Pat Critchley on his new book 'A Coaching Way'

The latest Love Laois Podcast sees us joined by Pat Critchley following the publication of his latest book 'A Coaching Way - Insights, Strategies and Tools for Successful Coaching'.  In a wide-ranging chat, Pat discusses his early forays into coaching almost 50 years ago when he took over an U-14 basketball team when he was still only U-16 himself.  Since then he has accumulated thousands upon thousands of coaching hours at schools, club, college and county level, male and female, underage and adult in hurling, football and basketball.  "I have maintained a huge enthusiasm for coaching and it is because I thoroughly enjoy the involvement," he says in the introduction of the book.  "It has brought emotional highs and lows but I feel it is important that we have something in our lives to which we bring a deep passion.  "With big influence comes big responsibility," he adds.  "We have a big responsibility as coaches becuase the influence we can have on all our players, especially our younger players, can be immense.  "However, we need to contemplate whether our influence is primarily a positive or negative one. When we think of our coaching in these terms, it can seem daunting.  "This should not make us stop coaching, but it should certainly make us think about our philosophy of coaching, about why we coach and about how we coach." Though not a coaching handbook, there are some drills dotted through the book, which is split into four sections - Why do we Coach, What do we Coach, How do we Coach and Final Thoughts.