Launch of landmark Gaelic games coaching survey

The biggest ever coaching survey conducted in Irish sport will see the GAA, LGFA and Camogie Association join forces to help shape the future development of Gaelic games.

Over the next three weeks coaches at every level of football, hurling and camogie are being encouraged and urged to make their voices heard via the online survey. Details for the survey are available from

Take Gaelic Games Coach Survey 2020

Alternatively, you can visit the GAA Learning website – https://learning.gaa.ie/coachsurvey or email gamesdevelopment@gaa.ie

The Gaelic games Coach Survey 2020 is a unique opportunity for coaches to provide an insight into their role, and their needs. It is the first time that such an approach has been taken across the entire Gaelic games community.

Targeting more than 10,000 responses, it makes it one of the most comprehensive coaching studies ever undertaken.

Coaches that complete the survey will be offered the chance to take part in a draw, whereby three respondents will win Coaching Master Class sessions. The Coaching Master Class will involve a coaching session for the winning coaches’ own team, and a coaching workshop for all of the coaches within their Club.

GAA Coach Education Officer, Dr Peter Horgan said:

“Coaches play an extremely important role in Gaelic games.   They provide support and guidance for their teams and players, and none more so than in the current suspension of activities. Within the GAA we have tried to support coaches to play their role with resources and educational programmes.

“To further that support, each of the Gaelic games associations have come together and developed a programme of research to investigate coaching practices and coach education. We are interested in feedback from coaches on their coaching experience, their coaching practice and how coaches see coaching into the future. We are also very interested in coaches’ experience of coach education, and what coaches feel are their own learning needs.

“The online survey will be available over the next three weeks, and I would encourage all coaches – regardless of your level of experience or whether you coach at club, school, or county levels – to provide their feedback.

“This will allow us to better understand the coach within Gaelic games and for us to plan for the types of supports that we will be providing into the future. The survey should take approximately 15 minutes to complete and is completely anonymous, and confidential.”

Uachtarán CLG John Horan said: “We are living in a time of unprecedented popularity for Gaelic games. We have record numbers of teams playing and young people attending our camps and enjoying our games.

“With that success comes a responsibility to ensure that coach development is helping us to maximise our potential. We have a network of excellent coaching and games development staff operating across every county, and this helps to support the army of volunteer coaches and mentors who play such an invaluable role at club level.

“Coaches pass on a love of our games. They are instrumental at enabling players perform at their best and this survey is an opportunity to ensure that coach education and development is meeting their needs and continuing to produce the exceptionally talented players that we see across club and county level.”

President of the Camogie Association, Kathleen Woods, welcomed the announcement, saying: “We are delighted to support this important research which will give us a great insight into the world of our wonderful coaches throughout the Gaelic Games family.

“Coaching is a vocation to many volunteers and they provide expertise, support, enthusiasm and guidance to players within our games at all ages and levels of the game, to enable players to enjoy our games as much as possible and to reach their full potential.

“Coaches are a vital part of our Association and I look forward to seeing the results of this great initiative so we can further improve our relationship with this key group of volunteers.”

LGFA President Marie Hickey commented: “We are incredibly proud of the role that coaches play within our organisation, as they hone the skills of players at all levels from underage right through to senior.

“We have a network of coaches dotted across the country and overseas, who are doing some brilliant work on behalf of the LGFA. We are also working tirelessly to encourage more and more of our past players to get involved in coaching, and to take their first steps on our Coach Education pathway.

“It is imperative that our coaches are equipped with the tools which will allow them to develop our sport.

“Coaching is a multi-faceted discipline, with key skills and qualities required to fulfil the role.  In that regard, research that explores best practice and education should be welcomed and embraced.

“I would encourage as many of our coaches as possible to engage with the survey, and your feedback will prove invaluable. I look forward to the results that emerge from what is sure to be a substantial body of work.”

The survey is also interested in feedback from any coaches that have dropped out of coaching, to help us understand why they are no longer coaching, and whether there are steps that can put in place to encourage these people back into coaching.

BACKGROUND:

  • What are we doing? 

Coach development has become an area that each of the Gaelic games Associations across the GAA, LGFA and Camogie Associations have targeted to work closer together on. Over the last 12 months we have been developing a new Introduction to Coaching Gaelic games award that will operate across all of the codes, and our coach education webinars taking place over the last two months have been hugely successful. In order for us to continue that development, it is important that we are building our programmes on solid information on the role and experiences of coaches within our games.

To help us to do that, we have developed a Gaelic games coach survey for 2020. This survey will look at all of our coaches’ experience, their practice and how coaches see coaching into the future. We are also very interested in coaches’ experience of coach education, and what coaches feel are their own learning needs. Those people that have dropped out of coaching are also part of this survey, to help us understand why they are no longer coaching, and whether there is anything that we can put in place to encourage them back into coaching.

