The drop off of youngsters playing Gaelic Football

[Farrandeelin]

Never worried about results but would be worried if fundamentals were not there-that comes down to the coach

No it doesn't some kids are clean useless. No athletic ability, no balance etc. Then then chose when & when not to come to training. Coach can do nothing with those kids.

This is true enough. That and the fact that some of them only see a football or a hurley for an hour a week doesn't do any favours either.

[Fear Bun Na Sceilpe]

Never worried about results but would be worried if fundamentals were not there-that comes down to the coach

No it doesn't some kids are clean useless. No athletic ability, no balance etc. Then then chose when & when not to come to training. Coach can do nothing with those kids.

This is true enough. That and the fact that some of them only see a football or a hurley for an hour a week doesn't do any favours either.

I'd not be so keen on wains getting called clean useless tbh

[themac_23]

Never worried about results but would be worried if fundamentals were not there-that comes down to the coach

No it doesn't some kids are clean useless. No athletic ability, no balance etc. Then then chose when & when not to come to training. Coach can do nothing with those kids.

This is true enough. That and the fact that some of them only see a football or a hurley for an hour a week doesn't do any favours either.

I'd not be so keen on wains getting called clean useless tbh

I'm sure I'm not the only one who when they were younger prob fell into that bracket of being 'clean useless' don't think even my da woulda thought I was up to much but in fairness he kept me at it and when I was 12/13 it finally clicked and started getting ok, when I hit 16/17 I was pretty decent, played senior hurling and football for plenty of years. Football and hurling are to be enjoyed by everyone regardless of ability, I know my own lad is 4, football mad, started the under 6s, I've a mate who's wee boy is 4 months older, doesn't go to Gaelic but a wee soccer team and his skill levels are unreal, I was wondering was my wee boy just not cut out for football then I caught myself on and realised all kids will develop at their own pace. There's n such thing as dead wood or lost causes at under age, just late developers

[Fear Bun Na Sceilpe]

Good post

[AnGaelGearmanach]

Never worried about results but would be worried if fundamentals were not there-that comes down to the coach

No it doesn't some kids are clean useless. No athletic ability, no balance etc. Then then chose when & when not to come to training. Coach can do nothing with those kids.

This is true enough. That and the fact that some of them only see a football or a hurley for an hour a week doesn't do any favours either.

I'd not be so keen on wains getting called clean useless tbh

I'm sure I'm not the only one who when they were younger prob fell into that bracket of being 'clean useless' don't think even my da woulda thought I was up to much but in fairness he kept me at it and when I was 12/13 it finally clicked and started getting ok, when I hit 16/17 I was pretty decent, played senior hurling and football for plenty of years. Football and hurling are to be enjoyed by everyone regardless of ability, I know my own lad is 4, football mad, started the under 6s, I've a mate who's wee boy is 4 months older, doesn't go to Gaelic but a wee soccer team and his skill levels are unreal, I was wondering was my wee boy just not cut out for football then I caught myself on and realised all kids will develop at their own pace. There's n such thing as dead wood or lost causes at under age, just late developers

[themac_23]

Never worried about results but would be worried if fundamentals were not there-that comes down to the coach

No it doesn't some kids are clean useless. No athletic ability, no balance etc. Then then chose when & when not to come to training. Coach can do nothing with those kids.

This is true enough. That and the fact that some of them only see a football or a hurley for an hour a week doesn't do any favours either.

I'd not be so keen on wains getting called clean useless tbh

I'm sure I'm not the only one who when they were younger prob fell into that bracket of being 'clean useless' don't think even my da woulda thought I was up to much but in fairness he kept me at it and when I was 12/13 it finally clicked and started getting ok, when I hit 16/17 I was pretty decent, played senior hurling and football for plenty of years. Football and hurling are to be enjoyed by everyone regardless of ability, I know my own lad is 4, football mad, started the under 6s, I've a mate who's wee boy is 4 months older, doesn't go to Gaelic but a wee soccer team and his skill levels are unreal, I was wondering was my wee boy just not cut out for football then I caught myself on and realised all kids will develop at their own pace. There's n such thing as dead wood or lost causes at under age, just late developers

Seriously, few weeks ago we were outdoor having a beer and his wee lad was there knocking the ball off the wall both feet and his da was throwing the ball and he could control it I was like what age is he 5/6 and he said he was turning 5 in a few months. Fs my wee lad goes to the fundamentals and I look over at him and he's pretending to be spider man shooting webs at the ball haha

[Milltown Row2]

Never worried about results but would be worried if fundamentals were not there-that comes down to the coach

No it doesn't some kids are clean useless. No athletic ability, no balance etc. Then then chose when & when not to come to training. Coach can do nothing with those kids.

