Parents and Team Selection

[From the Bunker]

Went to a under 10 Blitz with the young Lad a few weeks ago. He made the 'A' team. We won the Cup competition. There were 4 subs. He was one of the 4 and played little or nothing in any of the games. He got a medal and got to stand in the team photo with the team and the Cup. Looked great on Facebook. I know he would have rather play with the 'B' Team get more playing time, probably get hammered in all games, win feck all, but leave the Blitz with a sense of having taken part. But hey, he got a nice medal. That's all that matters.

[GaillimhIarthair]

Went to a under 10 Blitz with the young Lad a few weeks ago. He made the 'A' team. We won the Cup competition. There were 4 subs. He was one of the 4 and played little or nothing in any of the games. He got a medal and got to stand in the team photo with the team and the Cup. Looked great on Facebook. I know he would have rather play with the 'B' Team get more playing time, probably get hammered in all games, win feck all, but leave the Blitz with a sense of having taken part. But hey, he got a nice medal. That's all that matters.

There shouldn't be an A and a B team at under 10, that's feckin madness streaming players at that age.  Teams should be equal ability up until about U14 (for Feile etc).  I would hope that coach is the exception in your club FTB.

[lurganblue]

Went to a under 10 Blitz with the young Lad a few weeks ago. He made the 'A' team. We won the Cup competition. There were 4 subs. He was one of the 4 and played little or nothing in any of the games. He got a medal and got to stand in the team photo with the team and the Cup. Looked great on Facebook. I know he would have rather play with the 'B' Team get more playing time, probably get hammered in all games, win feck all, but leave the Blitz with a sense of having taken part. But hey, he got a nice medal. That's all that matters.

There shouldn't be an A and a B team at under 10, that's feckin madness streaming players at that age.  Teams should be equal ability up until about U14 (for Feile etc).  I would hope that coach is the exception in your club FTB.

Go games there are no A and B teams but when you go to these competitive blitz's there are certainly strong and weak teams selected.  One expected to compete for the cup and another for the shield.  I'd say that's very common among all clubs (unless only bringing one team to the blitz).

On those blitzs at U10.  Far too many of them. They've become money makers for some clubs.

[Taylor]

A Chairde,

just interested to find out how clubs across the country find the level of pressure being applied on coaches by parents and guardians. I've noticed in my own club a huge spike in recent years of parents starting massive hissy fits etc over team selection. It seems to be on the increase and I feel anyhow that it is a relatively new phenomenon

If your Kid is not getting some game time. There are two options - approach the coach about the situation or leave the sport (as you cannot jump ship to another club in GAA)!

Up until under 12 level they can change clubs without a transfer?

[GaillimhIarthair]

Went to a under 10 Blitz with the young Lad a few weeks ago. He made the 'A' team. We won the Cup competition. There were 4 subs. He was one of the 4 and played little or nothing in any of the games. He got a medal and got to stand in the team photo with the team and the Cup. Looked great on Facebook. I know he would have rather play with the 'B' Team get more playing time, probably get hammered in all games, win feck all, but leave the Blitz with a sense of having taken part. But hey, he got a nice medal. That's all that matters.

There shouldn't be an A and a B team at under 10, that's feckin madness streaming players at that age.  Teams should be equal ability up until about U14 (for Feile etc).  I would hope that coach is the exception in your club FTB.

Go games there are no A and B teams but when you go to these competitive blitz's there are certainly strong and weak teams selected.  One expected to compete for the cup and another for the shield.  I'd say that's very common among all clubs (unless only bringing one team to the blitz).

On those blitzs at U10.  Far too many of them. They've become money makers for some clubs.

For the U10 blitz's, and specific to most clubs entering 2 teams, I find that a cumulative score rule will more or less stop clubs "loading" one team as they need both to perform reasonably well to progress to the latter stages of the given competition.  It also gives you a clearer picture of the overall strength of your panel of players vs other clubs etc. 

[bigarsedkeeper]

Went to a under 10 Blitz with the young Lad a few weeks ago. He made the 'A' team. We won the Cup competition. There were 4 subs. He was one of the 4 and played little or nothing in any of the games. He got a medal and got to stand in the team photo with the team and the Cup. Looked great on Facebook. I know he would have rather play with the 'B' Team get more playing time, probably get hammered in all games, win feck all, but leave the Blitz with a sense of having taken part. But hey, he got a nice medal. That's all that matters.

