Cork Coaching & Games: No. 8, October 2015

Cork Coaching Personnel

Kevin O’Donovan:

Cork County Coaching Officer 086-7753567 Coachingofficer.cork@gaa.ie Kevin O Callaghan:

Games Manager 086-8532375 Kevin.ocallaghan.gm.cork@gaa.ie Shane Supple:

Coach Education 087-4327261 shane.supple.gda.cork@gaa.ie Sean Crowley:

East Cork 086-0548533 Sean.crowley.gda.cork@gaa.ie Colm Crowley:

Cork City 086-3687799 colm.crowley.gda.cork@gaa.ie Paudie O'Brien:

South East 086-7725411 Paudie.obrien.gda.cork@gaa.ie James McCarthy:

West Cork 087-7799531 james.mccarthy.gda.cork@gaa.ie Pat Spratt:

West Avondhu & Duhallow 086-8922800 Pat.Spratt.gda.cork@gaa.ie

Noel Crowley:

East Avondhu & Cúl Camps 086-8375061 Noel.crowley.gpo.cork@gaa.ie

For more information on

Cork GDA’s check online at www.rebelogcoaching.com

MONSTER BLITZ SEASON COMES TO A CONCLUSION

The Monster Blitz season ended on a massive high in October with our end of year blitzes attracting record numbers of 6 to 10 year olds in both hurling and football. The football was first up on October 3rd with the u 8, u 9 and u 10 age groups combined on the same day. There were 2,500 boys playing football across the county at 6 venues. All the boys got to play in 3 games of 7 or 9 a side. Large urban clubs divided their numbers in to multiple teams that allowed them to play against smaller clubs and the emphasis at all venues was on enjoyment and participation with no scores being kept. Clonakilty and Mallow were standout venues with over 700 boys playing at the same time which created a massive atmosphere for all present. The hurling equivalent took place the following Saturday, October 10th. Again, the weather obliged and large numbers attended our venues for the final blitz of the year for these stars of the future.

The highlight for some boys was the chance to meet their heroes in the form of Cork Senior players visits to the various venues. Boys got to meet players such as Brian Hurley, Brian O Driscoll, Tomas Clancy, Ian Maguire, Conor Dorman and Stephen Cronin in football while Alan Cadogan, Cormac Murphy and Damien Cahalane were among the hurlers who came out to give their support to the hurling blitzes. Clubs also gave medals to the boys to mark the last game of the year.

Foundation Courses for Clubs

If your club wishes to complete a Foundation

Coaching Course between November and March you have to book

your course with Shane Supple (shane.supple.gda.cork@gaa.ie) at

least 4 weeks in advance.

Your club has to have a minimum of 12 participants to run a course

The cost of a Foundation Course for a club is €250 for up to 20

participants

If your club will have more than 20 participants the cost will be €450 as two tutors are required

All payments for courses are to be paid in advance of course begining

Please let Shane Supple know the number of participants you believe

you club will have for your course when you are booking

Bookings are to be made by email

The Foundation Coaching Course is 9 hours for a Hurling and

Football Course and 7.5 hours for a single code

The course can be done in the following formats: all on a Saturday OR

3hrs on a Friday night and 6hrs on the Saturday OR over 3 week nights either in the same week or spread out over 2 or 3 weeks

When you are booking please give details of which format you would like and what date you would like

Dates will be allocated on a first come first served basis so we cannot guarantee the date you are looking for

GAELTACHT COACHING

SCHEME John Neville (St Finbarrs) joined Rebel

Óg Coaching in September to take on a coaching role in the

Gaeltacht schools. This Programme is

now in its 4 year and is a joint venture

between Rebel Óg Coaching, Roinn Na Gaeltachta, Munster

Council and the 3 local clubs (Naomh

Aban, Cill Na Martra & Beal Atha An Ghaorthaidh.