This is true enough. That and the fact that some of them only see a football or a hurley for an hour a week doesn't do any favours either.

I'd not be so keen on wains getting called clean useless tbh

I'm sure I'm not the only one who when they were younger prob fell into that bracket of being 'clean useless' don't think even my da woulda thought I was up to much but in fairness he kept me at it and when I was 12/13 it finally clicked and started getting ok, when I hit 16/17 I was pretty decent, played senior hurling and football for plenty of years. Football and hurling are to be enjoyed by everyone regardless of ability, I know my own lad is 4, football mad, started the under 6s, I've a mate who's wee boy is 4 months older, doesn't go to Gaelic but a wee soccer team and his skill levels are unreal, I was wondering was my wee boy just not cut out for football then I caught myself on and realised all kids will develop at their own pace. There's n such thing as dead wood or lost causes at under age, just late developers

Seriously, few weeks ago we were outdoor having a beer and his wee lad was there knocking the ball off the wall both feet and his da was throwing the ball and he could control it I was like what age is he 5/6 and he said he was turning 5 in a few months. Fs my wee lad goes to the fundamentals and I look over at him and he's pretending to be spider man shooting webs at the ball haha

They all find their levels, my nephew was a bit like the spider kid! I'd said to my brother his attention span is terrible, it was literally a year and the change was phenomenal, hurling football and prominent on his local soccer team.

They just need to have the ball and stick with them all times

[trailer]

Just let them play. Children all develop at different ages. Smile, encourage and have fun. Follow Shane Smith on Twitter. He has a great insight into coaching children. Remember they are not mini adults.

Shane's pinned twet
12 ways to retain more children in sport

1 Know names
2 Say hello
3 Include all
4 Play fun warm ups
5 Smile
6 Allow some free play
7 Reduce overly structured sessions
8 Play small sided games
9 Praise effort
10 Accept mistakes
11 Encourage creativity
12 Remove pressure

[AnGaelGearmanach]

Just let them play. Children all develop at different ages. Smile, encourage and have fun. Follow Shane Smith on Twitter. He has a great insight into coaching children. Remember they are not mini adults.

Shane's pinned twet
12 ways to retain more children in sport

1 Know names
2 Say hello
3 Include all
4 Play fun warm ups
5 Smile
6 Allow some free play
7 Reduce overly structured sessions
8 Play small sided games
9 Praise effort
10 Accept mistakes
11 Encourage creativity
12 Remove pressure

Going into far too much detail folks, god knows how the youth of yesteryear were trained without the advice of somebody from twitter...

[trailer]

Just let them play. Children all develop at different ages. Smile, encourage and have fun. Follow Shane Smith on Twitter. He has a great insight into coaching children. Remember they are not mini adults.

Shane's pinned twet
12 ways to retain more children in sport

1 Know names
2 Say hello
3 Include all
4 Play fun warm ups
5 Smile
6 Allow some free play
7 Reduce overly structured sessions
8 Play small sided games
9 Praise effort
10 Accept mistakes
11 Encourage creativity
12 Remove pressure

Going into far too much detail folks, god knows how the youth of yesteryear were trained without the advice of somebody from twitter...

You'll not have to worry anyway Angelo. No one will want to have kids with you.

[JoG2]

 .. Jesus lol

[Itchy]

I am the coaching officer in my club and am Grappling with a lot of these subjects. Even as a coach I have been very conscious of player drop out as I have coached my own lads teams from U6 up to where he is now playing U11 & U13. To put our club in context we would be struggling to field a team of boys at U13/U15/U17- wed usually need 2 or 3 players to play up from a younger level. Its a bit easier as we have the girls still at U7/U9/U11 before they go off to a local dedicated girls team made of up from 3 of the clubs in our area.

Here are a few things I have...

1- Lack of interest from the kids parents in a major major barrier. It is def the No1. Child brought and dumped for a bit of baby sitting but doesnt see a ball from one day to the next at home. These kids require huge extra work to get them to really enjoy the sport so that they might annoy the parent enough to get them a ball, bring them to matches etc. But even with all this extra work the return I would say is poor. I would estimate in this category I would have 50% retention. It is soul destroying as you put so much into it. Even the 50% you keep, they dont develop as well as other players. You'd be very tempted to give up on this category if you were from a big club with big numbers but in a small club like ours just cant do it.

