Cork GAA webinar to help players and parents get back to activities

With underage GAA activity now just days away, Cork GAA are reaching out to coaches, child/youth players and their parents to provide practical advice on supporting players return to their local GAA clubs. The webinar will focus on personal development and adopting a positive outlook in life and sport.
The webinar will be held on Friday, April  23, from 8-8.45pm.
“Importance of Return to Sport – Fitter Body, Fitter Mind”
Our first guest speaker at the event will be Cork U20 football manager, Keith Ricken, pictured above. Keith is working as a GAA Development Officer in C.I.T. for the last 20 years. He has huge experience as a club coach most notably with his own club St Vincents and has coached hurling and football at all levels. Keith is also recognised by many for the assistance he gives to players off the field and will be sharing some of this advice to players and parents in this webinar. Keith will also provide practical tips around personal development.
Our second speaker is Barry Corkery who worked with the Cork Minor Football All Ireland winning team of 2019 and is currently a Cork U20 Football selector. Barry is a member of the Eire Og club and is a mental health therapist by profession. Barry will offer practical tips around having a positive mindset and having clear goals in life and sport.
We would ask clubs to pass this information on to all club coaches and parents and actively encourage them to join this short but very informative webinar.
To register for the event, please complete the below form
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Preparing for return to play

All clubs, players, mentors and those involved in organising games are delighted to see players return to pod training on April 26.
It is great to be taking the first step on the road back to normal GAA activities, which hopefully we will see in the near future.
We have been receiving a lot of emails with questions about return to play from clubs regarding leagues and championships. Rebel Óg are working hard behind the scenes to formulate a “return to play plan” with several options being put in place, depending on what announcements and level of activity the Government and Croke Park will allow.
We, like you, are waiting on confirmation of return to play dates, protocols, regulations etc from the Government and GAA. Once that has been confirmed we will be contacting all clubs with plans going forward.
This will include information on the following
When competitions, leagues, full training etc can start and what competition, league, training format we will return to play at?
The yearly calendar/program timetable of games.
Rules and Regulations regarding same.
In the meantime, we ask that club secretaries in preparation for the return to play, please log onto your online secretary’s portal and update all the contact information etc there, and to follow the guidelines for garda vetting, child welfare and coaching courses before we return to the field of play.
One decision has has been made are the days when games will take place to help clubs start to put their own plans in place. These will run across all regions.
The days for the age groups for the 2021 season are as follows:
Monday: U15 C3 and U12
Tuesday: U13 C3
Wednesday: U17/18  and U14
Thursday: U13 in West and North Regions
Friday: U13 in East, Mid and Choiste (old central) Regions
Saturday: U15 and U16
Sunday: U15 second teams and U17 C3 teams
We must remind clubs that our “return to play” will be based on the guidelines and rules as laid out by the Government, Croke Park and Cork County Board.

We are not there yet, but we are close and hopefully it won’t be long before conversations will be around games and full training sessions.

In the meantime stay safe and please ensure that all protocols are strictly adhered to when pod training returns on April 26.

 

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Subsidised hurling helmets for underage teams

Subsidised hurling helmets for underage teams, up to and including minor grade, at a cost of €35 each, are available from Coiste Chontae Chorcai.

Please note: Minimum order of six helmets applies.

The allocation is as follows:

  • Senior Clubs: 75
  • Intermediate Clubs: 50
  • Junior Clubs: 40

An application form is attached and should be returned, with remittance, to Cork G.A.A. Office, Páirc Ui Chaoimh, Ballintemple, Cork.

Clubs will be contacted when helmets are ready for collection from Myrco Helmet Factory, Ballincollig, Co. Cork.

The last date for applications is 31/10/2021. Please note that the 2020 scheme is now closed.

Please ensure this form is forwarded to your juvenile section.

HelmetScheme

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Cork GAA looking after mental health at youth level

Cork GAA has led the way in recent times in the promotion of physical activity in communities throughout the county as well as being conscious of the mental health of players and all involved in the sport.

A vast range of content has been rolled out to cater for players at child and youth levels organised by Rebel Óg Coaching.

In February, Colm Crowley and Pat Spratt launched a weekly series of fundamental activities for Primary School teachers and pupils to use as part of their PE programme in the absence of face-to-face interaction.

The activities were easy to follow, required very little space and little or no equipment while most importantly great fun.

They were a great support to teachers and there were more than 50,000 interactions with the content through their Youtube account. This was followed up in March with a focus on club players at child level by bringing activities to club coaches on a weekly basis which they could use with their players at grassroots level.

