THE LAST POINT: The right path is not an easy path

Competitive Dad Syndrome wasn't a term I've seen until I read a thought provoking article on The42.ie from acclaimed GAA journalist Declan Bogue over the weekend. But ask anyone who has been involved in sport or even watching a juvenile game can attest, it is a syndrome that is all too familiar in each and every sporting arena in this country.

Calling it “Competitive Dad Syndrome” can be  a tad misleading as I've witnessed more than my fair share of mothers display the same characteristics of the competitive Dad but in all honesty, the competitive Dad is the more pervasive of the species, so all encompassing that just writing the words Competitive Dad Syndrome, or CDS, conjures up images that we're all more than familiar with.

Bogue writes in his column of the efforts that Croke Park are taking to ensure that CDS  is nipped in the bud, efforts that are meeting a backlash all around the country or just being ignored. The piece details how GAA Director General Tom Ryan wrote to County Boards last week and instructed them to forward it on to their clubs detailing how the Go Games model is official policy of the Association for all games up to the age of U12 and that, to quote Ryan on behalf of the GAA, the Camogie Association and the LGFA, “Putting ALL children at the centre of what we do is paramount for the three Associations”.

The message is somewhat subliminal but it is also pretty blunt and  the bluntness of the message is directed at myriad of underage tournaments that populate the Summer's sporting landscapes as Ryan clearly  states in his missive “In 2023 the programme policy was relaunched which outlines that there is no provision made to publish scores, to play on a knock-out basis nor to include finals, or to present trophies, cups, etc.”

You don't have to know much about Irish people to understand that Ryan's missive will go down like a lead balloon in some quarters and there is  more than a good chance it  will be ignored, as those existing guidelines are already being ignored  - you only have to look at the GAA Club notes pages of this paper to see clubs planning for upcoming tournaments  or congratulating a young team on their glorious triumph in an underage tournament.

THE LAST POINT: PARIS HEROES ALREADY FADING FROM SIGHT

Those tournaments are part and parcel of Summer Festivals and often commemorate a cherished deceased club member, so it is dicey subject for Ryan  to broach - Bogue writes that these underage tournaments can bring a club together, increase volunteerism and celebrate the memory of someone dear to them and all that is certainly true.

Plenty will say 'sure, what's the harm' in competitive games and talk about children being naturally competitive and wanting to win. Yes, there are kids who want to win beyond everything else but that is exactly where the argument falls flat because kids, depending on their physical maturity, don't develop at the same rate and the child that is big and strong at 10, 11 or 12 years of age will dominate by sheer force of physicality.

More often than not, games  become the domain of one or two 'big' kids - stronger and more developed than their peers while everyone else is relegated to the role of cannon fodder. Even in small-sided games, Bogue writes that the evidence is there that  in 7 v 7 games, one or two players from each team dominate to the exclusion of all else.

Interestingly, Bogue recounts how Derry, winners of three of the last five All-Ireland Minor football titles, devised  a plan back in 2011 where the emphasis was all about skills acquisition and development - outlining the plan, Derry  coaching and games manager Chris Collins asked clubs to implement the following core guidelines to help guide Derry football back to the top. They were:

• At U 8 level it should be about getting the kids out playing our games, enjoying them and developing that sense of club with them.
• At U10 level, focus most be on developing all the skills with the young players moving into U12 level
• At U12 level it should be about skill refinement and executing the skills under pressure

How many of our clubs meet those guidelines? We all want to win, I'm competitive myself but the emphasis on winning at a young age means some kids are quickly made to feel they're not as good as their peers so they start to drift away. Croke Park's idea is that each child playing Gaelic football, camogie and hurling gets a chance to play for the entire game, every game - a message so  revolutionary that clubs either can't or won't accept it, just like a club  bringing just 10 players to a blitz rather than 18 or 19 they have so that their ten best players have a greater chance of 'success'.

That approach sounds simple but it takes years to see  results - simpler to win a few trophies in tournaments  rather than put in the tedious work of imparting the skills of the game to the hordes of kids who descend on your club every Saturday morning. But it is that laborious attention to detail, often painstakingly so, that pays dividends in later years.

I've experienced the same in athletics - for years, Athletics Ireland had a wonderful competition for  U9 to U12 athletes called the Team competition. Teams had four to five  athletes, each taking  in two separate events plus a relay. Sprint, distance, jump and throwing events were covered and everybody got a  grounding in the basics of the sport.

The team element removed the pressure of individual competition but over the years, the whispers  started about how the children wanted to compete or how clubs couldn't find four or five athletes so the Team event was reduced to a Pairs competition - you still have to have a partner but much easier to find one or two super-kids and, basically, forget the rest.

But even that wasn't enough as  this year, individual medals were awarded so as to be 'fair' to the individual who excelled. We even had individuals competing in a team competition,  a bizarre complication  that completely goes against the concept of developing the skills of the sport in a less pressurised environment!

How many of those young stars make it to the U15 age group is impossible to know - the evidence suggests very few with an alarming drop out rate as with the pressure of competing, children very quickly deciding if they aren't winning, they are not taking part.

THE LAST POINT: PATIENT WORK STARTING TO BEAR FRUIT

How much of that comes down to 'CDS' is impossible to know but I've seen children  admonished in public for their 'failures' or  driven to injury and exhaustion by parents and coaches convinced that their kid is going to be the next Rhasidat, Daniel Wiffen or David Clifford. I've seen it on the playing fields of Leitrim where juvenile teams are berated by coaches for their failure to follow the 'plan' all while instructions are barked by two or three coaches at once with not one word of encouragement.

I've coached a few athletes, now adults, over the years (some of who have worn the Green vest, some who won National medals) and when we talk of bygone days, they don't talk of medals or glory but the craic and fun they had. Coaching young kids is not about winning - it should be  about  keeping them involved in sport, any sport, for as long as humanly possible - a gift of participation that lasts a lifetime. That, and only that, should be the focus of every sports club!