2- Crazy parents. I know ye all know about these. I have one who thinks his child is too good to play GAA for this club (he isnt) and instead goes and plays soccer in a big town before no doubt he will be snapped up by Man Utd(he wont). I have another one who thinks both his lads (aged 8 and 9) are going to focus on rugby as they are Ireland material. Again these parents are a huge drain on the club and coaches. We have started to just kick them to touch. They poison their kids, other parents and are just requiring too much effort for likely a very low return.

3- Coaches. It is so important to get the right coaches in place. Its likely going to be someone with a child on each team. But you need a lead coach thats in it for the club in the long run. Different kids will develop at different times. You cannot make a call at U11 that a fella is worth persisting with or not. You need to be aware of the dates of birth of children as in an age group you can have kids 2 years apart in age. You need to give kids a chance on the team even if it means you might lose. My job as coaching officer is to keep informing the coaches of this and I suppose to make sure I am getting the right type of person on each team. This year I spent many weeks working through names and eliminating people who I didnt think would fit the bill. It is a tough job being a coach and trying to keep everyone happy. Its ok to say give every child equal game time but you have to also think about the kid that has ambition to play for county etc and ends up losing all their games as you dogedly stick to equal playing time. Every coach needs to try and get the mix right.

4- Club Spending: Coaches, parents etc need to make sure their club is investing in the youth. Gear for identity, trips away for bonding. The club needs to build pride in the players and parents. Too many clubs spending all their money on senior teams. Senior teams should be financing much of their own expenses (especially those that work). Put the money into the kids.

5- Dont ignore the girls ffs. So important to keep girls in sport and I know we have produced some brilliant players and handed them over to the ladies team. I love to see them do well. If you have a coach that sticks all the girls in a corner doing cartwheels get him out to f**k of your club.

Those are a few of my thoughts. Interesting reading in this thread.

[Fear Bun Na Sceilpe]

I am the coaching officer in my club and am Grappling with a lot of these subjects. Even as a coach I have been very conscious of player drop out as I have coached my own lads teams from U6 up to where he is now playing U11 & U13. To put our club in context we would be struggling to field a team of boys at U13/U15/U17- wed usually need 2 or 3 players to play up from a younger level. Its a bit easier as we have the girls still at U7/U9/U11 before they go off to a local dedicated girls team made of up from 3 of the clubs in our area.

Here are a few things I have...

1- Lack of interest from the kids parents in a major major barrier. It is def the No1. Child brought and dumped for a bit of baby sitting but doesnt see a ball from one day to the next at home. These kids require huge extra work to get them to really enjoy the sport so that they might annoy the parent enough to get them a ball, bring them to matches etc. But even with all this extra work the return I would say is poor. I would estimate in this category I would have 50% retention. It is soul destroying as you put so much into it. Even the 50% you keep, they dont develop as well as other players. You'd be very tempted to give up on this category if you were from a big club with big numbers but in a small club like ours just cant do it.

2- Crazy parents. I know ye all know about these. I have one who thinks his child is too good to play GAA for this club (he isnt) and instead goes and plays soccer in a big town before no doubt he will be snapped up by Man Utd(he wont). I have another one who thinks both his lads (aged 8 and 9) are going to focus on rugby as they are Ireland material. Again these parents are a huge drain on the club and coaches. We have started to just kick them to touch. They poison their kids, other parents and are just requiring too much effort for likely a very low return.

3- Coaches. It is so important to get the right coaches in place. Its likely going to be someone with a child on each team. But you need a lead coach thats in it for the club in the long run. Different kids will develop at different times. You cannot make a call at U11 that a fella is worth persisting with or not. You need to be aware of the dates of birth of children as in an age group you can have kids 2 years apart in age. You need to give kids a chance on the team even if it means you might lose. My job as coaching officer is to keep informing the coaches of this and I suppose to make sure I am getting the right type of person on each team. This year I spent many weeks working through names and eliminating people who I didnt think would fit the bill. It is a tough job being a coach and trying to keep everyone happy. Its ok to say give every child equal game time but you have to also think about the kid that has ambition to play for county etc and ends up losing all their games as you dogedly stick to equal playing time. Every coach needs to try and get the mix right.

4- Club Spending: Coaches, parents etc need to make sure their club is investing in the youth. Gear for identity, trips away for bonding. The club needs to build pride in the players and parents. Too many clubs spending all their money on senior teams. Senior teams should be financing much of their own expenses (especially those that work). Put the money into the kids.

