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6 year old unable to join club

GRGero

Hi could someone back this up,I think I was told a lie by a gentleman from Dublin strider club,I want to join my 6 year old son into this club but he told me for insurance reasons he can't I also seen some kids that looked about 7 / 6,Any advice or direction ?

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Djoucer

Most clubs would require kids to be age 7 or over.

http://www.athleticsireland.ie/clubs/little-athletics/

RayCun

And most clubs are full, don't have enough coaches to take any more kids.

EC1000

Our club is 8+

davedanon

8+ in ours as well. And we're also full (Tallaght)

RayCun

We take them younger, but only to train indoors, and a lot of clubs don't have that option

BeepBeep67

Start off with junior parkrun if there's one close by

ariana`

Some clubs run a Little Athletics program for 5-10 year olds. You might find further information here.

Timmaay

8+ here in most the Wicklow clubs.

Timmaay

GRGero wrote: »

Hi could someone back this up,I think I was told a lie by a gentleman from Dublin strider club,I want to join my 6 year old son into this club but he told me for insurance reasons he can't I also seen some kids that looked about 7 / 6,Any advice or direction ?

And hmmm so he definitely lied to you. Based on afew kids who "looked" 6 or 7 to you?? My advice is to wait until he is 8 or whatever age he can join at.

Birdsong

GRGero wrote:

Hi could someone back this up,I think I was told a lie by a gentleman from Dublin strider club,I want to join my 6 year old son into this club but he told me for insurance reasons he can't I also seen some kids that looked about 7 / 6,Any advice or direction ?

They are probably maxed out on the number they can have at that age group. For insurance purposes can only have a certain number per coach.

I know in our club they're struggling with coaches for juveniles and parents are not willing too help out.

pconn062

The biggest issue is lack of coaches. Especially for the younger kids who require a much greater level of minding and watching. It's pretty much a babysitting service, and parents are reluctant/couldn't be bothered getting involved in coaching. My own club has a specific training night for 5-7 year olds but it's a LOT of work and involves twice as many coaches for only half the number of kids.

walshb

GRGero wrote: »

Hi could someone back this up,I think I was told a lie by a gentleman from Dublin strider club,I want to join my 6 year old son into this club but he told me for insurance reasons he can't I also seen some kids that looked about 7 / 6,Any advice or direction ?

Maybe he didn't lie, but just misinformed you. There is a difference.

6 is too young really.

rom

I had a similar idea that I could bring my 6 year old to a club. Just as running may give them life long way to exercise. Having talked around to a few people I am not going to. Most kids who get into early give it up. They are turned off it. Having to travel to races etc. Was talking to an ex elite guy about same and he said wait for a few years at least. There is every other sport they could do in the mean time.

Many may disagree but being in a club at that age seriously turned me off it so much so that I didn't run for about 15 years.

RayCun

rom wrote: »

I had a similar idea that I could bring my 6 year old to a club. Just as running may give them life long way to exercise. Having talked around to a few people I am not going to. Most kids who get into early give it up. They are turned off it. Having to travel to races etc. Was talking to an ex elite guy about same and he said wait for a few years at least. There is every other sport they could do in the mean time.

Many may disagree but being in a club at that age seriously turned me off it so much so that I didn't run for about 15 years.

There are a load of under 12 kids in our club doing four or five sports, plus things like scouts, drama, dance, etc etc. They are not going to be doing all of these things at 17, so obviously _most_ kids drop _most_ activities.

And they all require travel, to matches, to rehearsal, to camping trips, to competitions... If the kid enjoys the activity, they won't mind the travel.

average_runner

RayCun wrote: »

There are a load of under 12 kids in our club doing four or five sports, plus things like scouts, drama, dance, etc etc. They are not going to be doing all of these things at 17, so obviously _most_ kids drop _most_ activities.

And they all require travel, to matches, to rehearsal, to camping trips, to competitions... If the kid enjoys the activity, they won't mind the travel.

Let the kids try all the sports, they will settle on one when older. Any activity is good for their physical and social skills.

My daughter does ballet, swimming, hockey, gymnastics, camoige and football. She picked them.

