By John Harrington

The scale of work undertaken by the GAA in the sphere of Coaching and Games Development was considerable in 2021.

The sheer volume is all the more admirable when you consider it was achieved despite the considerable disruption caused by the Covid-19 pandemic for the second consecutive year.

Once again, necessity proved to be the mother of invention and the GAA’s Coaching & Games Development staff and volunteers found innovative ways to deliver Gaelic Games programmes and coaching in clubs, schools and communities.

When we were able to return to face-to-face and on-pitch activity from June 2021, the huge participation levels highlighted just how badly people of all ages had missed playing the games they love.

It was perhaps timely then that 2021 would be the year the GAA, LGFA, and Camogie Association combined to launch the new Gaelic Games Player Pathway.

Two of the central aims of the Gaelic Games Player Pathway is to make quality coaching within clubs a priority and to provide an opportunity for lifelong participation in our games for every boy and girl, regardless of their ability.

That pathway begins at a very young age, with 711 clubs running a nursery section aimed at 4-7 year olds in 2021. 47,000 children and 8,400 volunteer coaches took part in these nurseries across the 32 counties.

From there it progresses to Go Games – small-sided matches with modified playing rules that allow more time and space for players to master the skills, make decisions, and as a result experience a sense of achievement.

In 2021, 1,189 clubs were involved in the Go Games Programme throughout the 32 counties, with 69,000 playing U7-U11 Gaelic Football Go Games, and 45,000 playing U7-U11 Hurling Go Games.

Many of these children also benefited from the GAA’s Primary Schools Coaching Programme which ensures that all Primary School aged children have the opportunity to participate in a programme of Gaelic games according to their needs and ability.

In 2021, 2,200 primary schools and 332,838 children participated in this programme with students receiving 3.9 million cumulative coaching opportunities.

Children between the ages of 6 and 13 are also well catered for during the summer holidays through the always popular Kellogg’s GAA Cúl Camps. Year on year the number of participants have risen to the point that in 2021 135,000 took part.

GAA Super Games are another increasingly popular Gaelic games outlet for our youth. A more informal playing opportunity, they’re designed to keep players aged 12-17 participating in Gaelic Games for as long as possible. In 2021, 254 post primary schools and 504 clubs took part in the Super Games programme.

More formal youth competitions such as Féile (U15) and the Táin Óg Hurling League (U13/U15/U17), also provided more playing opportunities for club players with 1,000 teams competing in Féile and 122 teams competing in the increasingly popular Táin Óg League.

At the more elite level, 24 teams competed in the Celtic Challenge (U17 Hurling) while 77 teams competed in 10 different Talent Academy (U15/U16) competitions.

The increase in the number of young people playing Gaelic games has required an increase in the number of volunteer coaches to cater for them and considerable work was also carried out by the GAA in this sphere in 2021.

397 Foundation Coaching courses, 38 Award 1 Coaching courses, 500 Online Club Events, 1,400 Club Coaching Mentoring Sessions, and 800 Club Development workshops were delivered in 2021 with a total of 45,000 participants involved in GAA In-Formal Coach Development.

2021 was a challenging environment from a coaching and games development point of view, but the numbers underline just how much both full-time staff and volunteer coaches rose to the challenge to keep our young players active and engaged.

"It's a real pleasure to review and report on the sheer scale of Coaching & Games Development activity in 2021," says Shane Flanagan, the GAA's Director of Coaching and Games Development.

"Again, Gaelic Games thanks to the commitment of thousands of volunteers in our clubs, schools and communities were the prefect intervention and antidote to the situational crisis that was the pandemic.

"Our games, thanks to the key intervention of volunteers supported by our Games Development staff, ensured our participants lives continued to have necessary balance.

"Be ensuring key interventions in clubs and schools happened thanks to so many, we can look back with some pride and sincerely say we lived up to our own Association commitment that We All Belong. We truly are in Coaching and Games Development the sum of our parts."