5- Dont ignore the girls ffs. So important to keep girls in sport and I know we have produced some brilliant players and handed them over to the ladies team. I love to see them do well. If you have a coach that sticks all the girls in a corner doing cartwheels get him out to f**k of your club.

Those are a few of my thoughts. Interesting reading in this thread.

Nice read

[Ethan Tremblay]

I am the coaching officer in my club and am Grappling with a lot of these subjects. Even as a coach I have been very conscious of player drop out as I have coached my own lads teams from U6 up to where he is now playing U11 & U13. To put our club in context we would be struggling to field a team of boys at U13/U15/U17- wed usually need 2 or 3 players to play up from a younger level. Its a bit easier as we have the girls still at U7/U9/U11 before they go off to a local dedicated girls team made of up from 3 of the clubs in our area.

Here are a few things I have...

1- Lack of interest from the kids parents in a major major barrier. It is def the No1. Child brought and dumped for a bit of baby sitting but doesnt see a ball from one day to the next at home. These kids require huge extra work to get them to really enjoy the sport so that they might annoy the parent enough to get them a ball, bring them to matches etc. But even with all this extra work the return I would say is poor. I would estimate in this category I would have 50% retention. It is soul destroying as you put so much into it. Even the 50% you keep, they dont develop as well as other players. You'd be very tempted to give up on this category if you were from a big club with big numbers but in a small club like ours just cant do it.

2- Crazy parents. I know ye all know about these. I have one who thinks his child is too good to play GAA for this club (he isnt) and instead goes and plays soccer in a big town before no doubt he will be snapped up by Man Utd(he wont). I have another one who thinks both his lads (aged 8 and 9) are going to focus on rugby as they are Ireland material. Again these parents are a huge drain on the club and coaches. We have started to just kick them to touch. They poison their kids, other parents and are just requiring too much effort for likely a very low return.

3- Coaches. It is so important to get the right coaches in place. Its likely going to be someone with a child on each team. But you need a lead coach thats in it for the club in the long run. Different kids will develop at different times. You cannot make a call at U11 that a fella is worth persisting with or not. You need to be aware of the dates of birth of children as in an age group you can have kids 2 years apart in age. You need to give kids a chance on the team even if it means you might lose. My job as coaching officer is to keep informing the coaches of this and I suppose to make sure I am getting the right type of person on each team. This year I spent many weeks working through names and eliminating people who I didnt think would fit the bill. It is a tough job being a coach and trying to keep everyone happy. Its ok to say give every child equal game time but you have to also think about the kid that has ambition to play for county etc and ends up losing all their games as you dogedly stick to equal playing time. Every coach needs to try and get the mix right.

4- Club Spending: Coaches, parents etc need to make sure their club is investing in the youth. Gear for identity, trips away for bonding. The club needs to build pride in the players and parents. Too many clubs spending all their money on senior teams. Senior teams should be financing much of their own expenses (especially those that work). Put the money into the kids.

5- Dont ignore the girls ffs. So important to keep girls in sport and I know we have produced some brilliant players and handed them over to the ladies team. I love to see them do well. If you have a coach that sticks all the girls in a corner doing cartwheels get him out to f**k of your club.

Those are a few of my thoughts. Interesting reading in this thread.

Just on point 2, I think parents have to make the conscious decision on what they can reasonably send children to and what they can't, a child can't do it all. 
In my youth I would have trained with the school after school with a few different teams, then went off and played with the club or hurling club or soccer club that night.  I know for my child I don't want that, its not fair on anyone when you can't commit to one or the other.  The more arguments you get into over the back of trying to please everyone, be two places at once etc.

[clonadmad]

Just let them play. Children all develop at different ages. Smile, encourage and have fun. Follow Shane Smith on Twitter. He has a great insight into coaching children. Remember they are not mini adults.

Shane's pinned twet
12 ways to retain more children in sport

1 Know names
2 Say hello
3 Include all
4 Play fun warm ups
5 Smile
6 Allow some free play
7 Reduce overly structured sessions
8 Play small sided games
9 Praise effort
10 Accept mistakes
11 Encourage creativity
12 Remove pressure

Going into far too much detail folks, god knows how the youth of yesteryear were trained without the advice of somebody from twitter...

A sign of a good juvenile coach is to have an open mind and the ability to take in information from all sources.

Its obviously not for you Angelo