T I P S TO BE A TOP TRAINER Go Games great for development
OVER 600 children took part in last week’s All County Go Games Monster Football Blitz in Ballinakill.
Children learning and enjoying games in a fun pressure free environment were evident on the 20 pitches during the day. Go Games were devised for children up to and including 11 years of age, with the chief aims of promoting full participation and fair play.
The main ethos is that everyone plays, everyone gets a go. That means a greater number of catches, passes and scoring attempts, higher levels of enjoyment and perceived competence, along with increased opportunities to improve decision making skills.
The Go Games initiative became GAA national policy in 2009 after first being introduced in 2007. After a National Review in 2012, the Games were written into rule – 6.26 – in 2013.
Prior to the introduction of Go Games, the tradition of playing U12 county championships with full adult playing rules had been in place for decades.
Go Games attempted to address the perceived imbalance between competition and development. Traditionally, the U12 competition was all about winning. In that context, the best players played, while most others – especially in big clubs – didn’t. What’s more, it created an environment of increased and inappropriate parent and mentor pressure on the young players.
Coaches were too often preoccupied with winning to focus on ensuring every kid reached their own potential. That philosophy subsequently leads to de-motivation and a lack of enjoyment for many children.
The nature of Go Games is designed to go against the tradition of selecting the best players, focusing instead on the holistic development of all individuals.
The concept has been a huge success in altering the culture but many coaches are still against the philosophy.
In many of clubs, the ethos underpinning ‘Go Games’ has still not been adopted. Clubs still run Under 8 and Under 10 competitions focusing on winning instead of development. In a recent Under 10 Tournament a team turned up with the same intent as a senior inter-county outfit.
Although every player is supposed to play, their nine best players played for the entire tournament. Their aggression on the pitch was mirrored by their parents on the line. When one of the opposition coaches was introducing a young boy during the match, his father told the coach, ‘Don’t put him on, he’ll get butchered’.
That team showed the closed mentality that is still prevalent. Many coaches despise Go Games because they feel they dilute competitiveness and don’t cater for the ‘elite player’.
That is a standard response but is an elite player going to be elite at U8? If that player is continually driven so hard by coaches, they may well have packed up by the time he or she reaches minor.
Where the weak U8, who had more potential to be an elite player when he/she physically developed, never bothered playing after U12. He or she just went elsewhere, where they could get a game.
Coaches have a duty to be open-minded. Ultimately, everyone wants to win, especially kids. Some critics say that Go Games don’t fully prepare kids for competitiveness at U14 but that challenges the coaches to be more creative in their coaching.
In any case, embracing Go Games is about responsibility and looking at the bigger picture. A club which pursues winning underage titles with manic zeal really has to ask itself if that pursuit is worth the risk of losing the majority of those players down the line?
There are examples all over the country. One top underage inter-county coach vehemently opposed the ‘Go Games’ concept in his own club.Used to dealing with the cream of underage talent, he has no interest in the wider group or the greater good. It’s no shock that his club – a town club with big numbers – currently has just 16 Minor players.
If people are sceptical about Go-Games drop into Ballinakill next Saturday at some stage for the Hurling Monster Blitz to see the benefits of the Go Games Model.