Historically, we have not undertaken this type of task, and it is a mammoth undertaking.

  • Why are we doing it this way? 

We wanted to build a coach survey that was easy for coaches to feedback into. So, this survey will take place online. It is a simple form that asks for feedback about your coaching practice and your coach education. The survey should take no more than 15 minutes to complete, and is completely anonymous, and confidential.

  • Who is involved? 

This survey is across all of the Gaelic games Associations. So, if you are a coach of Camogie, Hurling, Handball, Gaelic football, Ladies Gaelic football, or Rounders your feedback is important. Equally, we are interested in the full breadth of coaches, so it’s not a case of getting one coach from a club to respond, the experience of each coach, regardless of your background or how long you have been coaching is important.

  • What will happen? 

Once we have completed the survey we will be looking to speak to some coaches about the results that we find, so we will organise some focus groups to help us to understand more about what it is that we can do to support coaches into the future. Taking part in those groups is completely voluntary, and again all of the information that any coach will provide is confidential.

As a result of this survey we be able to build a profile of the different types of coaches that we have across Gaelic games and understand their needs. The reports that we produce will be made available to every code and County, and because every response is anonymous, coaches can be as honest as possible. This is important as it will allow us to build a really accurate profile of coaching across Gaelic games.

  • How do I access the survey? 

The survey is available online, so you can access the survey through GAA.ie, Camogie.ie and LGFA.ie as well as the GAA Learning site – learning.gaa.ie. The survey will also be sent to each club secretary for circulation amongst the coaches within the club. If you have attended a coaching course previously, we will email the survey to you. If any coach wishes to receive the survey directly, they can do so by emailing gamesdevelopment@gaa.ie

Details for the survey are available from

Take Gaelic Games Coach Survey 2020

Alternatively, you can visit the GAA Learning website – https://learning.gaa.ie/coachsurvey or email gamesdevelopment@gaa.ie

Week of webinars

This week sees a great series of webinars across the country and here in Cork.
Monday May 25th @ 8pm

Slaughtneil GAA – An Insight

Register at :
Tuesday May 26th @ 7.30pm
Returning to Gaelic games post COVID – Keeping your squad fit and preventing injury

https://learning.gaa.ie/gaacoachwebinar2020


Wednesday May 27th @ 8pm

Importance of Physical Literacy in Children with Dr Stephen Behan

Thursday May 28th @ 7.30pm
Dr Aine Mcnamara & James Devane
Registration not open yet but will be available from Wednesday morning at 10am on www.learning.gaa.ie

GAA Coach Webinar – Returning to Gaelic games post COVID – Keeping your squad fit and preventing injury

The registration form for the latest in the GAA Coach Webinar series is now open. Please note that the session will commence at 7.30pm (Irish Time) on Tuesday, May 26th. Please click on the following link: https://learning.gaa.ie/gaacoachwebinar2020

Topic: Returning to Gaelic games post COVID – Keeping your squad fit and preventing injury

This webinar will look at the issues facing GAA athletes in the current COVID 19 situation and how to address them. We  look at the return to play post COVID, and ways we can mitigate for time out of play.   We will look at specific ways of tailoring training to avoid injuries both in the ’small group scenarios’ and also in the main group training when players return. We will discuss injury prevention and recovery strategies to use with your players during a condensed playing calendar.
Presenter: Eamon O’Reilly

Eamon is a chartered physiotherapist and clinic lead of SPARC South Dublin. He has worked with a number of intercounty teams in both football and hurling. He has worked with the Dublin hurlers since 2011. He has worked as physiotherapist for the Irish International Rules team on 3 different series. He has also been involved in physiotherapy services for the Irish high performance boxing teams. Eamon is also a current serving member on the national GAA’s medical, scientific and welfare committee. He also served on the sports science expert group for the GAA.  His main clinicial area of expertise involves complex chronic athletic injuries around the hip including recurrent hamstring issues, abdominal and hip/groin issues.

Cork Club Together for Pieta

The Cork Senior football panel and management team are coming together for Pieta House on Saturday May the 30th. 

They will run the required distance it takes to run through each of the 24 clubs involved in the set-up. Starting with the team captain Ian Maguire of St Finbarr’s the players will run the total of 432km between them over the course of the day, finishing back with the team manager Ronan McCarthy in Douglas. 

Cork football captain Ian Maguire said: “It was inspiring and heart warming to see the nation wide support for Pieta in absence of their main fundraiser Darkness Into Light, but we the Cork Footballers recognise that we can not rely on one event to fund such an essential service. We plan to show our solidarity with Pieta by running the required distance between the various clubs involved in our set-up. We plan quite literally to club together and share the burden of 430km between our clubs and each player to run 10kms on May 30th. This is fantastic cause and please come out and support us.” 

