This weeks Coaching Corner by Peter Casey Building a club-school link “Understanding builds learning, learning builds confidence, and confidence builds character. Let’s build”, Orla O’Sullivan, People of the Year Awards, last Saturday. All over the county, GAA clubs are working with their local GDA/GPO to organise and implement a coaching structure for their local primary schools. The relationship between the GAA and local primary schools is now at its strongest ever in the majority of parishes. Most clubs appreciate the seriousness of their role in assisting the primary school and at the same time value the fact that we the GAA are invited guests of the school. In the past, many mistakes were made in the name of coaching, when people with huge interest in hurling and football were sent into schools to coach. Unfortunately many of these did not receive any training to operate in a school environment. The past five years has seen huge advances in Coach Education, which has resulted in coaches now operating in schools with more knowledge, skills and competencies. Many current and retired primary school teachers and principals have given their expertise to training coaches. Primary schools coaches must have knowledge of the school curriculum. There are 23 books in the curriculum. The GAA coach should be able to assist the school in the delivery of Physical Education (PE), or more precisely half of the PE curriculum. There are six strands in the PE curriculum. Athletics, Gymnastics, Games, Aquatics, Dance and Outdoor Activities. The GAA coach can assist the school with the first 3. In the Olympics, Athletics are the track and field events. They consist of Running (100m, 800m, 1,500m etc), Jumping (hurdles, long jump, high jump etc) and Throwing (Javelin, Shot Putt, Discus etc). A coach should teach good running, jumping and landing techniques and teach the child how to throw. These are all also linked to our games. Players in Croke Park are running faster and further than ever before and jumping higher. Throwing needs to be taught to players before hand passing. In fact, hand passing follows seamlessly, later, once a player learns good throwing techniques. A coach can also cover Gymnastics in a primary school environment. Gymnastics help a child to develop Agility, Balance and Coordination. Agility (ability to move forwards, backwards, laterally left and right and diagonally with ease and confidence), Balance (maintain equilibrium when performing a task) and Co-ordination (when all the body parts combine to an agreed outcome) are great gifts to give a child. In schools, most GAA coaches run their coaching sessions in line with what is known as “The Fundamentals Programme”. This is an essential programme for all children and is based on the idea: 100% of the children participate 100% of the time. It is designed to develop a child’s agility, balance, co-ordination, running, jumping, throwing and catching. It places the needs of the child first and provides a fun and healthy series of activities for all children. In the book, The Well Balanced Child, Sally Goddard Blythe, a Consultant in Neuro-Developmental Education states that “ Movement is a child’s first language and it is through the medium of movement that he/she first starts to explore the world and to gain control over his/her body”. This knowledge from the author provides a great opportunity for all coaches. In our experience, movement makes children happy. When we receive children for coaching sessions, our job is to allow them to move at the earliest possible stage by setting up a safe circuit, and while they are active observe their posture and movement skills. By setting up athletic and gymnastic activities, these opportunities are presented to children for the duration of a coaching session. Unless children get the opportunity to move they can’t express their first language. This results in unhappy children who can become bored and misbehave. It is important for the coach to realise that these are not “bold children”, they are just rebelling against the fact that their basic right has been taken away from them. When children get the opportunity to express themselves through movement, this increases their understanding of movement patterns. This, builds their confidence and in turn develops character. Games are also an integral part of the PE curriculum and “The Fundamentals Programme” provides for lots of different games that challenge the child’s technical, team play and movement skills. With planning, these games can also be linked to classroom subjects like Maths and Irish. They are fun for children because they challenge a range of skills within the child. According to top computer game designer Raph Koster “Fun from games arises out of mastery. It arises out of comprehension. It is the act of solving puzzles that makes games fun. With games, learning is the drug”. He has become one of the highest earners in the world of gaming by sticking to that principle. By motivating children towards mastery, coaches can be successful in their own communities. During the Fundamentals Programme, modified hurling and football equipment (soft balls, bean bags, short hurleys) are used. The good feelings and excitement children get from the programme means that they link the good time to the hurley or football. Thus they report that they love hurling or football in a process known as accretion. When coaches have the necessary skills and competencies to complement their knowledge they can enter a primary school full of confidence that they are working to the highest of standards. This helps school children in building their understanding, learning, confidence and character. A by-product of all this work is that the school will produce groups of boys and girls fostered with a love of Gaelic Games, with skills and competencies of their own and a level of athleticism, agility, balance and co-ordination that enables them to enjoy playing sport. The hope is that in fifth and sixth class the majority play on the school GAA teams in the Cumann na mBunscol competitions. Throughout this process the link between the school, the club and the county board is essential. Relationships need to be established and structures constantly improved and reviewed. It should be a mutually beneficial relationship – with the school giving the GAA access to coach children and the GAA assisting the school in the delivery of their curriculum. Presently many GAA clubs are recruiting suitable people to become schools coaches. Clare GAA are committed to training and assisting coaches and clubs throughout the process. Coaching positions in Clare GAA are also available via the Job Bridge scheme. Further details are available by contacting [email protected].
Posted on: Mon, 23 Sep 2013 14:18:17 +0000
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