The Development of Bilateral Skill Symmetry: Insights From Gaelic Football Players and Coaches

Abstract

Developing players who are adept at using both sides of the body (i.e., bilateral skill) is a challenge for coaches in many sports. With players being required to execute a range of skills with hand and foot on both sides of the body, Gaelic football provides an ideal natural laboratory for the study of laterality. Previous quantitative research has produced equivocal findings regarding the importance of bilateral skill performance in sport. In light of this equivocality, this paper utilized a qualitative approach to distill the beliefs and experiences of 14 players and five coaches who had performed at the highest level in Gaelic football. Three higher order categories were produced from the transcripts: the importance of being bilaterally skilled, the potential to develop bilateral skill, and methods to develop bilateral skills. Overall, this study highlights lessons for the design of future quantitative studies of bilateral skill in sport and should stimulate reflection on current practice regarding both short- and long-term bilateral skill development on the part of researchers, applied sport scientists, and coaches.

Profiling Bilateral Skills in High-Performance Male and Female Gaelic Footballers

“…Given the rarity we uncovered with respect to close proximity of opponents in Gaelic football when executing three of the skills we analyzed, there is reason to question the importance of having the ability to use the non-dominant side for these three skills. Moreover, it is hard to use skill success as the determinant that a given choice was optimal, since non-dominant limb use, even if less successful on average, may have offered better tactical opportunities in a given game context ( Dillon et al, 2022 ). Thus, future research into bilateral skill should measure both the appropriateness of decision making and the effectiveness of skill execution ( Oslin et al, 1998 ).…”

“…The ability to perform skills bilaterality is widely believed to be a key characteristic of high-level sports performers because it increases the likelihood of players finding a solution for each scenario they face ( Dillon et al, 2022 ; Moore, O’Dwyer, et al, 2017 ; Parrington & Ball, 2015 ; Stöckel & Vater, 2014 ). There is some support for this position in that Murray et al (2023) found that bilateral Gaelic football players were more likely to be selected for a county under 17 team than their more unilateral counterparts.…”

“…Indeed, Stöckel and Weigelt (2012) suggested that a certain degree of bilateral competence is essential if athletes are to be successful in modern team sports. This view has been endorsed by high performance Gaelic football players and coaches ( Dillon et al, 2022 ), and Marcori et al (2021 , p. 382) noted that the advantage in being able to use both sides of the body in a sporting context "cannot be overstated” for team invasion sports, because this ability allows the athlete to adapt and remain accurate in their performance under varying task and environmental constraints.…”