6 year old unable to join club

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

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

8+ here in most the Wicklow clubs.

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.

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 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.

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.

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.

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 ?

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

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.

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?

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.