Nursery/Gaelic Start Programme

[Celt_Man]

Well lads and lassies, looking to set up a Nursery/Gaelic Start Programme in our club for the Junior & Senior Infants (Under 6s) in the next couple of weeks....

Has anyone any information or advice for setting up and running one of these?

I know we have the Ulster GAA Gaelic Start Manual http://ulster.gaa.ie/coaching/resources/ and there's a few things on the Dublin GAA Coaching website which may be useful http://www.dublingaagamesdevelopment.ie/resources/books

Does anyone have anything to add??

[DownFanatic]

Ive been working with our Under 6's and Under 8's for a few years now and my advice is to scrap the Gaelic Start. It is a waste of time in my opinion. Better to concentrate on ball skills.

[downredblack]

Get plenty of parents involved as soon as possible , the more adults to kids ratio  the better ,  Avoid kids waiting in lines , you will spend half your day splitting up fights and arguments  ,Break them into small manageable groups ,  Set up different skill stations and move the groups on after 10 mins any longer than that and they start getting bored The more touches of the ball / small ball the better . Encourage at every opportunity - remember to when you were a child and an adult said well done or great score , good hands etc . Praise to a child in massive the more they get the more they want to do well. . You will surely need the patience of a  saint - best of luck .

[neilthemac]

well.
I have been doing under 6s and under 8s hurling all year

children will be at different stages of athletic and skill development, so you have to cater for all needs.
Is it football or hurling?

I would encourage to look at basic drills to improve the catching, throwing and control skills of all kids.
Start off with beanbags and bean balls. You will soon identify the kids who are more advanced.
Split them up into two ability based groups and do station coaching where they spend 10 mins max at the one thing

Invest in lots of footballs - get light first touch footballs (as many as possible - one for every child ideally. Factor the cost into what you will charge). Encourage as much 'free play' with the balls as possible while practicing skills. play small sided games to practice the skills further.

I get a great kick out of seeing our under 6s have better basics and skills than under 8s from other clubs just because we have so much work done with them.

[NP 76]

I take the u 6 at the local club which is quite an experience . Make sure you have a ball for each of them as if not this can lead to WWE smackdown . The more you have helping you the better and split them into small groups to make sure they all are involved at all times . I would try and get parents involved that know a bit about football as some although are very helpful can fill not only the childrens heads but worse still your head full of sunday game jargon and nonsense quotes from the media to try and let you know how much he knows . At registration make sure all parents leave contact details so as to forward on all relative info . GOOD LUCK

[neilthemac]

another idea is to have it clearly stated on the registration form that parents will be expected to help out

Split them into groups of parents, 7/8 parents in each group. Rota the groups to help out each week so that there isn't as big a commitment, but that if they cannot attend they must get someone to sub. have seen this approach work great in bigger clubs

you will soon spot the parents who are capable in sports/coaching/teaching
some may even develop an interest in coaching

[Celt_Man]

Cheers to one and all for advice and comments,

Straightaway (and only confirming what I knew) getting as many parents involved as possible is key...

Promoting it won't be a problem - we'd have fairly decent club-school links and one of our senior players is currently doing teaching practice with the Junior/Senior Infants so that should be a great help...

It'll be all football but getting a good bit of new equipment, loads of bean bags, tennis balls, balloon/Balzac balls etc plus have a load of hurdles, ladders, poles etc for stations and as well as a heap of balls I reckon we'll be fine on that front

Couple of other things I'm gonna try anyway...
- Information and sign up night given by the Ulster Council
- Tea and Coffee to be provided for parents during session (hopefully will keep parents there)
- Posters/Letters advertising the Programme in different languages to tap into foreign nationals... Might make them feel more included if its in their native language. Definitely have someone to do Polish for me, looking into other ones

[dundrumite]

I am unsure on my stance on Gaelic start. Theory would tell us it needs to be applied in that if kids haven't developed agility balance and co ordination by the time they are 12 you can forget about it, so for this reason these aspects are important. However, in practice, any tournaments I have been to and the better teams at under 8 and 10 we have came up against would suggest they are mainly doing basics and small sided matches. I personally think a balancing act is needed. However agility balance and co-ordination can be worked on in context of basics and match small sided games. This helps develop childrens decision making. I agree with all the above especially in relation to parents. Also one hour a week is not enough children need to be practicing in their spare time and this needs be encouraged at every opportunity.

[NP 76]

Agree with Drumite the children have to be encouraged at all times . This must come from the parents at home and go out practising with them . The 1st thing they should be bought is a ball not some silly game fot an x box or the likes.Taking them to club and county games is great also as they start to associate with the players and start to recognise them out and about . So it is up to the parents to help out outside the training as it is at the training

[neilthemac]

it's called the expectation effect. communicate to kids what you want them to do, and generally they will get there.

Tell the children that you expect them to be able to do a skill in 4 weeks time (eg punt kick with both feet).
test them all at training to assess how well they can do it. tell them to focus on that skill for a few weeks
tell them there will a prize for those who can do the skill in g 4 weeks.
test them 4 weeks later, and give every child a prize (a simple cert) but make a big deal out of the kids who are able to do it with both feet (maybe a different cert? or other prize)

[dundrumite]

Great idea in the post above. definitely going implement this suggestion. Where did the effect you mention come from as point of interest?

[neilthemac]

Great idea in the post above. definitely going implement this suggestion. Where did the effect you mention come from as point of interest?

It is well known/used in teaching and education
communicate to the children exactly what you expect them to learn/know and generally there is a much higher chance of them achieving it. ie they know what to work towards

the main thing is to encourage practice at home. but if they know what skills they need to perform and practice then it makes it much easier for the kids to reach a standard or do the skills test

[Celt_Man]

Never realised I didn't say how things are going with our own 'Young Celts' Nursery Programme...

We started on Saturday 5th Nov and we're running till the 17th Dec. It's on every Saturday morning in the local secondary school for an hour, it's actually a perfect venue - big main hall and 3 available handball alleys.  The first week we set out ten stations in the main hall which left 3/4 at each station and rotated every couple of minutes.  It was a good way to start the whole thing off and keep everyone together letting parents see what the whole thing was about.

Since that we have had 5/6 stations in the main hall while we're had fun games and working with the ball/tennis ball/bean bags etc in the 2 alleys and a change over every 15/20 minutes.

The numbers have never fallen below 30 and we've probably nearly 60 registered so it's flying....  We're finishing on the 17th with a Christmas Party, Santa will be arriving and the children will be getting wee t-shirts and a small foam ball (tennis ball size)

We'll probably start in again in February after the GAA and Ulster Council Coaching Conferences, at that stage we'll probably take a topic "kicking, catching etc" and really focus on it for 2 or 3 weeks.

Has anyone any more ideas or anything for the whole thing or for the Christmas Party on Saturday week??