learning for me as a coach and it still is.

GAA.ie: I would imagine it's not always easy to change your perspective as a coach and accept there's a better way based on someone else's opinion or way of doing things?

ML: It's not, but once I understood the importance of being open to change I found that quite relative to my experience as a player so it wasn't too difficult to then do it as a coach. As players we take feedback to improve. As a player I craved feedback from coaches so I could improve. Those were the coaches I personally would have clicked the best with so I was aware of that going in as a coach. That driven players want feedback and want to be given advice on how to improve. That would have been a really strong part of my coaching philosophy, that player feedback and engagement. So I was able understand then as a coach that I have to be open to that too if I'm going to improve.

GAA.ie: Is it rewarding then as a coach when you engage in critical self-analysis and tweak a few things and then see a positive impact from doing that? Is that one of the big satisfactions of coaching, going after self-growth and then seeing the benefit of doing so?

ML: Hugely. It's hugely, hugely rewarding. In GAA and every sport really when you're coaching it's about winning, but the hugely rewarding thing about coaching is when you see something that you've been trying to improve on as a person lead to positive outcomes. I see now that me building those relationships with players so I can understand how they might learn better, that makes them be more open to feedback. And then me seeing them progress gives me great satisfaction.

The time I'm putting in to being a better coach, I'm getting results out of it now. I'm not talking about results on a pitch, I'm talking about getting through to players and getting the reaction from them on the pitch. I'm getting the buy-in from them. Probably the most rewarding thing from being a coach is when you know that you have a group of players that have bought in to what you're trying to do. Building that relationship with them is definitely the key to getting them to buy in to it.

GAA.ie: In recent years we've had an explosion in the number of females playing Gaelic games. Would you hope that will follow through now to the number of females coaching Gaelic games? Are there barriers that need to be removed for that to happen or do we need to facilitate it better than we are currently?

ML: Yeah, I definitely think there's huge room for improvement. Definitely the more female coaches we see, the more others will have the confidence to take that step. I was very lucky growing up in my club in so far as up to minor level we always had female coaches. One thing I always took from them that they had such a huge love for the game. I brought that with me when I finished playing and went in to coaching. I've always kept that love for the game strong because that's what drives you to put in all of those hours you want to put in as a coach, your real love for the game.

I think we can get that message across to all females. If you loved the game while you played it then can still love it as a coach and just put your energy in to that side of it. I think the more female coaches that are out there and the more we see them involved in male teams as well that will open the door further for more female coaches to step through. I think there's a fear there at the moment - "Are we good enough? Will we be accepted?"

All my experiences have been hugely positive working with male and female coaches. But it's to have that confidence to step outside of your comfort zone and I think if more of us can do that then it will inspire more to follow through as well.

There's huge opportunities out there and huge support too. That Female Coach Mentorship Programme opened so many doors and connections for me. People are really supportive and really keen to help. I have picked up the phone to so many current inter-county coaches at different levels and in different codes from Gaelic games to rugby to hockey and have gotten advice from them all. Everybody wants to see more female coaches and are willing to help female coaches. We just need to have the confidence to step out and take a chance at it.

GAA.ie: So what's your message to players coming towards the end of their career and are considering getting in to coaching after they hang up their boots? Would you be encouraging them to go down that pathway?

ML: Yeah, 100 per cent. I wouldn't have anything other than positive things to say about it. I think especially the amount of support that's there and the amount of programmes and initiatives that have been run by the GAA and the Camogie Association to encourage more female coaches, there's no end to the amount of them.

While coaching might never replicate how it felt to be a player, it does get you to continue feeling that love for the game and put that energy into the game that you put in as a player. What always stands to me is that people had to do it for me. There were so many coaches that put their time in for me to be a better player for club and county and now it's my turn to do the same for others.

I would strongly say that it's a hugely, hugely rewarding thing to do. For me, personally, it has opened my doors and helped me not only in enjoying sport more, but even in my career.

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Tickets for the 2024 Gaelic games Coaching Conference on November 23 can be found - here - with prices as follows:

€65 per person (for a group of 5 delegates, club price) or €75 per person (individual). Includes lunch and refreshments and great day out in Croke Park!