There shouldn't be an A and a B team at under 10, that's feckin madness streaming players at that age.  Teams should be equal ability up until about U14 (for Feile etc).  I would hope that coach is the exception in your club FTB.

Go games there are no A and B teams but when you go to these competitive blitz's there are certainly strong and weak teams selected.  One expected to compete for the cup and another for the shield.  I'd say that's very common among all clubs (unless only bringing one team to the blitz).

On those blitzs at U10.  Far too many of them. They've become money makers for some clubs.

You can't win with that type of split. We tried it just by age and the older group always nabbed the best players from the younger team but the older lads wouldn't play with the younger group or else mummy and daddy give off about it.

There is way too many competitive blitzes at the football. It's great when they win one but they can't deal with losing a final. Saw wee lads at 8s kicking balls away after losing a final a few weeks ago. I'm involved with the hurling here in Down and there's no issue with that at all. No competitive stuff at all.

[Keyser soze]

Cannot see how playing a few games on a saturday once a week could do kids any harm, up to under 12 their is any other outlet for children to play football/hurling except through the tournament system, well during summer anyway.

I would under 6's just love going to blitzes, chaos or not, it is just a wee run out for them, how else are they supposed to practice their skills if they are not playing wee games? Training drills?

[johnnycool]

Went to a under 10 Blitz with the young Lad a few weeks ago. He made the 'A' team. We won the Cup competition. There were 4 subs. He was one of the 4 and played little or nothing in any of the games. He got a medal and got to stand in the team photo with the team and the Cup. Looked great on Facebook. I know he would have rather play with the 'B' Team get more playing time, probably get hammered in all games, win feck all, but leave the Blitz with a sense of having taken part. But hey, he got a nice medal. That's all that matters.

There shouldn't be an A and a B team at under 10, that's feckin madness streaming players at that age.  Teams should be equal ability up until about U14 (for Feile etc).  I would hope that coach is the exception in your club FTB.

Go games there are no A and B teams but when you go to these competitive blitz's there are certainly strong and weak teams selected.  One expected to compete for the cup and another for the shield.  I'd say that's very common among all clubs (unless only bringing one team to the blitz).

On those blitzs at U10.  Far too many of them. They've become money makers for some clubs.

You can't win with that type of split. We tried it just by age and the older group always nabbed the best players from the younger team but the older lads wouldn't play with the younger group or else mummy and daddy give off about it.

There is way too many competitive blitzes at the football. It's great when they win one but they can't deal with losing a final. Saw wee lads at 8s kicking balls away after losing a final a few weeks ago. I'm involved with the hurling here in Down and there's no issue with that at all. No competitive stuff at all.

Wait till next year when we move to the odd age groups and Go Games are meant to go up to U13....

f**k, I'm glad we're not the only club with this issue 

My heart was broken by parents complaining and tbh some had valid complaints as some coaches had lost the run of themselves, some really didn't.
I sat down with other members of the club, two were involved in the teaching profession and looked at what other clubs were doing and worked them into a list of criteria for selecting panels for our teams.

From U12 down we followed the Go Games mantra where say for U12 we'd invite all U12's, U11's and see where that got us numbers wise. If we needed to go again we'd invite ALL the U10's (this was to prevent some coaches cherry picking). Everyone would get "meaningful" gametime BUT an U10 would get less gametime in the knowledge that they are also getting meaningful gametime at their own level and so on and so forth.

U14's up, we introduced the 4 A's criteria. Age, attendance, attitude, ability to compete.
Panels would initially be made up of those in the last (and second last) years at that level. If we'd to go lower as we more often than not do as a small rural club, all the next year group down would be invited. Then when it comes to game time the 4 A's kick in. If someone in their last year only rocks up for the odd training session then game time is curtailed, act the maggot at training, game time is curtailed. At these levels subs are restricted so it's not always possible to get everyone on and TBH if the youngster (normally those from a lower age group) lacks the wherewithal to protect themselves then coaches have to be very careful when they do get on for their own good especially at hurling and camogie.

There's more to it than that. but we brought all the coaches in at the start of the year, took some feedback, walked through various scenarios and so forth with them and then rolled it out over 4 sessions with the parents and took feedback from them.

Since then I've taken two phone calls, both easily disproved rather than the usual tale of woe I'd get on a regular basis.

It's not perfect but we needed to draw a line somewhere.