GAELIC GAMES:THE ANNUAL GAA coaching conference, postponed until this weekend from last month because of bad weather, has been expanded to meet the high level of demand. Originally scheduled to accommodate 500 delegates, the conference was for the first time booked out over a week in advance.
But with the extra month in hand, the GAA has decided to accept more than 100 additional delegates and amend the schedule. Tomorrow’s programme will feature a staggered lunch serving with those not eating attending an interview with Christy O’Connor, who will talk in two sessions about his acclaimed book The Club, winner of the 2010 sports book of the year award.
“Although this has just been added to the programme in order to accommodate the extra numbers,” according to the GAA’s Director of Games Pat Daly, “we think it will also be topical and relevant because it’s obvious from the book how conscious Christy is of the importance of under-age structures.”
The theme of what is the eighth annual holding of the conference is Coaching Children: Building a Platform for Lifelong Involvement in Gaelic Games.
Daly explains the rationale behind this year’s event, administered by Peter Horgan, the GAA’s youth and education officer, and games development manager Jimmy Darcy.
“The coaching spectrum can be divided into child, youth and adult – all parts with their own specific requirements – so it would be a pretty broad task to try to traverse all three.”
He also believes that the quality of children’s coaching has greatly improved over the course of the past 10 years despite some reservations about the decreasing emphasis on competition.
“Children are not mini-adults,” he says, “and shouldn’t be treated as such.
“Skills development rather than winning should be the emphasis. Kids are competitive but competition should be a useful or enjoyable part of the construct rather than its purpose.
“Everyone wants to win when competing but at that age what is more important: the child’s development or the winning? Making the effort and learning how to play is of more value to children at that stage of their development.
“For instance some children who experience success in competition can do so because they have physical advantages, which won’t last as they get older. If winning has become the centre of their experience they will find it hard to adjust when they can no longer dominate games. Children’s coaching should be about learning to play.”