The GAA at national level have also enhanced this offering with a “Be Ready To Play” initiative designed to provide resources to coaches at child level.

Cork GAA has also been very proactive at teenage groups targeting individual skills practice for players on a weekly basis, again through its Youtube channel propagating the mastery of right and left sides of the body covering the basic skills in both hurling and football.

Players and coaches have also got guidance around athletic development, injury prevention, and nutrition through the “GAA Return To Play” programme.

Players who are on regional representative squads have been working on their leadership skills with their peers, sharing what their club and community means to them, and getting to know other players through online communities being formed by GDAs and development squad mentors.

Boys on county U15,16 and minor county panels have had access to talks around dealing with setbacks in sport and life, controlling their reaction to stimulus, dealing with stressful situations, and general mindfulness strategies that will be useful in everyday life.

The players have access to high-quality conditioning programmes led by high-performance manager, Aidan O’Connell and inter-county players such as Eoin Cadogan, Darragh Fitzgibbon, Matty Taylor, Mark Collins, and more have all contributed enormously to these boys well being in various ways over the last few months, which shows the strength and unity of the Cork GAA family.

This combined with individual clubs linking in with players has ensured that the pandemic has not been as bad as it might otherwise have been for our youths across the county as all played their part in trying to take care of young players mental health.

 

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Join the Páirc Uí Chaoimh stewarding team

Cork G.A.A. are adding new Voluntary Safety Stewards to the Stewarding Team at Páirc Uí Chaoimh. Club members are encouraged to become a part of the team.

To be part of the match day action, the following is required:

    • Aged 18 years or older
    • Available midweek and/or weekends
    • Active and enthusiastic
    • Customer focused
    • An interest in GAA would be beneficial

If interested in becoming a Voluntary Safety Steward please complete an application form on https://gaacork.ie/stewards/

For further information: www.gaacork.ie/stewards or email eventcontroller@paircuichaoimh.ie

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Rebels’ Bounty opening draws tonight

Message from the organisers

A Chara,

Firstly, a sincere thank you to all Rebels’ Bounty members who kindly purchased tickets over the last few months and we hope that both Club and County now will reap the benefits of your generosity.

Tonight, we host the first of our draws for 2021, in association with our media partners, the Irish Examiner.

The event will be livestreamed from Páirc Uí Chaoimh at 7.30pm (sales close at 5pm).

90 cash prizes will be drawn for the months of January, February and March, with more than  €100,000 to be won on the night.

All Rebels’ Bounty prizes are listed here: https://gaacork.ie/rebelsbounty/prizes/

Please access the livestream using the following links to view.

You can watch the event on Cork GAA website here => Cork GAA 

You can watch the event on youtube here => Youtube link 

You can watch the event on facebook here => Facebook Link 

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Important information for the Go Games Programme for 2021

    1. Please complete the attached form before Friday, April 2, with proposed entries for the upcoming season. It is to be completed by Juvenile secretary or alternative and we are looking for the number of teams each club wishes to enter, at each age group from U7-U11. We will also be looking for contact email and phone of the lead mentor for each group. https://forms.office.com/r/V49Z405RPr
  1. Please note that U7, U9 and U11 are the new primary age grades per National Guidance. We will, as always, provide Games for all age groups but smaller clubs should try to align to U7,9 and 11, which will ensure smooth transition to U13 age grade, if they do not have sufficient numbers for all age groups. Teams and age groups for 2021 are as follows:
    1. U7 is 5 a side
    2. U8/U9 is 7 a side
    3. U10/U11 is 9 a side.
  2. Please take this into consideration when speaking to mentors. I would urge mentors to add in an extra team, rather than go less if numbers are around the middle e.g. if you have 11 players at U8, i would recommend putting in for 2 teams, as teams can play 5 and 6 a side on a given day, if needed, as opposed to having lots of subs.
  3. Start Date: We will not be starting the campaign until given the green light by the GAA Covid Advisory group and the Government. We are not planning any Games Program to start before June 5th, at the earliest. But we will have alternative plans in place for a July and August start also. We will update closer to the time.
  4. Games will be fixed for Saturday mornings at the following times:
    1. U7-10am
    2. U8/9-11am
    3. U10/11-12.15pm
  5. We will update with info to clubs and mentors as soon as we get definitive dates from the Covid Advisory group.
  6. In the meantime, we have a weekly email newsletter going out to mentors from the Nursery to U8 groups with tips and suggestions on coaching and playing. We currently have 251 mentors signed up for regular correspondence, so if any other mentors want to sign up, they can do so here: https://forms.office.com/r/Vr9p2in6k2
  7. Once we get the email addresses of all other mentors, we will put together weekly updates for them also.
If you have any queries, please feel free to contact me by response.
Is mise le meas,
Colm Crowley
Games Development Officer
Rebel Óg Coaching
086 3687799
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Return to play guidelines issued by Rebel Óg Coaching

