Cork Coaching Personnel Coaching & Games: No. 8, October 2015 Kevin O’Donovan: Cork Coaching MONSTER BLITZ SEASON COMES TO A CONCLUSION Officer 086-7753567 The Monster Blitz season ended on a massive high in October [email protected] with our end of year blitzes attracting record numbers of 6 to 10 Kevin O Callaghan: year olds in both and football. Games Manager The football was first up on October 3rd with the u 8, u 9 and u 10 age 086-8532375 groups combined on the same day. [email protected] There were 2,500 boys playing football across the county at 6 venues. Shane Supple: All the boys got to play in 3 games of 7 or 9 a side. Large urban clubs Coach Education divided their numbers in to multiple teams that allowed them to play 087-4327261 against smaller clubs and the emphasis at all venues was on [email protected] enjoyment and participation with no scores being kept. Clonakilty and

Sean Crowley: Mallow were standout venues with over 700 boys playing at the same East Cork time which created a massive atmosphere for all present. 086-0548533 The hurling equivalent took place the following Saturday, October 10th. [email protected] Again, the weather obliged and large numbers attended our venues for

Colm Crowley: the final blitz of the year for these stars of the future. Cork City 086-3687799 [email protected]

Paudie O'Brien: South East 086-7725411 [email protected]

James McCarthy: West Cork 087-7799531 [email protected]

Pat Spratt: The highlight for some boys was the chance to meet their heroes in the West Avondhu & Duhallow form of Cork Senior players visits to the various venues. 086-8922800 Boys got to meet players such as , Brian O Driscoll, [email protected] Tomas Clancy, , Conor Dorman and Stephen Cronin in

Noel Crowley: football while Alan Cadogan, Cormac Murphy and Damien Cahalane East Avondhu & Cúl Camps were among the hurlers who came out to give their support to the 086-8375061 hurling blitzes. [email protected] Clubs also gave medals to the boys to mark the last game of the year.

For more information on Cork GDA’s check online at www.rebelogcoaching.com

Foundation Courses for Clubs GAELTACHT COACHING  If your club wishes to complete a Foundation Coaching Course between November and March you have to book SCHEME your course with Shane Supple ([email protected]) at John Neville (St least 4 weeks in advance. Finbarrs) joined Rebel Óg Coaching in  Your club has to have a minimum of 12 participants to run a course September to take on a coaching role in the  The cost of a Foundation Course for a club is €250 for up to 20 Gaeltacht schools. participants This Programme is now in its 4 year and  If your club will have more than 20 participants the cost will be €450 as two tutors are required is a joint venture between Rebel Óg  All payments for courses are to be paid in advance of course begining Coaching, Roinn Na Gaeltachta, Munster  Please let Shane Supple know the number of participants you believe Council and the 3 you club will have for your course when you are booking local clubs (Naomh Aban, Cill Na Martra &  Bookings are to be made by email Beal Atha An  The Foundation Coaching Course is 9 hours for a Hurling and Ghaorthaidh. Football Course and 7.5 hours for a single code The scheme saw John working with all 5  The course can be done in the following formats: all on a Saturday OR Primary Schools in the 3hrs on a Friday night and 6hrs on the Saturday OR over 3 week Region coaching, as nights either in the same week or spread out over 2 or 3 weeks gaeilge, the skills of football. John also  When you are booking please give details of which format you would hosted a workshop for like and what date you would like teachers on the  Dates will be allocated on a first come first served basis so we cannot coaching of the basic guarantee the date you are looking for skills and the integration of SUPER GAMES CENTRE PROJECT fundamental Martin Barry (Douglas) is currently running a games based movement skills. initiative with Midleton CBS, Rochestown College, CSN John also completed Bishopstown & Christians. The target is first year pupils who may hurling sessions in not be making their schools hurling team. The boys are provided Colaiste Ghobnatan. with 1 games based training session per week with Martin. The Scheme finished in October and is expected to resume in January with coaching to be maintained through to June.

The short term aim is keeping boys hurling throughout the club off season through offering the boys a novel games based programme of activity. This pilot programme is being run in conjunction with National Coaching & Games. Should this initiative prove popular, the GAA are hoping to set up “Super Games Centres” around the country where boys can sign up to take part in weekly games without having to be attached to a team or a club. The project commenced in Mid October and will run for a total of 16 weeks.

