Public can have their say on future of youth Gaelic games

By John Harrington

An important survey exploring experiences and perspectives on participation, development, and retention in youth Gaelic games, particularly for players aged 13 to 17, is now open to the public.

Those involved in Gaelic Games in a coaching, playing, administrative or volunteer capacity are invited to participate, and all responses will be anonymous and treated confidentially.

The survey will feed into ongoing research into how a more formalised adapted games programme could have a positive impact on player retention, skill development, and the ability of smaller clubs to be able to continue to field teams.

The research program is headed up by Dr. Michael McKay and will also include interviews with key stakeholders such as county and provincial coaching and games development staff; and focus groups with coaches and parents.

The two main game adaptations currently under consideration are reducing the number of players on each team and the parameters of the pitch on which games are played.

There’s a broad consensus that smaller-sided games lend themselves to more touches and skill-execution opportunities for players, and the extent to which this is the case will be tested at the National Games Development Centre on March 21^st.

“We're going to play four games of U-14 and U-16 hurling and football where the number of players and the size of the pitches will be modified,” Dr. Michael McKay told GAA.ie.

“The exact parameters aren't yet finally agreed, but it'll be something like starting with 15-a-side and a full-size pitch and gradually modifying the numbers on the field and the size of the pitches down to as low as seven-a-side on a suitably adapted pitch for those numbers.

“We will record it and analyse the key performance indicators just to see the extent to which smaller sided games give players more opportunities and more touches.

“The players themselves will be debriefed afterwards so we can get their lived experience and see how it tallies with the notional ideas of the coaches.”

A number of counties already run adapted games programs to service different needs.

In Longford, they run their Paul Barden U13 Skill School Programme which sees a series of coaching sessions based on small-sided games during the summer culminate with a seven-a-side blitz.

The priority there was skill development for players who might not otherwise play that much football in their first year in the U14 grade.

Now though, their most pressing issue at U14 level is the challenge posed by changing demographics with rural clubs increasingly struggling for numbers.

“It's really biting us this year now,” says Longford GAA Head of Games, Damien Sheridan.

“We have eight clubs who need to play an 11 a side at under 14 this year so we're going to have an 11-a-side division where the pitch will be reduced but we'll still be using full-size goals.

"A lot of our clubs would have a training pitch with full-size goals that would be reduced size. Through the GAA fund we've also got a set of full-size portable goals and a couple of our clubs are in the process of buying those goals as well.

“That will open up the avenues to be able to play these under 14 games on a reduced size pitch which will make it more appropriate for the players while still keeping the full-size goal in play.

“Adapted games can be adapted in many different ways to suit what a given need is, and our current need is to keep clubs alive and fielding with their own jersey.”

Due to Ireland’s changing demographics many urban clubs have too many players rather than too few, but Dr. Michael McKay believes the same solution of adapted games could also address this different problem.

“For some clubs with massive numbers of players they could have a panel of 27 players but that means on any given day 12 of them aren’t playing,” says McKay.

“So how about if instead of playing one match of 15-a-side we instead played three matches of nine-a-side?

“Because how does it feel to be the player who only gets a tokenistic five minutes at the end of a match or be the parents of that player who go to the game to support them? Nobody's going to stay playing if that's the nature and extent of your engagement in Gaelic games

“So, it's about accommodating ability and also within that accommodating skill development and enhancement.

“If kids play a training game after they've trained and it’s 20 kids playing ten a side, seven or eight of them dominate the ball. What is the value of that to the other 14?

“We want to engage and involve everyone at their level in their development of Gaelic games. And certainly playing 15 against 15 on a massive pitch appears not really to be doing that.”

Connacht GAA have gotten great results in recent years from running some of their U14 academy days on a seven-a-side basis rather than 15-a-side.

Last year Longford’s U14 academy took part in a seven-a-side blitz with Louth and Carlow and enjoyed a similarly positive experience.

“The pace of the game, the number of touches the lads had got, was at a much higher level,” says Sheridan.

“Lots of touches and lots of action means lots of making decisions at a high pace, which probably wouldn't happen in 15-a-side and the smaller players are equally able to survive as the stronger lads who would dominate a 15-a-side game more easily. So, multiple benefits.

“The other space where adapted games could be hugely important would be hurling in the developing counties.

“We’ve found that the U18 level has been a struggle for the past two years and there’s the traditional thing that if a team doesn’t have at least 13 players the game doesn’t really exist and we need to get past that.

“If a club has 11 players, well then that game should go ahead at 11-a-side or 9-a-side rather than it not happening because you can't get to 13.

“Obviously you might then have to adapt the rules and the pitch size because of how far the sliotar travels.

“So, maybe you could change rules so you can only score from your own attacking half or that puck-outs have to be hit short into your own defensive half.

“A couple of rule changes like that would make smaller sided hurling games very appropriate and it’s needed in developing counties, particularly in that upper-teen space.”

Dr. Michael McKay hopes that the full spectrum of people involved in Gaelic games at youth level – players, parents, coaches, and administrators – participate in the public survey over the course of the next two weeks.

“What we're hoping to achieve is to get a sense of how the general population would be in terms of a move towards a more formalised adapted games program,” says McKay.

“We’re trying to come up with potential solutions on a number of levels - demographics, retention of players in the game, making people of all abilities feel valued that they have a role within playing Gaelic games, and then also skill development or enhancement.

“We have an experienced core group of researchers involved in this work including Dr Paul Donnelly (Ulster University), Dr Richard Bowles (Mary Immaculate College), and Dr Peter Horgan (GAA). It’s a really ambitious piece of work and it should yield an awful lot of interesting insights.

"We would encourage parents of those aged 13 to 17 in particular to engage their children in this process”

Go HERE to have your say on the future of Youth Gaelic Games.