Games for the inept.
Posted: Wed Apr 27, 2005 12:49 pm
This is the shell of an idea I saw on another website, but I said I'd throw it up here to see what people think.
A big problem in terms of getting people back into the GAA etc. I think is the opportunity to participate. To give the example of my own situation, between college and work I'm up in Dublin now for the best part of a decade - and I haven't played with Ferbane since 15 years of age. (I was a late grower and being honest getting bruised and battered at training sessions combined with being quite useless killed my enthusiasm for participation then. A hefty dose of Lowry-esque encouragement for the more robust aspects of the game did nothing to help me.) Now I like heading home for weekends, which rules out both playing with a Dublin club when the games are at the weekend and rejoining Ferbane juniors when training is midweek and they've no shortage of players anyway.
I was just thinking that most people play five a side soccer with workmates etc, and a good scatter have tag rugby etc. going on as well - which is a casual outlet the GAA doesn't offer.
Now a couple of years ago I started organising a few games among likeminded souls in Terenure, with slightly adjusted rules to make it workable for all abilities. They went well, but it took an awful lot of organisation, and you do need huge numbers. So I was wondering what could you do in terms of playing seven or eight a side games that would suit the likes of my ilk.
The way we did it was anyone who played senior club football (or felt that they would be comfortable doing so) was considered too good and as such were discouraged from coming along. Since the idea was to play Gaelic Football and not soccer, goals weren't allowed, it was points only. This also ruled out the need for anyone to be tethered to playing in goals. It worked quite well, but you'd need to get something going regularly, ideally on a small size training pitch as well.
It's probably more suited to lads trapped in an urban situation like myself, but are there any situations out there, from people who've played sevens etc. as to what could help make this work? Are there any others like myself up here who would be interested in taking part? And are there any lads very involved in a club who reckon they'd be amenable to maybe taking a small fee in exchange for regular use of a training pitch etc for these purposes?
Just floating the notion. If half the city can get in on playing tag rugby, there has to be some way to put together gaelic football for the masses.
A big problem in terms of getting people back into the GAA etc. I think is the opportunity to participate. To give the example of my own situation, between college and work I'm up in Dublin now for the best part of a decade - and I haven't played with Ferbane since 15 years of age. (I was a late grower and being honest getting bruised and battered at training sessions combined with being quite useless killed my enthusiasm for participation then. A hefty dose of Lowry-esque encouragement for the more robust aspects of the game did nothing to help me.) Now I like heading home for weekends, which rules out both playing with a Dublin club when the games are at the weekend and rejoining Ferbane juniors when training is midweek and they've no shortage of players anyway.
I was just thinking that most people play five a side soccer with workmates etc, and a good scatter have tag rugby etc. going on as well - which is a casual outlet the GAA doesn't offer.
Now a couple of years ago I started organising a few games among likeminded souls in Terenure, with slightly adjusted rules to make it workable for all abilities. They went well, but it took an awful lot of organisation, and you do need huge numbers. So I was wondering what could you do in terms of playing seven or eight a side games that would suit the likes of my ilk.
The way we did it was anyone who played senior club football (or felt that they would be comfortable doing so) was considered too good and as such were discouraged from coming along. Since the idea was to play Gaelic Football and not soccer, goals weren't allowed, it was points only. This also ruled out the need for anyone to be tethered to playing in goals. It worked quite well, but you'd need to get something going regularly, ideally on a small size training pitch as well.
It's probably more suited to lads trapped in an urban situation like myself, but are there any situations out there, from people who've played sevens etc. as to what could help make this work? Are there any others like myself up here who would be interested in taking part? And are there any lads very involved in a club who reckon they'd be amenable to maybe taking a small fee in exchange for regular use of a training pitch etc for these purposes?
Just floating the notion. If half the city can get in on playing tag rugby, there has to be some way to put together gaelic football for the masses.