Rebel Óg Coaching are helping club coaches and youth players (13-17) prepare for the commencement of GAA activities with an exciting offering of skills in hurling and football along with activities to help with athletic development backed by Setanta College and the National Games Development Department.
Over the next five weeks, our GDA’s will be releasing a skill each week for boys to practice at home to help them hone their technical proficiency ahead of the new season.
Cork GAA Games Manager, Kevin O Callaghan, thanked our team of GDA’s for their excellent work in producing this content and acknowledged that coaches can use this content by distributing it their own club players to give them a chance to knock off their rustiness while helping their physical and mental wellbeing.
Coaches can sign up to receive the skills content each week via direct email by completing the form here
(The content will not be sent to secretaries for week 2 and beyond)
The skills for week 1 are linked here:

HURLING     :   https://youtu.be/ICwpfguIXeI

COACHES: PLEASE DISTRIBUTE THESE LINKS TO YOUR PLAYERS TO ENCOURAGE THEM TO ENGAGE IMMEDIATELY.

 ATHLETIC DEVELOPMENT WEEK 1
“Reducing Injury Risk” Webinar, Tuesday, March 16, at 7pm,
Join at https://bit.ly/3t47Jza run by our National Games Development Department.

 Registration for the ‘Be Ready to Play’ Athletic Development programmes is and remains open and coaches and players can be continuously encouraged to register through the GAA eLearning site https://learning.gaa.ie/bereadytoplay.  Players and coaches can start to engage at any time. The programmes are tailored separately to the Youth, Adult and the Advanced Adult player (male and female) and coach.

More information on ‘Be Ready to Play’ is available at https://www.gaa.ie/news/ground-breaking-be-ready-to-play-coaching-programme-launched/.

Rebel Og Coaching are especially encouraging all club u15 coaches to sign up for these initiatives as our GDA’s will be providing supports for this group for the whole season.
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Goalkeeping workshop

See the below workshop being organised by the Football Development Goalkeeping Work Group.
Please pass this on to all your youth and adult club goalkeepers and coaches.
We would like to invite coaches and players from around Cork who are interested in learning more about developing high quality goalkeepers at your clubs.
We plan to run two interactive one hour webinars which will be followed by a number of practical pitch sessions across the county once Covid restrictions are relaxed.
This event is designed for coaches and players of all levels of ability and experience.

 Webinar 1 (March 15, 8pm) will focus on:

Evolution of the Goalkeeper position as one of the most vital positions in any team today

How we select goalkeepers from a young age & what talents & qualities we should be looking at

Taking a longer term view of the development pathway for young Goalkeepers from age 11 to 18

Webinar 2 (March 31)  will focus on:

Kick Out techniques, skills & strategies

Shot-stopping & footwork skills

Handling & football skills

Communication & mental skills

 The facilitators for these sessions will include the following people:

Billy Morgan – Nemo Rangers

Conor Counihan – Aghada

Ray O’Mahony – Eire Og

Brian Morgan – Nemo Rangers

Kevin Murphy – Boherbue

Pat Prendergast – Bandon

Billy O’Connor – Cullen

Alan Quirke – Valley Rovers

 Please register for the first workshop on March 15 using the following link.

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfd8Ybuiwt8RJIdpHewHJs4JkjA6au5c37TPbPU9i8Ap1umUw/viewform?usp=sf_link

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Webinar about nurturing emotional wellbeing and personal growth

Courcey Rovers GAA, in conjunction with Kinsale Community School and Kinsale Youth Support Services are hosting a webinar about nurturing emotional wellbeing and personal growth online on Thursday, March 11 at 7.30pm.

A spokesperson for Courcey Rovers said: “We feel that this is very pertinent in these times and we would like to invite people of all ages from and communities throughout Cork to join us, (minimum age is transition year and above).

“This is a webinar of honest and open discussion around nurturing emotional wellbeing and personal growth.

“This event has several guests involved on the night such as Conor Cusack who is well known for his exploits as a talented player but also more recently as an Emotional Health advocate.

“We will also be in conversation with a range of community members such as Cork camogie captain Linda Collins; Ger Rice of Kinsale Youth Support Services as well as representation from Croke Parks National Health Clubs Project Team.”

Access to this webinar can be found on the night by visiting www.courceyrovers.com

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