Underage Coaching

[blanketattack]

Very sad to see some teams especially B teams playing star players from younger age groups up just to increase the chances of winning the B Championship. Just sad to see the egos of men putting winning a crappy trophy ahead of the wellbeing of their players, players who've trained all year and then see a younger player take their spot, and they only get 5 minutes at the end.

The team I coach, the players that play up in age, are only called up in emergencies and even then it's always as sub. Players on age get played first even when the younger players are 10 times better than them.

[From the Bunker]

Very sad to see some teams especially B teams playing star players from younger age groups up just to increase the chances of winning the B Championship. Just sad to see the egos of men putting winning a crappy trophy ahead of the wellbeing of their players, players who've trained all year and then see a younger player take their spot, and they only get 5 minutes at the end.

The team I coach, the players that play up in age, are only called up in emergencies and even then it's always as sub. Players on age get played first even when the younger players are 10 times better than them.

I get ya! But there is always a string of things to be taken into consideration.

* The Coaches ego.
* The good players of age ego who want to play with good players.
* The good players parents ego who want their kids to play with good players.
* The Clubs ego who want to look good on FB with a winning team.

At the end of the day, Clubs are interested in developing good to great players. Anything outside of this is an annoyance. I have seen this first hand and it can be hurtful. But it is a lesson in life. Sometimes, lads just are not good at sport or a specific sport does not suit them.

[Armagh18]

Very sad to see some teams especially B teams playing star players from younger age groups up just to increase the chances of winning the B Championship. Just sad to see the egos of men putting winning a crappy trophy ahead of the wellbeing of their players, players who've trained all year and then see a younger player take their spot, and they only get 5 minutes at the end.

The team I coach, the players that play up in age, are only called up in emergencies and even then it's always as sub. Players on age get played first even when the younger players are 10 times better than them.

I get ya! But there is always a string of things to be taken into consideration.

* The Coaches ego.
* The good players of age ego who want to play with good players.
* The good players parents ego who want their kids to play with good players.
* The Clubs ego who want to look good on FB with a winning team.

At the end of the day, Clubs are interested in developing good to great players. Anything outside of this is an annoyance. I have seen this first hand and it can be hurtful. But it is a lesson in life. Sometimes, lads just are not good at sport or a specific sport does not suit them.

Plenty of  clubs need to keep on the not so good players to even field!

[Brendan]

The not so good players can also be more dedicated GAA men and go on to perform vital off pitch roles for the club

[Armagh18]

The not so good players can also be more dedicated GAA men and go on to perform vital off pitch roles for the club

Absolutely- I'm sure we all know examples of that in our own clubs.

[blanketattack]

The not so good players can also be more dedicated GAA men and go on to perform vital off pitch roles for the club

The not so good players can turn into players with vital roles on the playing field as well.
Kieran Donaghy was on the Austin Stacks C team at one stage, went onto to become player of the year in 2006 and helped Stacks to winning the Kerry and Munster Championships in 2014, their first in 20 and 38 years respectively.

In my own club, a teammate who was a small weak player underage went through a growth spurt from 17-19 and was our player of the year a few years later.

A lot of clubs write off the weaker younger players' entire future, when with the right encouragement and nourishment they can become star seniors.

[thewobbler]

The not so good players can also be more dedicated GAA men and go on to perform vital off pitch roles for the club

The not so good players can turn into players with vital roles on the playing field as well.
Kieran Donaghy was on the Austin Stacks C team at one stage, went onto to become player of the year in 2006 and helped Stacks to winning the Kerry and Munster Championships in 2014, their first in 20 and 38 years respectively.

In my own club, a teammate who was a small weak player underage went through a growth spurt from 17-19 and was our player of the year a few years later.

A lot of clubs write off the weaker younger players' entire future, when with the right encouragement and nourishment they can become star seniors.

The conclusion that you're attempting to allude to there is that these players were written off by the clubs. The opposite is true. Once they were ready for serious action they were put to the test accordingly.

[thewobbler]

I cannot fathom the belief process whereby converting "weaker" u14s into "strong" minors/seniors, hinges on giving everyone equal game time at u14 level.

Players develop at different ages.