Little lad does hockey, hurling, football and swimming

robinph

Why do people think that athletics is so demanding a sport that you can't try it until you are 8+ and should instead try other sports at a younger age? Of all sports there has to be more variety of activities you can learn, and eventually compete at, in althetics than any other.

Going through some old family photos the other day and came across a newspaper clipping from the 70s about one of my older brothers who aged 9 had written to the local councillor who was looking to start up a new running club in the town and my brother wanted to make sure that it would allow children to join as well. The other local club wouldn't allow him to join.

RayCun

Can you imagine going on the soccer forum and telling people that you are going to wait until your kids are 12 before sending them to a club? After all, by then the pitches and goals won't seem so big, and they'll be tough enough for the crunching tackles...

rom

County,Provence, All-Ireland in indoor, XC, Club and school XC traveling up and down the country. If kids in GAA were doing the same there would be uproar. Now if anyone is any good at the sport they would be pushed to do many of these year after year. By the time they were 18 they could have done a load of all irelands. It would mean little.

Its a small sport in Ireland compared to the big 3 with way too many competitions. At the end of the day most people want their kids in sport for well being and have them a well rounded person rather than driving them long distance to an event of 500 where 3 get medals.

robinph

You don't need to have any level of competition at a national, regional, town or even within the same street level to be able to get kids to participate in a particular sport. My two year old is currently doing "football"* each week. They have no interest in football, I have no interest in football. It's really just about them running around a sports hall for a bit, following instructions (kind of), learning about colours, not bumping into each other too much, getting stickers and a very very small bit of actually kicking a ball towards a small goal.

What it does do for the sport though is plant the seeds of interest in the kid and the parent that they might get further involved in it at a later date.

* The one with the round ball that you actually kick with your feet rather than pick up and run with.

Tombo2001

pconn062 wrote: »

The biggest issue is lack of coaches. Especially for the younger kids who require a much greater level of minding and watching. It's pretty much a babysitting service, and parents are reluctant/couldn't be bothered getting involved in coaching. My own club has a specific training night for 5-7 year olds but it's a LOT of work and involves twice as many coaches for only half the number of kids.

Thats probably accurate - but when you say Parents are reluctant to get involved - make sure you test that.

To my mind, there is no excuse for parents to be standing watching/ chatting and not getting involved.

This whole 'I dont know anything about that sort of thing' .....sorry, it doesnt wash.

Junior training in any sport is basically the parents of other kids looking after your kids while they are doing sport. A lot of parents come in with a very entitled attitude about clubs - they need to see a club for what it actually is.

robinph

If you want you 6 year old to join the club then the parent has to come along and assist with the group. That may be the 6 year olds or any of the other older groups that require extra adults. Once the kids are older you could then release the parents from obliging them to assist, but by that time you may have gained some extra coaches for various groups, and hopefully the kids are still interested as well.

Rossi7

Athletics struggle to get parents involved because simply they wouldn't know what to do, I struggle to come up with my own training plans let alone for x amount of kids every week.
As with football and more recently GAA, more and more parents get involved because the clubs offer them the chance to do kick start courses that get them onto the bottom ladder of their coaching. Some parents go on to complete various other coaching badges that these clubs then benefit from. Senior clubs then benefit the kids coming through to the academies which is why a lot of the big teams put a lot of emphasis into their youth structure
Is there similar courses run for athletics coaching ?

robinph

What training plan is needed for the kids? They need something entertaining, not something to make them go "faster, stronger, higher". Training is irrelevant, enjoyment is what you should be looking at.

If a club manages to rope in any parents to help then what do they need to have in coaching skills other than listening to what the coach said and then getting the kids to do it? If parents can help out with other sports then they can help out with athletics. It's really just having another pair of eyes on the kids to make sure they don't beat each other up or run off and hide anywhere.

Rossi7

So a glorified babysitter is what clubs need ?
At what point does training become relevant for kids ? S & C classes are now being introduced into football academies as this benefits the kids long term, there still fun and kids enjoy it.
Irish athletics in eyes is being left behind because of the attitude "training is irrelevant". You can still train and coach the kids and have fun if you had parents who knew what they were at and not "baby sitting" which was the point I was making

robinph

Badly expressed I guess. It's not that training is irrelevant, its that you have to not let them think they are training. Primarily it has to be fun.

