Games Development Strategy

The GAA Games Development Strategy aims to:

1. Increase participation
2. Optimise playing standards
3. Support healthy and active communities

1.    Increasing Participation
Gaelic Games afford individuals the opportunity to develop their physical, psychological and social skills through their involvement in games and competitions which are organised across a range of ages and grades at parish/Club, divisional, County, Provincial, national and international level, and through various educational bodies at Primary, Post-Primary and Third Level. There are in excess of 20,000 underage and adult club teams affiliated to play hurling and football.

The Association aims to increase participation by providing appropriate opportunities for play to all players. This involves identifying the different needs of players whether they are children, youths or adults and structuring the opportunities for play that we provide around those needs.

The focus of the GAA Games Development Strategy is to provide games for everybody. By 2016 we will be able to say: “Every player in the country has the opportunity to play meaningful games in an informal, safe and enjoyable environment.”

2.    Optimise playing Standards
Playing facilities (currently valued at €6 billion) have been developed, by units of the Association, in almost every community in Ireland. The provision of playing facilities has, for the most part, been self-funded by generations of volunteers.

The Association aims to optimise playing standards by supplementing appropriate playing opportunities with appropriate skill development opportunities for players at each stage of their development. This is achieved again by identifying the different needs of players whether they are children, youths or adults and structuring the skill development opportunities we provide around those needs. Central to this is ensuring that every player is coached by a person qualified to the appropriate level.

3.    Support Healthy & Active Communities
The GAA is the dominant sports organisation for which people volunteer, accounting for over 40 per cent of those who volunteer for sports. (Social and Economic Value of Sport in Ireland; Economic and Social Research Institute, 2005). The GAA is also unique among Irish sports organisations in that club members are a good deal more numerous than players, a feature accounted for by its exceptional network of local clubs. The GAA also has a relatively even spread of membership by age and social class and, while weighted towards men, is the second highest membership sport among women. (Social and Economic Value of Sport in Ireland; Economic and Social Research Institute, 2005)

The Association aims to support healthy & active communities by striving to make them as self-sufficient as possible, through the recruitment and training of volunteers to fill the variety of roles and fulfil the variety of functions that support participation and performance in an inclusive and united manner.

The GAA Games Development Strategy is implemented through the GAA Grassroots to National Programme (GNP).

‘Excellence is a simple by-product of an effective sports system’