The impact Paudie Butler has had on hurling and camogie coaching was fittingly recognised last Saturday when he was honoured with a Lifetime Achievement Award at the 2022 GAA Coaching Conference.

As a teacher and then head-master in his local primary school in Inch, Tipperary, Paudie quickly earned a reputation for being a very innovative and successful coach with both the school and his club, Drom-Inch.

Paudie became the National Hurling Director in 2005 and continued in this role until 2010 where he travelled the length and breadth of the country delivering hurling workshops/coaching courses/seminars to hurling coaches at all age levels.

It was in this in role that Paudie excelled and he certainly had a huge influence on any hurling coach that he engaged with during this time. Paudie brought a huge enthusiasm to every session that he attended.

Whether it was a delivering a module of a coaching course in Armagh, a fundamental movement practical session in Offaly, or a session with development coaches in Cork, Paudie was always able to relate to the group he had in front of him. He spoke about their players, their club and their county. This gave the coaches that attended a great sense of how important a role they were playing in the development of the games in their own community.

His ability to get his message across in a clear and concise manner helped coaches to understand their own role as coaches. Paudie also challenged the coaches to think about how they coached the game, but more importantly how to see the players as people and how to relate to them. I do remember Paudie asking coaches to set a task for themselves, to try and say one sentence to each player every night at training (it sounded easier that it was but it certainly made us more personal as coaches).

When the GAA commenced training its own Tutors to deliver their Coach Education programme Paudie was one of the first to be up-skilled into the Master Tutor or Tutor Trainer role. Paudie delivered many a course to new tutors and was now influencing coaching in a different way in that the tutors he was up-skilling would pass on some of the traits, skills and knowledge to the coaches that they would meet on the courses. Paudie continuously expressed to tutors the importance of building a relationship with the course participants rather than just imparting knowledge, identifying that course attendants were people who came from different backgrounds from parents to past players to volunteers who wanted to help their local club.

Paudie continues to have a huge influence on how we coach our games. His willingness to continue to learn himself has shown to coaches and tutors the importance of seeking knowledge and applying it to your coaching session and courses.

Paudie is always willing to help deliver coach education and when contacted he will make space in his diary for you. Following a brief phone call last week we have a few dates provisionally lined up for courses over the next few weeks.

His diary is filling up again with workshops and courses now commencing over the next few weeks and it looks like his garden will be take a little back seat for a while.

“I’m thrilled, I’m really delighted about it," said Butler of his Lifetime Achievement Award. "Especially for my wife Miriam and my family who gave me the freedom. And the GAA who had the faith in me to put me around every county in Ireland and abroad.

“We were there in the beginning when coaching was only beginning to get its own life and its own respect. And I think the way hurling is being played now is just so beautiful and camogie rising all the time.

“I’m chuffed, I’m really honoured."