By John Martin

If the mountain won't come to Mohammed, Mohammed must come to the mountain. Well, not always. The North Antrim Coaching and Development Committee are bringing the mountain to the Glens in the form of a unique twinning programme with the Munster Council that will see coaches from throughout hurling's heartland impart their knowledge and skills to clubs in the area over the next five years.

The links between North Antrim and Munster are already well-established, with North Antrim Board Chairman Niall Kearney instigating a coaching programme when he took over the hot seat two years ago. However the forthcoming twinning project will see a more formal partnership established between the North Antrim Board and the Munster Council.

One of the first things Kearney did when taking over as North Antrim chair was to form a Coaching and Development Committee, "because we felt that it wasn't getting enough airtime at the meetings." The committee ran a number of initiatives including bringing guest coaches to the Glens on a one-off basis, however they wanted something regular established between North Antrim and Munster.

An informal conversation between Seamus Elliott and the then Munster Chairman Sean Fogarty at the 2006 Fèile na nGael tournament fast-tracked that process and within weeks the first of a number of regular coaching sessions was arranged.

"Seamus spoke to Sean on a Friday night at Féile and explained that we would be interested in getting some [Munster] coaches up here to do a bit of coaching and take a few courses," said Kearney.

"The next day he came up to Seamus and said 'I've four coaches for you' and it went on from there.

"We started to bring them up every few months, and invited all the North Antrim clubs and the South West clubs that play in our leagues to send along kids for coaching sessions."

The project was also a learning curve of the North Antrim committee. While passing on skills to young hurlers is essentially what the programme was about, they decided that coaching the coaches was a more effective way of getting the message across. The coaches' programme was started, but it too was modified, with delivery gradually becoming geared towards individual clubs.

"We thought that the coaching the coaches programme would get round more people and was of more benefit to the clubs, as it would get straight to the grassroots straight away," Kearney said.

"But while it's all well and good having these courses, some people were seeing them as a CV-filler and we then started asking clubs for coaches who were currently working in the clubs so that the people who needed the knowledge were getting it.

"We sent those coaches round the individual clubs because we felt that our coaches had plenty of knowledge, plenty of experience, but were maybe a bit lacking in confidence, maybe they didn't want to talk in front of other coaches or thought their ideas were a bit far-fetched. They weren't far-fetched, but that was the perception they had."

The next phase is the twinning initiative which will take off in earnest next month. A five year plan has been put together in partnership with the Munster Council which will hopefully see home-grown coaches assume the role of tutor.

"The Munster coaches will come up and train six tutors who in turn will take on three clubs in the North Antrim/South West area and work with them," said Kearney.

"They will look at their facilities, their numbers, what approaches they have working for them, what their school links are, and with the knowledge that has been brought in by the Munster coaches, write a coaching and development plan for each individual club.

"We hope that is going to start in November and by next summer, that by five or six visits, the clubs will have a coaching manual in place that their coaches are going to adhere to.

"They are going to work at it together, the clubs will know that they are not going to left to do a pile of work that they don't feel they have the experience to carry through, but there is a system in place and a backup that they'll not be left on their own, but we'll not be doing the work for them either."

The coaches travelling north are full-time employees with the Munster Council and have the full support of the Munster Coaching and Games Committee who have totally bought into the project. The Ulster Council are also on board as are a number of local sponsors such as gaakit.com and Premier Electric.

Kearney added, "We have a great relationship with them and they are only too keen to help us out in any way they can. They realise we are trying our guts out in North Antrim and they appreciate that. They are genuine guys and genuine hurling people."