The fundraising campaign has been launched via a Go Fund Me page, which you can find via “Cork Club Together 4 Pieta” on social media channels such as Twitter, Instagram and Facebook. They will also have auctions throughout the week so keep an eye on the social media pages. 

Ronan McCarthy manager of the Cork senior football team said: “It has been heartening to see over the last number of weeks and months so many clubs around the country making such massive efforts to support this outstanding organisation. Pieta is there for all in the community at any time that you need support and we want to acknowledge and support their wonderful work by making this effort to raise money for them. I urge you and ask you to donate to our efforts and let us all come together for Pieta House.” 

Pat Duffy of Pieta House: “I would like to thank the Cork Senior Football team and their management team for there support this year to help us overcome the loss of the Darkness Into Light event. The Darkness into Light event last year accounted for €6million which represents 45% to 50% of our annual fundraising. All services in Pieta House are completely free and we depend on the community for our funding. Overall, our annual funding from the community accounts for in excess of 80%. One piece of research that I would like to mention although from a few years ago through the Open University and in conjunction with the University of Ulster. Saving 1 person from suicide you actually help as many as 71 people.” 

 Donations can be made at gofundme.com/f/corkclubtogether4pieta

Pieta House Contact Details 

Telephone : 1800 247 247 

Text : Help to 51444 

 

Cork GAA – Covid 19 Circular

Firstly, on behalf of Coiste Chontae Chorcaí, we hope that you and your families are safe and well despite the obvious challenges which you are all facing currently.

We understand the frustration of members at present, but urge all to continue to comply with government and GAA restrictions.

This circular is in response to a few queries from clubs recently and is obviously sent while recognising that changes may occur in the future. If changes follow, we will continue to keep you up-to-date.

The statements in bold have been included in correspondence from Croke Park previously.

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“On the games front, the GAA has confirmed that no official on-field activity will resume before July 20th and our facilities will remain closed until that date. 

 
The maintenance of facilities can continue while adhering to the guidelines and as of May 18th construction work on our grounds is also permitted and clubs should liaise with their County Committees on this issue.
 

As per the communication from Croke Park above, please note that GAA facilities remain closed, apart from maintenance works and the completion of construction works that have received permission from Croke Park / County Committee.

Therefore, clubs are asked to continue to prevent any playing activity on GAA facilities taking place. We are grateful for the continued contribution of club officers in this regard.

Maintenance can continue provided;

  • The persons undertaking the works should as far as possible be the usual person designated to undertake such work at the club
  • All persons undertaking works must be informed of the HSE advises re social distancing and they have to confirm they are not sick and not under any restrictions that would prevent them working as per advises from health officials. Posters / information advises should be in place at the club. These were included with previous communications and are available on https://www.hse.ie/eng/services/news/newsfeatures/covid19-updates/partner-resources/
  • Social distancing and other advises from HSE must be adhered to
  • Equipment should only be used by designated persons and will need additional cleaning after each use by the designated person. PPE must not be shared and should be cleaned after use
Clubs might also need to conduct security checks on the property and water systems may require flushing to prevent legionella.
If the persons who regularly do this work are unavailable and somebody else needs to take on these duties the club will need to ensure these persons are competent to undertake the tasks. In the event of an accident the GAA club will be considered to be their employer from a liability point of view and is thus legally responsible for ensuring that the persons undertaking such tasks are competent to do so.

In relation to CE Scheme Workers any decision for them to return to work is in the hands of their Sponsor Group and Local Supervisor and they also need to adhere to social distancing and HSE guidelines.

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“The GAA Player Injury Scheme will remain closed until an official return to activity is confirmed.”

Please remind all members that organised training is not permitted and that there is no player injury cover in place. Therefore, it is totally forbidden for any team management to engage in any organised sessions with their players.

Of course, if players are availing of the various coaching videos circulating on various platforms currently, this is to be encouraged, once it is clear that they do so in a personal capacity and not as part of a formal team programme.

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“No official on-field activity will resume before July 20th.  We do not expect any inter-county championship games before October 1st”.

The Cork County CCC are currently are currently examining revised competition schedules for games. That information will be shared when those arrangements are finalised and we have clarity around return-to-play timelines. Any changes to existing championship structures will require the approval of the County Committee.

“Clubs are reminded that membership and public liability will need to be in place for the return of our activities and are advised to process same in the weeks ahead.”

We thank Clubs that have sent in monies due for Affiliation, Insurance Premiums and the Player Injury Scheme this year. We have no updates on whether there will be any rebates due to the current cessation of activity.

Allowing for the complexities associated with the current situation, the GAA continues to plan for the staging of this year’s Kellogg’s Cúl Camps and will communicate any changes to this approach with our clubs if they arise.

We have no further information on this matter currently.

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Finally, many thanks to all clubs for your continued cooperation. The wonderful contribution being made by members to local communities at this time is a credit to all.