Go Games - Good or bad - discuss...

[Armagh18]

I think the go games are a positive. You wouldnt believe some of the kids who have a desire to win at all ages. Do you dampen their will to win so that Joe who probably will never play gaelic after the age of 10 gets some game time? I have also seem parents being their kids to a small cup game when their child never attended training. They expected their child to play

Parents are to blame as well. I have seen 30 kids turn up to go games and everyone expects their kids to get game time.

Main issue I see with teenagers and young adults is they want everything handed to them. My view is kids working hard and being competitive while having fun is a good thing and will make them more resilient later in life

Whatever about tournaments (and I have very mixed feelings on these), all kids should get equal game time at a Go Game no matter what their ability is or whether their mother or father brought them to training. The clue is in the title, every child gets a Go.

Agree on the first bit but priority has to go to the ones who train- no training, no game imo.

[trailer]

I think the go games are a positive. You wouldnt believe some of the kids who have a desire to win at all ages. Do you dampen their will to win so that Joe who probably will never play gaelic after the age of 10 gets some game time? I have also seem parents being their kids to a small cup game when their child never attended training. They expected their child to play

Parents are to blame as well. I have seen 30 kids turn up to go games and everyone expects their kids to get game time.

Main issue I see with teenagers and young adults is they want everything handed to them. My view is kids working hard and being competitive while having fun is a good thing and will make them more resilient later in life

Whatever about tournaments (and I have very mixed feelings on these), all kids should get equal game time at a Go Game no matter what their ability is or whether their mother or father brought them to training. The clue is in the title, every child gets a Go.

Agree on the first bit but priority has to go to the ones who train- no training, no game imo.

Harsh on some 7 or 8 year who given the choice would probably be at training but because Mum or Dad is working or away or the child has been sick during the week or whatever and they can't get that they don't get any football. Again the scores don't matter, it's about getting kids to have a Go.

[trueblue1234]

I think the go games are a positive. You wouldnt believe some of the kids who have a desire to win at all ages. Do you dampen their will to win so that Joe who probably will never play gaelic after the age of 10 gets some game time? I have also seem parents being their kids to a small cup game when their child never attended training. They expected their child to play

Parents are to blame as well. I have seen 30 kids turn up to go games and everyone expects their kids to get game time.

Main issue I see with teenagers and young adults is they want everything handed to them. My view is kids working hard and being competitive while having fun is a good thing and will make them more resilient later in life

They should all be getting similar game time at that age. If you have 30 kids, you should have 2 teams set up. A number of clubs do that. You don't want to stifle the will to win. But it needs to be done with each player getting their fair time. That's the core ethos of the go games.

[Cavan19]

I think the go games are a positive. You wouldnt believe some of the kids who have a desire to win at all ages. Do you dampen their will to win so that Joe who probably will never play gaelic after the age of 10 gets some game time? I have also seem parents being their kids to a small cup game when their child never attended training. They expected their child to play

Parents are to blame as well. I have seen 30 kids turn up to go games and everyone expects their kids to get game time.

Main issue I see with teenagers and young adults is they want everything handed to them. My view is kids working hard and being competitive while having fun is a good thing and will make them more resilient later in life

They should all be getting similar game time at that age. If you have 30 kids, you should have 2 teams set up. A number of clubs do that. You don't want to stifle the will to win. But it needs to be done with each player getting their fair time. That's the core ethos of the go games.

Two teams wouldn't even be enough it should be 3 minimum for that number of kids.

[twohands!!!]

I think the go games are a positive. You wouldnt believe some of the kids who have a desire to win at all ages. Do you dampen their will to win so that Joe who probably will never play gaelic after the age of 10 gets some game time? I have also seem parents being their kids to a small cup game when their child never attended training. They expected their child to play

Parents are to blame as well. I have seen 30 kids turn up to go games and everyone expects their kids to get game time.

Main issue I see with teenagers and young adults is they want everything handed to them. My view is kids working hard and being competitive while having fun is a good thing and will make them more resilient later in life

They should all be getting similar game time at that age. If you have 30 kids, you should have 2 teams set up. A number of clubs do that. You don't want to stifle the will to win. But it needs to be done with each player getting their fair time. That's the core ethos of the go games.

Has anyone ever actually managed to stifle the will to win in kids?

[tyrone08]

It's a good wee chat here and it's a difficult problem to resolve. My brother does a bit of coaching and he told me a few years ago they wanted to spilt his 2 teams evenly to give more game time instead of having a strong and weaker team. Both teams heavily beaten, kids keep score themselves so it didn't matter if it wasnt offical. It was a mixed bag as the players who rarely showed up or didn't have much interest were happy to get playing. The better players were literally crying as they had lost and really wanted to win.

