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Short thread on sport in Ireland working together: I am someone who is interested in driving participation & retention in activity thru sport, that should be obvious to anyone who reads anything I put out. However I also like winning, and I also believe we are under performing...
... as a country and a mix of bitterness & small mindedness, on all side sometimes, holds us back. Gaelic Games is a unique advantage Irish sport has over other countries. Why the @FAIreland want to narrow their field of players to specialise is beyond me, and beyond logic ...
... as well as extremely short sighted. The @IrishRugby doesn’t take this aggressive approach and is slowly building the game in non traditional areas largely without much objection. Why? Their coaching & inclusiveness for one is top notch. While there is still a nice bit of ...
...”stop playing those British sports” in GAA it has largely dwindled to a small group of mostly hurling fundamentalists. But we can all thrive. Nobody loses when they work together. I would say this if I have not observed it or been shown it several times over the years at ....
...local levels. The Irish hockey, basketball, soccer and rugby teams at all grades will benefit from kids playing Gaelic games for as long as makes sense. That’s the top level. At the other end we will keep more kids playing multiple sports for longer. The research extensively..
...shows that if you keep them to 10 more stay, 13 is another big drop off, after 15 you have done a great job, get them to 18’s and your work is done. Research also shows is though that talented young kids who are “cut” from soccer squads/academies or clubs very often, and up...
...to 50% , stop playing sport completely. So why do it? The @FAIreland believes if they get kids younger, u13, (remember u13 means watching kids at 10/11 to pick them) they will make them better players by doing more soccer work with “better coaches” (in brackets because it’s..
... sometimes questionable). This means giving up other sports. They say it doesn’t, that’s it’s not policy and even though we have all seen documents from the @FAIreland to say otherwise, let’s says it’s not policy. It’s definitely prohibitive. If a kid from a National league...
...team was playing Hurling with me and was doing what FAI want them to do, 4 training/game a week. I would tell him not to come to hurling. Because I would only be adding unnecessary load. The point is really, the @FAIreland and some parts of their coaching structure want to...
...control the players and want them to give up other sports. Not everyone, but it’s clear a sizeable group want this. However, as discussed above this is actually, at least pre/during puberty, going to decrease the potential for these players, not increase. It is time everyone..
...was very clear on this and the realities on the ground. It is creating a mini market at even younger ages which is absolutely morally corrupt. But this completely lands at the feet of t he @FAIreland and nobody else.
