Gaelic Football, the Real Beautiful Game

Gaelic Football, the Real Beautiful Game

By Des Shaw

31/03/14

As long as I can remember I have known the game of soccer to be called 'The Beautiful Game'. The phrase’s origins are disputed but it has been attributed to Brazilian footballer Waldyr Pereira (Didi) and the presenter Stuart Hall claimed to have coined it in 1958. In its current manifestation; with all the billion dollar sugar daddy owners, superstar egos with bank accounts to match, the mercenary ethos of most of the players and the constant diving & feigning injury, I’m finding it hard to see the beauty in this game. I conducted a coach education course recently with some Dutch physical education (PE) teachers who were visiting this fair isle and found myself coming away from it having somewhat of an epiphany; that our own Gaelic games are more special than I had ever realised before.

Some background about this visit; it was part of a European GAA initiative, who have the arduous task of developing our Gaelic games in schools and cities all around Europe. Currently there are over 360 international Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA) affiliated clubs worldwide, 51 across Europe and 5 in the Netherlands alone. So my new Dutch friends travelled from the city of Almere located to the east of Amsterdam to pay us a visit and learn about the Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA) and Gaelic football. A total of 7 PE teachers from the Helen Parkhurst School in Almere made the trip. It became clear from speaking to them, that their school system operates differently to ours here in Ireland. They are a public school but they pay special attention to science education, information and communication technology (ICT), culture and society, sport and environmental education. While there is an overall curriculum, there is a major focus placed upon on these particular areas. An example of this is the way their aspiring elite athletes who attend benefit from special education, where they are provided the opportunity to develop their athletic endeavours with more focus by having tailored learning schedules and by being given special exemptions. Our Dutch guests were given a guided tour of Croke Park and then I had the great privilege of presenting a coaching seminar on Gaelic Football, on behalf of the Leinster Council.

My job for the day was to educate these Dutch teachers in the subject of Gaelic football, an introduction to the game so to speak. The main aim was to give them an overview of the game and highlight the basic rules and skills involved. I also intended to provide them with some ideas of drills and games that they could bring back to their schools and use in their PE classes. I decided to use a brief presentation with some group work followed by a practical element introducing the skills, rules and games to the group. After a brief introduction I set the group a little task of introducing themselves, naming their sporting background and highlighting the key components that encapsulated their particular sport. So an example I gave them was golf which requires: eye/hand coordination, balance, core strength, power, touch, reading, timing, flexibility, visualisation and mental toughness (I probably left out some but this was only an exercise). This is where the session became interesting for me and, I hope, for them too. In the room we had some diverse sporting backgrounds, which included swimming, soccer, volleyball, basketball and judo. The group described their particular sports in detail, all of which are great sports in their own right. Though the skills and physical demands required for playing their particular sports often overlapped, there were also unique and interesting components to each of them. To follow on from this exercise and as part of the presentation I used a Youtube™ clip of Gaelic football which provided a reasonable summation of the game.

Side note: I wish the GAA would put together a professionally developed summation of our games which highlights the key skills and rules for people who may never have seen our games before. The video I used although it certainly got the message across, at times was lacking in visual quality and it would certainly have been nice to have HD quality footage to convey our games in the best light.

Upon viewing this video clip the look on their faces was first one of confusion which then turned into amazement. What followed was a barrage of questions which I can only describe as similar to the shelling the allies received at the Siege of Bastogne, they were coming thick and fast and from every direction. It was around this time that I started to break down the basic rules and skills. Through the process of highlighting the skills and rules to my Dutch guests, I tried to relate as many of them back to some other sport that they were familiar with as possible. This is where my epiphany occurred. I came to the realisation that Gaelic football is so multi faceted and is a combination of the greater elements that encapsulate so many other sports. When describing the handpass our volleyball coach in attendance described it as a serve, when describing the catch or bounce it was evident to us all of the basketball skills required to play Gaelic football. This occurred time and time again when explaining the skills/ rules and I began to realise, as did the Dutch teachers, how special and complex our game actually is. The more I thought about the components of Gaelic football, both the skills and physical demands that are required to play it, the more I started to see the limitations of the others sports that I enjoy watching or playing myself. Take for instance soccer which in my opening is described as ‘The Beautiful Game’ which, when you break it down, really does require a lot of skill to play. However one the Dutch teachers made a very significant point, soccer completely lacks the hand/eye coordination of Gaelic football. This was more and more evident when we looked at other popular sports and if you think deeply about it, there are very few sports that feature as many skills to master as Gaelic football. In my opinion the only game that offers as much (and more) is another of our national games hurling, which requires all the same components of Gaelic football but involves significantly more hand/eye coordination with the introduction of a bat/hockey style stick (hurl) and smaller sized ball (sliotar). I know I am completely biased when it comes to this topic but I challenge anyone to suggest another sport that offers more in terms of physical demands and skills required to play.

To finish our day together I went through some practical work developing skills, drills and games in which my Dutch guests were the participants. This gave them a further understanding and appreciation for our game. Performing each skill individually proved relatively easy for them but when I introduced more skills/ rules to each game, it was evident that there was a demand for increased concentration levels to perform these skills and adhere to the rules. We then discussed at length the different types of games and drills that could be used and in this discussion I made a very important point that using Gaelic football in their PE classes would benefit their pupils greatly by developing skills and movements that maybe alien to them and their preferred sports. In the broader picture of Long Term Athlete Development (LTAD), diversifying and playing multiple sports early will encourage the development of a more complete physical literacy of their athletes. I have found in my coaching observations that players, who have played basketball, can develop better ball handling, tackling skills and incredible spin (pivot) moves that transfer so effortlessly and naturally on to the Gaelic football field. The players who never play basketball can struggle to develop these skills and perhaps in some cases never will. The same principle can be applied to Gaelic football, that it will offer other movements and skills that will help the overall development of any athlete regardless of their particular sports. This is a principle I always endorse and try to pass on to fellow coaches and aspiring athletes.

In conclusion found it to be a thoroughly enjoyable day; the merging of cultures provoked a deeper understanding of our sports in both my Dutch guests and I. It’s a strange feeling but I believe I have gained more from that coach education session than the actual participants. I have to admit I have been one of those critics in the past who have damned Gaelic football in its recent manifestations, with the blanket defences and the over emphasis and reliance on fitness levels. However this experience has unearthed for me a greater love, appreciation and understanding of Gaelic football, it truly is a special game and one which I feel we as coaches, players and supporters are not nearly proud enough of. Its complexity, physical demands and skill levels are unparalleled with the exception of our sister game hurling. My wish is that anyone reading this will also come to this realisation and develop a new appreciation and love for our game. Gaelic football is ‘The Real Beautiful Game.’

Until next time.

Do everything better!

Des.