The scheme saw John working with all 5

Primary Schools in the Region coaching, as gaeilge, the skills of

football. John also hosted a workshop for

teachers on the coaching of the basic skills and the

integration of fundamental

movement skills. John also completed hurling sessions in

Colaiste Ghobnatan. The Scheme finished

in October and is expected to resume in January with coaching

to be maintained through to June.

SUPER GAMES CENTRE PROJECT Martin Barry (Douglas) is currently running a games based initiative with Midleton CBS, Rochestown College, CSN

Bishopstown & Christians. The target is first year pupils who may not be making their schools hurling team. The boys are provided with 1 games based training session per week with Martin.

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.

CORK GAA STRATEGIC

PLANNING PROCESS

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 in the context of

coaching and games programmes. This group will now compile

their recommendations and report back to the

Strategic Plan Steering Group.

PRIMARY SCHOOL 3RD CLASS BLITZES

In mid October, Rebel Óg Coaching ran 3rd

class football blitzes at 7 venues. The blitzes proved to be very

popular with the participating schools

and many children were playing in their first ever football

game. In all there was over 1,500 children

involved.

INTERVIEW WITH EAST CORK GDA SHANE SUPPLE

In last months issue we focused on Sean Crowley, Games Development Administrator.

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

Shane Supple from Gortroe Youghal Co Cork has been player, secretary & PRO with his local club St Itas in Gortroe, Youghal, Co Cork for a number of years. He is a well established coach in local Primary Schools in his area. During that time Shane has been working as a coach and trainer for different teams in East Cork. As he says himself “My one big claim to fame is coaching Seamus Harnedy and Angela Walsh among others when they were Junior infants in school!!”. 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, going on to win a County title in 2007. In 2012 Shane started working alongside the Cork GDA's (through an internship programme) and got involved in the regional squads at U13, U14, U15 & U16 in East Cork, coaching and mentoring in both Hurling and Football. In 2015, he became Secretary of the Rebel Og East Board which was a large undertaking and in this time he got to meet many of the clubs he will be working with going forward, he also started working for the Cork County Board coaching in various schools on a full time basis. Shane started working as a full time Games Development Administrator in Cork this week and hopes to continue the great work already done by 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 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.

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 shane.supple.gda.cork@gaa.ie

CLUB PROFILE : BALLYHOOLY

Rebel Óg Coaching caught up with Ballyhooly Coaching Officer Kieran McCarthy to look

at how this club is adopting best practice guidelines to improve playing standards.

The juvenile club adopted a number of policies that were then incorporated into the clubs

5 year plan in 2014. First and foremost was maximising participation and this was tackled

in four ways.

1. We committed to engaging with the parent’s of every child in the community to

get them to bring their child to G.A.A. training and give it a go

2. We adopted the GoGames philosophy of fun, skill development and equal playing

time for all players regardless of the result up to U-13 level

3. We established a girl’s only training session on Sunday mornings in September

2013

4. We engaged with our local school and provide coaching for all pupils for six weeks

each year

The results of these initiatives have been great. In 2013 there were less than 10 girls

participating in the juvenile club, this year 68 girls were actively engaged in training and

matches as part of our newly established LGFA club. We currently have an estimated

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 Gaelic Games at 28 or 29 it will be well worth it.

Coaching

We have a pool of around 50 coaches facilitating training with a lead coach for each

group. We encourage station coaching as it maximises the number of touches each player

gets in a session and is also less daunting for new coaches when they only have to repeat a

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

workshops on Fundamental Movements and Running Technique over the past two years.

We have invested about €5k in new equipment over the past two years so each group can

provide a ball per player and any other equipment when required.

Ballyhooly Skills Passport

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.

MID TERM CAMPS

Rebel Óg Coaching

took advantage of

the Halloween

schools break to run

u 12 skills

development camps

in 6 Regional Venues

. The camps were

well received with

300 boys attending.

The 2 day camps

were predominantly

games based and

boys were given the

chance to play both

football and hurling.

The boys were given

advice on basic

nutritional good

practice and shown

how to do simple

injury prevention

exercises.

Rebel Óg Coaching

plan to do more mid

term camps in 2016

at Easter and

Halloween.