INTERVIEW WITH EAST CORK GDA SHANE SUPPLE

CORK GAA STRATEGIC In last months issue we focused on Sean Crowley, Games Development Administrator. PLANNING PROCESS We now turn our attention to our newest GDA, Shane Supple. We caught up with Shane to get an inisght in to his involvement in GAA The Cork Strategic Plan 2016-2018 work group have held meetings for club players, mentors, officers, GDA’s,

Coaching Committee members, Sciath Na

Scol, Post Primary Schools Board and Rebel Óg Officers in the past month to get their views on the way forward for Cork GAA Shane Supple from Gortroe Youghal Co Cork has been player, secretary in the context of & PRO with his local club St Itas in Gortroe, Youghal, Co Cork for a coaching and games number of years. He is a well established coach in local Primary Schools programmes. This in his area. During that time Shane has been working as a coach and group will now compile trainer for different teams in East Cork. As he says himself “My one big their recommendations claim to fame is coaching Seamus Harnedy and Angela Walsh among and report back to the others when they were Junior infants in school!!”. Strategic Plan Steering Group. Shane has always had a love of Hurling and Football. He has won East Cork medals with Glenbower Rovers in Football and St Itas in Hurling,

PRIMARY SCHOOL going on to win a County title in 2007.

3RD CLASS BLITZES In 2012 Shane started working alongside the Cork GDA's (through an internship programme) and got involved in the regional squads at U13, In mid October, Rebel U14, U15 & U16 in East Cork, coaching and mentoring in both Hurling Óg Coaching ran 3rd and Football. In 2015, he became Secretary of the Rebel Og East Board class football blitzes at which was a large undertaking and in this time he got to meet many of 7 venues. The blitzes the clubs he will be working with going forward, he also started working proved to be very for the Cork County Board coaching in various schools on a full time popular with the basis. participating schools and many children Shane started working as a full time Games Development Administrator were playing in their in Cork this week and hopes to continue the great work already done by first ever football game. In all there was the other GDA's in the county. Its an important role that he is looking forward to taking on. Shane noted "Its important for younger players to over 1,500 children involved. get out onto the field and play their favorite sport. Lots of great players at the top level have played but never won anything and Shane says the

same will happen at grassroots level. The social benefits for younger players to be involved in playing games, taking part and becoming part of a club are huge. While it is our tradition, it is far more then that, its a way to make lifelong friends and to stay grounded in your local community.

Shane will be heading up the Coach Education Programme in Cork taking over from Sean Crowley GDA. Shane will be working in East Cork and he will be making contact with clubs in the next few days to arrange meetings with Club Coaching Officers etc.

CLUB PROFILE : BALLYHOOLY

Rebel Óg Coaching caught up with Ballyhooly Coaching Officer Kieran McCarthy to look MID TERM CAMPS at how this club is adopting best practice guidelines to improve playing standards. Rebel Óg Coaching The juvenile club adopted a number of policies that were then incorporated into the clubs took advantage of 5 year plan in 2014. First and foremost was maximising participation and this was tackled the Halloween in four ways. schools break to run 1. We committed to engaging with the parent’s of every child in the community to u 12 skills get them to bring their child to G.A.A. training and give it a go development camps 2. We adopted the GoGames philosophy of fun, skill development and equal playing in 6 Regional Venues time for all players regardless of the result up to U-13 level . The camps were 3. We established a girl’s only training session on Sunday mornings in September well received with 2013 300 boys attending. 4. We engaged with our local school and provide coaching for all pupils for six weeks The 2 day camps each year were predominantly games based and The results of these initiatives have been great. In 2013 there were less than 10 girls boys were given the participating in the juvenile club, this year 68 girls were actively engaged in training and chance to play both matches as part of our newly established LGFA club. We currently have an estimated football and hurling. participation rate of about 90% of all boys and girls attending our local school. Our school is entering local blitzes and Sciath na Scol competitions and we host blitzes for various classes throughout the year.

Equal Playing Time

From U-6 to U-13 in Ballyhooly each of our players is entitled to equal playing time in matches regardless of ability. We also aim to play players in as many positions as possible throughout the season to avoid pigeon holing players from a young age. We are aware that this policy may ‘cost us silverware’ in the short-term but if it means most of those players will be still playing at 28 or 29 it will be well worth it. The boys were given Coaching advice on basic nutritional good We have a pool of around 50 coaches facilitating training with a lead coach for each practice and shown group. We encourage station coaching as it maximises the number of touches each player how to do simple gets in a session and is also less daunting for new coaches when they only have to repeat a injury prevention station three or four times rather than taking a full session with players. We are very keen on developing our coaches so as well as the Foundation Course, we have also run exercises. workshops on Fundamental Movements and Running Technique over the past two years. Rebel Óg Coaching We have invested about €5k in new equipment over the past two years so each group can plan to do more mid provide a ball per player and any other equipment when required. term camps in 2016 Ballyhooly Skills Passport at Easter and Halloween. In October this year we launched our Skills Passport based on the UCan skills awards in the GoGames manual. We hope it will act as a motivational tool for players to practice their skills using the correct technique over the winter months. It is based on a martial arts colour-coded grading formula so that players will move from yellow level to black level as they acquire the skills of our games.

Next Issue The next issue of the GDA Newsletter will be published in early December. Please forward this newsletter to all your contacts. If you wish to have an item included please send an email with your details to [email protected]