An Examination of Bilateral Skill Proficiency and Frequency of Pass in Selected and Nonselected Youth Academy Gaelic Footballers

This study examined differences in bilateral skill proficiency and frequency of use between selected and nonselected under-17 male intercounty academy Gaelic footballers. Participants (N = 82, mean age = 15.54 years, SD = 0.27) were retrospectively grouped as selected (n = 19) and nonselected (n = 63) for the final squad. A discrete skills test evaluated bilateral hand pass and kick pass proficiency. Within-academy matches (N = 8) were recorded to analyze in-game bilateral passing proficiency and frequency (N = 3,109). Selected players were more proficient in both nondominant kick pass (p = 0.001) and nondominant hand pass (p = 0.007) in the discrete skills test and nondominant hand pass (p = 0.002) in match play. Nonselected players used the dominant hand pass (p = 0.037) significantly more than selected players in match play. The strongest predictors of selection were the nondominant kick pass and nondominant hand pass in the skills test, and successful dominant kick pass and successful nondominant hand pass in match play (p < 0.05), with 89% of players correctly classified. The findings suggest that higher bilateral proficiency scores provide greater opportunities to be selected.