Giving any player a start boosts his confidence, no doubt at all. But confidence is only one factor in any player's arsenal, and continually putting a lesser-developed player into direct competitive action against more developed players simply does not help him. He won't get the touches he wants. He won't get the time he needs. Instead he either gets to trundle around the pitch a distance behind his more-developed opponent, or finds himself paired up with a similar level opponent, where upon they both become bystanders to the action; on the field but not active in the game.

I know a lot of people don't like to hear this. I'm sorry folks, but short of tying ropes and weights around the more developed players and injecting them with something to dull their competitive edges, this is what manifests, each and every time.

Coaches have a lot less to do with this scenario unfolding than you may want to believe.

——-

If you genuinely want to develop "weaker" players, the only place to do it is in training. Improve their technique, their fitness, their understanding, their motivation. The "weaker" players who enjoy this attention tend to become the pleasant surprises discussed above, for when they become regular starters in match conditions, they're more ready for it.

[marty34]

I was talking to someone about this last year. It's similar but different in a way. We had a good discussion on weaker players and where they should play. This is a bit long winded.

He's a teacher and he gave me an example from a school situation. He said he does a 'word problem' class in his primary school class. 2 pupils work together on solving word problems. They all know 2 X 4 = 8 but he says, a lot of tests are long questions (a bike has 2 tyres, how many does 4 bikes have etc.) rather that times tables so it's practice for that.

Anyway, he asked me who should each pupil pair up with. I said a 'stronger' pupil but he said no, it should be a pupil of the same ability. They work at their own level.

So similar in sport, they should play at their own level. More confidence, more touches and more decision making.

If playing with stronger players, the opposite is true. This relates to underage obviously.

Key question for parents is would you rather have them on bench, with very
little game time or playing all the time in 'B' team? Where is there more learning and development?

Unfortunately this is hard for some parents to understand. 

[blanketattack]

The not so good players can also be more dedicated GAA men and go on to perform vital off pitch roles for the club

The not so good players can turn into players with vital roles on the playing field as well.
Kieran Donaghy was on the Austin Stacks C team at one stage, went onto to become player of the year in 2006 and helped Stacks to winning the Kerry and Munster Championships in 2014, their first in 20 and 38 years respectively.

In my own club, a teammate who was a small weak player underage went through a growth spurt from 17-19 and was our player of the year a few years later.

A lot of clubs write off the weaker younger players' entire future, when with the right encouragement and nourishment they can become star seniors.

The conclusion that you're attempting to allude to there is that these players were written off by the clubs. The opposite is true. Once they were ready for serious action they were put to the test accordingly.

No, I'm saying the clubs did something right in managing to hold onto these players by giving them enough decent playing time to keep them interested.

[blanketattack]

I cannot fathom the belief process whereby converting "weaker" u14s into "strong" minors/seniors, hinges on giving everyone equal game time at u14 level.

Players develop at different ages.

Giving any player a start boosts his confidence, no doubt at all. But confidence is only one factor in any player's arsenal, and continually putting a lesser-developed player into direct competitive action against more developed players simply does not help him. He won't get the touches he wants. He won't get the time he needs. Instead he either gets to trundle around the pitch a distance behind his more-developed opponent, or finds himself paired up with a similar level opponent, where upon they both become bystanders to the action; on the field but not active in the game.

I know a lot of people don't like to hear this. I'm sorry folks, but short of tying ropes and weights around the more developed players and injecting them with something to dull their competitive edges, this is what manifests, each and every time.

Coaches have a lot less to do with this scenario unfolding than you may want to believe.

——-

If you genuinely want to develop "weaker" players, the only place to do it is in training. Improve their technique, their fitness, their understanding, their motivation. The "weaker" players who enjoy this attention tend to become the pleasant surprises discussed above, for when they become regular starters in match conditions, they're more ready for it

I wasn't talking about giving underage players equal time on the A team, talking about how these players should be getting lots of playing time on the B team against players of their own level.
Instead egomaniacs are ruining this nice B structure by:
A. Their own coaches are playing up the strong A team players from a year down and the players of age are dropped, getting 5 mins at the end if at all.
Or B. The opposition coaches are playing superstars from a year down. So instead of a kid holding his own against players his own age and ability, he's getting skinned by the David Clifford of the year below.
Both very demoralising.