GAA bodies ‘breaking new ground’ with major coaching survey
THE GAA and its other related bodies, the Ladies Gaelic Football Association, Camogie Association and the Handball and Rounders Associations, are targeting over 10,000 responses from an online survey launched yesterday which they project as the largest of its kind ever conducted among the coaches.
All five associations are casting the net wide to try to establish what levels of experience their coaches have, how have they engaged with coach education and if coaches currently inactive can be persuaded back to the sport by any change of policy or approach.
Dr Peter Horgan, the GAA’s coach education officer, says that is the largest coaching survey undertaken by any individual sports federation “that we are aware of” and that they were using the suspension of activities to take stock and plan better for the future.
He cited similar surveys conducted by Sport Northern Ireland, UK Sport and equivalent umbrella sports bodies in Norway and Australia but feels that such closely linked organisations are “breaking new ground”.
“We aren’t aware of any federations or organisations that have conducted a survey on this scale. At least the results haven’t been released publicly if there are.”
Response
The response to the survey has already been strong. Within seven hours of its launch yesterday some 1,500 had already replied to a series of questions about their coaching habits and experiences.
“We believe it can give us some powerful information that can set us up for the next 10 years,” said Horgan.
“We’re looking for feedback from all levels of the games, what the current coaching practices are, what the future intentions are, how they want to continue and what needs and requirements do they have.
“The second element is around coach education, how have they engaged with coach education in the GAA and other codes and looking at what needs they might have from an education perspective so that we could tailor programmes in the future.
“The third element is looking at coaches who are no longer active and trying to figure out if anything can be done to get them back. Are there things there that have discouraged them, is there something we can do to encourage them? Of course there is a lifespan but if someone feels they haven’t reached it is there some way we can get them back?
“It 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,” he added.
The survey takes up to 15 minutes to complete and can be conducted anonymously. Details are available from Take Gaelic Games Coach Survey 2020.
Alternatively, visit the GAA Learning website https://learning.gaa.ie/ coachsurvey or email gamesdevelopment@gaa.ie.
Meanwhile, the GAA has approved the re-opening of designated walkway tracks around GAA grounds from
June 8, the beginning of phase two of the Government roadmap to re-open the country as Covid-19 emergency restrictions ease.
The GAA’s Management Committee has cleared the designated walkways for use again from next Monday week and is looking at further relaxation that would allow small groups of underage players to use pitches ahead their own July 20 deadline.