No easy solution as all clubs do it differently. No point in one club doing it "right" by splitting the teams even only to come across a team who have a stronger and weaker side then they get hammered.

Like I said counting scores doesn't matter as the kids know themselves.

[Taylor]

It's a good wee chat here and it's a difficult problem to resolve. My brother does a bit of coaching and he told me a few years ago they wanted to spilt his 2 teams evenly to give more game time instead of having a strong and weaker team. Both teams heavily beaten, kids keep score themselves so it didn't matter if it wasnt offical. It was a mixed bag as the players who rarely showed up or didn't have much interest were happy to get playing. The better players were literally crying as they had lost and really wanted to win.

No easy solution as all clubs do it differently. No point in one club doing it "right" by splitting the teams even only to come across a team who have a stronger and weaker side then they get hammered.

Like I said counting scores doesn't matter as the kids know themselves.

This in a nutshell.

Even without keeping scores, kids ask and ask and ask who won. When you reply that it was a draw they laugh at you and tell you the exact scoreline.

So while Go Games help in getting game time for kids it certainly doesnt change the competitive nature of the majority of kids

[marty34]

It's a good wee chat here and it's a difficult problem to resolve. My brother does a bit of coaching and he told me a few years ago they wanted to spilt his 2 teams evenly to give more game time instead of having a strong and weaker team. Both teams heavily beaten, kids keep score themselves so it didn't matter if it wasnt offical. It was a mixed bag as the players who rarely showed up or didn't have much interest were happy to get playing. The better players were literally crying as they had lost and really wanted to win.

No easy solution as all clubs do it differently. No point in one club doing it "right" by splitting the teams even only to come across a team who have a stronger and weaker side then they get hammered.

Like I said counting scores doesn't matter as the kids know themselves.

This in a nutshell.

Even without keeping scores, kids ask and ask and ask who won. When you reply that it was a draw they laugh at you and tell you the exact scoreline.

So while Go Games help in getting game time for kids it certainly doesnt change the competitive nature of the majority of kids

Yeah, hard to keep everyone happy.

The Go Games are played about 15+ times a year which teams are of mixed ability. I think it's organised the week before saying how many players you have and then the teams are sorted thst way i.e. 28 players you'll have 4 teams of 7.  I never heard of one team going with 20 players. If they only have one team, that's the coaches' fault.

I think there are 'tournaments' later in the year i.e. September and October . Late enough with the poorer weather.  These are for cups and shields etc. and are organised on ability groupings. They are competitive as lads are competitive.

I don't mind having Go Games 80% of the season, then a few competitions at the end of the year. Lads develop at different rates. Most important thing is thst they're back the following year.

[trailer]

There's loads of examples of footballers who weren't talented or had limited ability at underage going on to play Senior County football. Even Tyrone I think Meyler and Hampsey played very little county underage football. Ricey could be another. I have seen ordinary enough kids at 7, 8 and 9 go on become excellent players in u15 and 17 teams. They develop not just ability wise but physically as well.
I also remember loads of lads from School who you would have thought they will go on and be superstars and it just never happened. Some didn't even play senior club football. They maybe had a physical advantage at 10 or 11 that disappeared over time and their ability didn't develop. 

I agree it is hard at that young age, kids want to win and you want them to win so they're happy and they enjoy it, but there is a bigger picture and as coaches we have a responsibility to all the children no matter their ability or behaviour which is probably a bigger problem.

[thewobbler]

I think the go games are a positive. You wouldnt believe some of the kids who have a desire to win at all ages. Do you dampen their will to win so that Joe who probably will never play gaelic after the age of 10 gets some game time? I have also seem parents being their kids to a small cup game when their child never attended training. They expected their child to play

Parents are to blame as well. I have seen 30 kids turn up to go games and everyone expects their kids to get game time.

Main issue I see with teenagers and young adults is they want everything handed to them. My view is kids working hard and being competitive while having fun is a good thing and will make them more resilient later in life

They should all be getting similar game time at that age. If you have 30 kids, you should have 2 teams set up. A number of clubs do that. You don't want to stifle the will to win. But it needs to be done with each player getting their fair time. That's the core ethos of the go games.

Has anyone ever actually managed to stifle the will to win in kids?

Yep. Not me personally. But non-competitive football over a season has done it.

The difference in application and intensity our more-developed 11.5 players brought to tournament play at the tail end of last season, compared to how they approached concurrent non-competitive weekly league games, would have been obvious to anyone.

Again I don't think there's a perfect solution here.

But the kids who are more likely to still be playing football at u17 (let alone adult) are the naturally more competitive ones. This has nothing to with Gaelic Games, Irish culture or even coaching, and has everything to do with the fact that some of us are genetically wired to treat games as more important than life, and some of us are not. And I have a continued feeling that this quest for non-competitive sport among primary age children, is a little misguided. 