As for the parents getting involved being glorified baby sitters, well probably. The main thing there is that the club isn't used as a glorified babysitter. Force the parents to get involved, show them the "training" that is done, get them working with the other age groups and not just their own offspring, send them on coaching courses.

Tombo2001

Rossi7 wrote: »

So a glorified babysitter is what clubs need ?
At what point does training become relevant for kids ? S & C classes are now being introduced into football academies as this benefits the kids long term, there still fun and kids enjoy it.
Irish athletics in eyes is being left behind because of the attitude "training is irrelevant". You can still train and coach the kids and have fun if you had parents who knew what they were at and not "baby sitting" which was the point I was making

No thats not it.

Training is of course relevant. They are building up skills that stay with them over time.

But say for example you are doing a Long Jump. And you have 15 kids in a line - aged 6-8. Those kids are not going to stand quietly waiting for their turn....I;m stating the obvious here.

You can have one qualified coach that spends their whole time keeping them from messing.

Or you can have one qualified coach that focuses on the child jumping, and two other parents/ mentors that can (i) keep the kids in check, and (ii) take directions from the coach in helping the kids with technique.

As a parent/ mentor/ coach it is genuinely stressful when you've got too many kids and they get out of control. What adds considerably to this stress is the notion that parents of said kids are all standing over in the corner, having a nice chat while this is going on.

I think its unfair to compare Athletics clubs to GAA clubs, because we all know that GAA clubs have basically hoovered up - they are the market leader and have more spending capacity and people capacity than anyone else.

walshb

Parents for the most part should be banned as regards training participation.

That is what generally leads to hassle and aggro....

A free for all as regards parents is just asking for trouble.

RayCun

rom wrote: »

County,Provence, All-Ireland in indoor, XC, Club and school XC traveling up and down the country. If kids in GAA were doing the same there would be uproar. Now if anyone is any good at the sport they would be pushed to do many of these year after year. By the time they were 18 they could have done a load of all irelands. It would mean little

National indoor competition starts at under 12.
National XC starts at under 11.
National team championships/relays start at under 9.
I believe the same for provincial championships.

So there is one day of competition per year when 8 or 9 year old kids could travel outside the county.

Let's say the kid is in Dublin. The absolute most they can do, at 8 or 9, is
3 XC league races
1 XC championship
4 track leagues
1 day of Indoor championships
1 day of team championships
1 day at nationals

GAA has football leagues for under 8s
Soccer has the South Dublin Football League, also under 8s.

They mightn't involve driving to Athlone or Tullamore, but they mean driving somewhere every other weekend - at least as much travel as the kid going to those 11 athletics competitions.

Swimming has inter-club meets from age 9
Rugby doesn't allow under 7s to play full-contact games, but at u8 level they can.
What sport doesn't have some form of competition at a young age?

And do you know why? Because kids like to compete! They like to see how good they are. Runners like to race, footballers like to play matches. There's a lot of debate among coaches about juvenile competition, how young they should start, how much they should do... one of the main drivers of the current level of competition is that kids want to compete.

rom wrote: »

Its a small sport in Ireland compared to the big 3 with way too many competitions. At the end of the day most people want their kids in sport for well being and have them a well rounded person rather than driving them long distance to an event of 500 where 3 get medals.

Way too many competitions :rolleyes:

Compared to what?

And what, exactly, is this far away event with 500 competitors where only 3 get medals?

RayCun

Rossi7 wrote: »

Is there similar courses run for athletics coaching ?

Yes, there are the Athletics Leader and Assistant Coach courses, both (less than) one day, followed on by the Level 1 and Level 2 courses for people with more experience, and various days of event-specific courses - relays, endurance, jumps and throws, etc

Tombo2001

walshb wrote: »

Parents for the most part should be banned as regards training participation.

That is what generally leads to hassle and aggro....

A free for all as regards parents is just asking for trouble.

In which case you have no training full stop.