Farmer digs into the root causes for drop-outs
ORLAGH FARMER has admitted that she has been left ‘shocked’ by astonishingly low basic skill levels among young girls, which she warned is one of the major contributing factor to drop-out rates in Ladies Gaelic football.
The six-time Cork All-Ireland winner is well-positioned to analyse the reason as to why so many young girls opt out of sport having completed a thesis on the subject for her PHD last year, which was entitled ‘Design, Development, Implementation and Evaluation of the Games for Girls Programme.’
Now she hopes that her findings will not be left gather dust in a library but will be put to good use to ensure that the steady flow of young girls out of Ladies football can be slowed down.
And Farmer believes that coaching of the basic skills is the key to keeping young girls in the game, admitting she was taken aback by the findings of the research for her thesis.
‘The one thing it showed was that the fundamental movement skills and the execution of basic skills was a shock to me, because it was at less than two per cent that were able to execute these basis skills proficiently,’ explained Farmer, speaking yesterday as ZuCar was revealed as the title sponsors of the LGFA’s Gaelic4Teens Development Programme.
‘That is something that can be a barrier for young girls in terms of confidence and in giving up the sport.
‘If young girls are confident that they can perform these basis skills, nine times out of 10 they will want to stay involved.
‘I am not saying that they will want to be county players, it is more about the participation aspect and if they feel good about themselves doing it, you have more of a chance of keeping them involved, explained Farmer.
One of the other major contributing to factors is peer influence, and in particular the impact that friends leaving the group can have informing others to make the decision.
Farmer admitted that it was her only personal experience of friends falling away from the sport while still in their early teens that had provided the motivation for her research.
‘Another thing that surprised me was that the whole friendship aspect that can work wonders in terms of getting and keeping girls involved, but on the other side of that friends and peers can actually pose as a threat and barrier to participation because if your friends drop out, there is a greater chance you will too.
‘Social acceptance is a big factor in participation. I can actually relate to that myself because I remember when I started to play football, I was 11 and in 5th class and it was my best friends who asked me to join the club in Midelton. If it wasn’t for them I probably would not have got involved and turned up at that first training session.
‘A few years later those girls, who I am still friends with today, were the ones who dropped out and I was the one who decided to stick with it.
‘It was always at the back of my mind, why was I the one who decided to stay on, and why was it my friends who dropped out.
‘The fact I remained physically active in the sport and they didn’t was something that was always on my mind and it’s also something that came through in my research, how individual needs change and how that has to be recognised and implemented in keeping girls involved,’ added Farmer.
The Cork star completed her thesis despite the considerable demands of being an intercounty footballer and she has hailed the advice of her former manager, the late Eamonn Ryan, in allowing her to find the balance to do it.
‘It is something I have always struggled with over the years is getting that life, work balance. I tend to have too many eggs in the one basket but because my sporting career is aligned to my work one that has made it easier for me.
‘I always remember Eamon Ryan used to tell us that when you came into training , you had to park everything else that happened in your life that day, whether you had a tough day or a good day at work, that 60-minute training session was that opportunity to leave everything out on the pitch and forget about everything else.
‘That is something I brought with me in the last few years. If it was a 90-minute training session, I would be saying to myself “let’s forget about the PHD now” and put that energy into the football session and that has worked for me in terms of putting balance into my lifestyle,’ said Farmer, who believes that completing her thesis is only the start of the journey.
‘It is not something that you finish and it is really only the start. I would hope my research is put into practice and that it is not just left stuck in the UCC library.’