[Truth hurts]

I hate underage tournaments. Standing around for hours on end to give kids 40 minutes of football in madness. Lets stop for lunch for an hour in between for sandwiches. They need culled.

I don't agree with mixing everyone in together but play the kids at their level so they can improve and have fun.

Parents demanding their son plays on the A team when they are not fit to needs culled as well.

[Milltown Row2]

I hate underage tournaments. Standing around for hours on end to give kids 40 minutes of football in madness. Lets stop for lunch for an hour in between for sandwiches. They need culled.

I don't agree with mixing everyone in together but play the kids at their level so they can improve and have fun.

Parents demanding their son plays on the A team when they are not fit to needs culled as well.

Parents at games needs culled, trying to live their useless playing career in their kids shoes..

Tournaments are fine, and providing you stamp out that shit early on then you are going to have a hassle free day and the kids love it...

I've taken kids all over the country, indoor hurling tournaments to go games when they first started out and you'll always get 1 or 2 teams that you can see that have been 'coached' for Go games ffs!!

We run a football and hurling one every year and to date it is always a great day out for most. While we'd like to do well in it we are beyond that must win at all costs mentality

As for parents/coaches you need strong referees on site, any sign of weakness they'll be jumping and shouting like it's an All Ireland..

The last tournament we did I sent a coach outside the pitch completely, we've 6 games going on at one time, his club got to the final and won, but he was in his car the whole day, slabbering during a p5 tournament, fecking nuts!!

[square_ball]

There's loads of examples of footballers who weren't talented or had limited ability at underage going on to play Senior County football. Even Tyrone I think Meyler and Hampsey played very little county underage football. Ricey could be another. I have seen ordinary enough kids at 7, 8 and 9 go on become excellent players in u15 and 17 teams. They develop not just ability wise but physically as well.
I also remember loads of lads from School who you would have thought they will go on and be superstars and it just never happened. Some didn't even play senior club football. They maybe had a physical advantage at 10 or 11 that disappeared over time and their ability didn't develop. 

I agree it is hard at that young age, kids want to win and you want them to win so they're happy and they enjoy it, but there is a bigger picture and as coaches we have a responsibility to all the children no matter their ability or behaviour which is probably a bigger problem.

Hampsey was minor captain when they won an Ulster in 2012 and was full back on the All Ireland U21 winning team in 2015. Not sure about Meyler at county minor level but have seen in interviews saying he was playing for Omagh B teams at younger age groups so your broader point is true enough. I'd be pretty confident that you're not going to lose lads because you don't keep the score at u8/10/12 but you will 100% lose lads that are sat on the sidelines watching every week that barely get a kick.

[trailer]

There's loads of examples of footballers who weren't talented or had limited ability at underage going on to play Senior County football. Even Tyrone I think Meyler and Hampsey played very little county underage football. Ricey could be another. I have seen ordinary enough kids at 7, 8 and 9 go on become excellent players in u15 and 17 teams. They develop not just ability wise but physically as well.
I also remember loads of lads from School who you would have thought they will go on and be superstars and it just never happened. Some didn't even play senior club football. They maybe had a physical advantage at 10 or 11 that disappeared over time and their ability didn't develop. 

I agree it is hard at that young age, kids want to win and you want them to win so they're happy and they enjoy it, but there is a bigger picture and as coaches we have a responsibility to all the children no matter their ability or behaviour which is probably a bigger problem.

Hampsey was minor captain when they won an Ulster in 2012 and was full back on the All Ireland U21 winning team in 2015. Not sure about Meyler at county minor level but have seen in interviews saying he was playing for Omagh B teams at younger age groups so your broader point is true enough. I'd be pretty confident that you're not going to lose lads because you don't keep the score at u8/10/12 but you will 100% lose lads that are sat on the sidelines watching every week that barely get a kick.

Maybe he didn't play MacRory - remember him mentioning something about it on the GAA social pod. Meyler was on the fringes of the St Mary's team initially as well.

[thewobbler]

So HQ have dropped the big hammer on competitive club juvenile tournaments.

Knew it was coming but I'm disappointed.

We'd a good thing going in Down at u11.5. Non competitive leagues that allow teams to develop their weaker players, and a handful of club tournaments running concurrently, to allow the more developed and competitive players to test themselves fully.

There's so many kids at 11 years old who want to push themselves and win things, and now they can't. Not in Gaelic games anyway.

Developing the weak at the expense of the strong is a muddled strategy for any sport.

The more I think about this, it just reeks of "I don't care if your Johnny doesn't get anything out of our sport, so long as my Johnny doesn't hate it".