HoganStand GAA Football and Hurling

National Forum

The Irish Times On Participation - Discuss

(Oldest Posts First)

You need to Login to Post

[https://www.irishtimes.com/health/your-fitness/2022/10/11/we-nearly-lost-our-boy-due-to-men-who-needed-the-under-12-win-to-make-them-feel-they-were-great/] [https://www.irishtimes.com/health/your-fitness/2022/10/13/underage-team-sport-is-all-about-winning-it-is-heart-breaking-to-see-our-son-ignored-and-excluded/] finnboy (Donegal) - Posts: 2 - 13/10/2022 15:22:13 2443858 Link
I'd have sympathy for many of the children and parents mentioned in those pieces, particularly for the younger ones aged up to about 12. But for some of the older ones aged 15 and more, think it's important to realise that sooner or later, there's a distinction between playing games and playing sport. Playing games is generally about everybody taking part and having fun, but on the other hand, playing sport - and in particular, playing a sporting competition - is about determining a winner. At what age do such people think this distinction should be made, if 15, 16, or 17 is still too young? Pikeman96 (Wexford) - Posts: 2229 - 13/10/2022 16:46:23 2443874 Link
I think we should delay the introduction of formal competition for as long as possible. For example, Go Games up to U11; a regular series of blitzes, games etc up to U13, but no formal leagues or championships; introduction of leagues and championships at U15. Maybe a reason for much of the current drop-out after U17 is that players have had too much formal competition by then, and are just fed up with it, and want to try other things?? football first (None) - Posts: 1259 - 13/10/2022 17:09:59 2443879 Link
Replying To Pikeman96: "I'd have sympathy for many of the children and parents mentioned in those pieces, particularly for the younger ones aged up to about 12. But for some of the older ones aged 15 and more, think it's important to realise that sooner or later, there's a distinction between playing games and playing sport. Playing games is generally about everybody taking part and having fun, but on the other hand, playing sport - and in particular, playing a sporting competition - is about determining a winner. At what age do such people think this distinction should be made, if 15, 16, or 17 is still too young?" U12 level. After Go games level. Same for boys and girls. But try improving the kids on the fringes of a team, get the better players on the team to help them improve too and give them gametime when it's possible. Encourage them and build their confidence. Some kids teams seem fairly focussed around the better players on the team, which is grand for a while but the whole team needs to reach a decent standard if they want to progress over the years. And maybe one or two coaches need to cop on that their kid isn't better than some kuds on the bench just because they're one of the coaches. They can still enjoy games that are competitive but it's an awful shame to see kids walk away around the time they start secondary school because some of their teammates, coaches and parents didn't encourage them that bit more. GreenandRed (Mayo) - Posts: 7337 - 13/10/2022 17:20:51 2443883 Link