How All-Ireland Champions use Kairos 📱

Our latest case study explores the importance of using Kairos in the county setup for recent All-Ireland Champions, Kerry GAA.

GAA players are familiar with the grit, resilience and discipline required from the sport. Those who have the privilege of playing club and county know all too well what is needed to keep themselves, their teammates and management on top of things.  Skills like time management, leadership and the ability to prioritise in relation to their teams longer term goals are all critical to sustaining a high performing team. Indeed, given the sheer depth of the county panel and management staff, focusing on these elements can become complicated.

Kerry GAA recognised a need to align the long-term goals of their athletes, management and staff in a way that would build them up for success. Through rolling out the Kairos platform, the All-Ireland team began improving their smaller moments, day by day, that would contribute to those longer term wins as a unit. Consolidating the everyday necessities of the team meant the security of knowing session details, location updates,appointment times, files and important messages all had their own place, at the right time for athletes. 

Time is precious in the GAA, often with a short turnaround period. With club and county teams demanding discipline, commitment and resilience from athletes. Typically, they’ll not only juggle their sporting commitments but their professional and family ones too.

For Kerry, it was important to eradicate pain points for their athletes by streamlining communications, ensuring they maintain a positive relationship with the team and long-term goals.

Through rolling out Kairos across the senior panel, miscommunication has been minimised. Players have the confidence that important information is shared safely and securely, having the confidence to refer back to the Kairos app saves significant time and effort for athletes.

It simplifies the small moments in the ‘behind the scenes’ of successful teams that you don’t often realise can take up the most time.

Seán O’Shea commented, “Kairos has definitely allowed us to level up as a team. Sometimes, the thought of trying to navigate my way through a WhatsApp chat for the sake of one fixtures list or training schedule feels like a lot. Using the platform effectively means everything we need as athletes has its own home with the ability to keep track of any last minute changes.”

While Paul Geaney noted the accountability the platform brings to the county system, “There’s definitely an added layer of accountability because if you’re using the platform effectively with your teammates and coaches, you’re reaping the rewards when you arrive at training or matches and everyone’s on the same page. 

The app itself is clean and minimal, meaning it’s easy to navigate, it doesn’t feel like a drag to go on and locate any kick-out documents we might need, or even find out when the next set of physio sessions are.”

Paddy Tally contributed, “As a coach, you can spend a lot of time sending out messages, asking for responses to certain sessions or events, and even just checking-in with players or certain groups, say defence, midfield and your attack. With Kairos, everything’s there for me, and, instead of scrolling trying to find documents I’ve already sent to redistribute to members, I can actually just pin the relevant files so I, and anyone else who might need to, can easily access them. 

Having a platform that encourages our staff and athletes to collaborate so seamlessly is another confidence boost when the time comes to take the pitch.”

Head of Athletic Performance, Jason McGahan agreed, “What’s great about Kairos is that the platform adapts to the demands of your team. You really get the sense it’s built for an elite sport environment – it is so easily adapted to consider any last minute changes to schedules. All the elements are covered: location and facility management, real-time updates for users on their mobile or desktop and the necessary reminders for players ahead of an important match. Its agility and efficiency are what make it so compatible with our program.”

We look forward to supporting the Kerry squad throughout the next season and wish all staff and athletes the best of luck.