Every Thursday and Friday I spend my morning with Mark, the Games Promotion Officer (GPO) for Cumann Lúthchleas Gael (CLG) Na Fianna. Cumann Lúthchleas Gael literally means, Association Athletic Gaelic, or GAA. and Fian means warrior-hunter (Fianna is the plural. Because there are so many references to the words Na Fianna in Ireland, the CLG is put in front so that everybody knows that the Gaelic club is being referenced. The Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA) has worked rigorously since its foundation in 1884 to promote and reestablish the native Gaelic Games in the country of Ireland. With over 2,000 Gaelic clubs currently across the island, each club is assigned a Games Promotion Officer (GPO) by the GAA. These GPOs go into the schools that fall within the district that the clubs reside in and take over gym classes for different age groups throughout the year. Mark is the GPO for CLG Na Fianna. He has over a decade of experience in the field of coaching and is frequently asked to speak at coach education conferences all over Ireland. He is also an active member in developing coach education programmes in the city of Dublin. I continue to have the pleasure of accompanying him into the schools every Thursday and Friday to learn and experience first hand exactly how the GAA operates on the grassroots level.
A Friday Morning at Scoil Mobhi
We arrived at the Scoil Mobhi primary school (elementary school) and got out of the van. The back of Mark’s van looked like the back of any athletic coach’s trunk filled with cones, bags of balls, bags of pinnies, and a few empty water bottles. We carried two bags of Gaelic footballs, a bag of pinnies, and a stack of cones to the field around the side of the school. Scoil Mobhi (named after St. Mobhi, scoil being the Irish word for school) is an all-Irish, co-educational, primary school so we expected that at least some of the kids would have been exposed to Gaelic Sports at this point. We saw the kids come out of the school in a single file line lead by the teacher. Once they hit the entrance of the field they ran to the wall and stood, once again, in a line, this time facing Mark and the bag of footballs. We walked over to the them and asked them to gather around us.
“So, for how many of you is this your first time with Gaelic today?” Mark asked. Around two-thirds of the class of eight year old kids enthusiastically raised their hands. “Before we get started, there are two rules that must be followed at all times. Number one: everybody is nice to everybody. And Number two: When I’m talking, you’re listening.” Mark then informed the kids that if somebody was not listening, he and I would simply walk away and it was up to the rest of the class to quiet each other down--because if Mark walked away, nobody got to play. The kids nodded their heads in agreement and we were ready to begin.
We began with a game of Stuck-in-the-Mud. Imagine freeze tag, but to become unfrozen, a free runner needs to crawl under your legs. Mark picked three chasers at random and the game began. After around five minutes he blew his whistle and froze the game. The chasers had rounded up just about everybody with just the fastest two runners left. “I saw a lot of people running around simply trying to keep themselves from being tagged,” Mark announced. “It’s been around five minutes and the game is already almost over. How can we make this game last longer?” he asked. One of the kids who was stuck in the mud raised his hand. “By freeing each other more?” the kid answered cautiously. “Right! By working together. If we work together, then the game could last….” “Seventeen and half hours!” one kid answered. “247 days” another kid yelled. “Forever,” Mark finished. “Right, so let’s have three new chasers and this time I want you guys to work together.”
Three new chasers were chosen and one previous chaser threw his pinnie at the new chaser. Mark stopped everyone. The boy had broken the first rule: everybody be nice to everybody. The kid picked up the pinnie and handed it to the new chaser and the game continued. This time, the kids focused on how many people they could free. After another five minutes Mark froze the game again. There were around four people stuck in the mud and the chasers were gasping for breath. Everybody was warmed up, a lesson in teamwork had already taken place, and we were ready to move on to the drills.
The first drill was what we called a pick and a stick. The first rule of Gaelic Football is that boys can not pick the ball up with their hands (girls can). So we explained that everybody must run, pick up the ball, stick the ball to the ground, and find a new ball to complete the drill with. Mark asked, “Now, for those of you who have played football before, what do your coaches always tell you?” A few kids spoke intermittently: “Bend your back,” they announced. A grin came across Mark’s face and he began to show them that it was all about getting your hips low. He picked a volunteer and asked the girl to push him as he bent his back. Mark exaggerated falling over and the kids laughed. He then lowered his hips and asked the girl to push him again. She struggled, and the kids had an “aha” moment. Mark told the kids that next time they heard a coach telling them to bend their back,to reply to the coach and say that Mark said they were wrong. Mark was confident that the Na Fianna coaches would know who he was. From the video below, you can see that this drill is frequently taught incorrectly.
The kids went off and performed the drill. After a few minutes had passed, Mark stopped everybody again and added a new skill on top of the drill. In Gaelic football, a player is allowed one bounce before he must do something with the ball. The drill became pick, run, bounce, stick and the kids carried on. Then came the catch. In Gaelic football players have to catch the ball in the air at its highest point. When Mark called everybody in again he saw a girl wearing a flower headband. “What a pretty headband you have there. Do you mind if I try it on?” She smiled, handed it to him, and he put it on. He gave the class a smile and asked “So how do I look?” We all laughed and Mark returned the headband back to the girl. We sent the kids off again except this time the drill was pick, run, bounce, throw, catch, stick, new ball.
After a few minutes we saw that one kid was really struggling with the drill. We stopped everybody and went over the routine again. The kid was still struggling. Mark went over to him privately and started to work with him. The kid defeatedly said that he was left footed and right handed. My kind of kid. Apparently Mark’s as well. We froze the class again and asked “How many of you guys are left footed and right handed?” Around one third of the class raised their hands including myself and Mark. A smile came across the kid’s face as an air of insecurity had been lifted and when we sent the kids off again he immediately showed improvement. He was even running up to other kids to show them how it was done.
Another kid was only choosing to bounce the ball. He was the heaviest kid in the class by a decent margin. Being overweight is pretty uncommon across Europe so this kid stuck out from the rest of the class. Everybody knew it. He wasn’t so great at bending down to get the ball or jumping up to catch it which is why he was bouncing it so much. He was quite a good bouncer though and maybe could be a pretty decent center if he was learning to play basketball in the States. “You’ve got great hands!” Mark kept encouraging the kid. At one point we stopped the class and got the kid to show the class how to properly bounce the ball.
Throughout the gym period it became quite clear to me that Mark was very meticulous in his execution of the drills. There were no lines formed where all the kids had to be seen performing the drill one by one. The goal was to get every kid as many touches on the ball as possible. To build up their confidence and to just get their bodies moving.
Within a few weeks the classes would begin playing scrimmages. Classes would be split into four teams and would compete in a tournament style set-up with mini-championships set up for the end of the class period. New teams, new champions every time. The end goal being to get kids excited about Gaelic sports and to build club registration. Most recently, Mark and I have been working with five and six year olds. “We need to get them while they are young,” Mark continually says to me. The GAA also has a rule in place that all players under the age of 16 will get equal playing time. It is hard to imagine that rule carrying much weight in the States. I continue to be awestruck by the model the GAA has chosen to guide its program. As the GAA begins to expand its roots throughout the United KIngdom and parts of the United States, it will be interesting to see if their inclusive philosophy will be able to positively impact the culture surrounding sport that exists in these areas.
A video recomended by Mark- an oldie but a goodie