Cul Camps 2019

greenspurs · 23-07-2019 2:51pm #1

https://www.kelloggsculcamps.gaa.ie/about-cul-camps

What they promised.....

"The camps are structured so that a different aspect of the game is worked on each day.
The programme involves coaching specific skills of the game and provide the opportunity for children to put into practice what they have learned through small sided games.
During the camp week, a "blitz" is organised to provide each child with an introduction to competitive games."

They just played hurling all day.... with a few games of Chinese whispers thrown in.
No Skills, no drills... NO Gaelic Football even !!

"coaches" standing around on their phones …..

Anyone else feel that this camp is just a money making racket now,
I will be sending mine to other camps next year!!

tayto lover · 23-07-2019 2:53pm

They did everything they promised in my area, like Ronseal.
The gear is great too. My grandchildren enjoyed it immensely.

greenspurs · 23-07-2019 3:17pm

tayto lover wrote: »

They did everything they promised in my area, like Ronseal.
The gear is great too. My grandchildren enjoyed it immensely.

I think yee were lucky so.

Kids were very very disappointed with it this year.

Fann Linn · 23-07-2019 4:15pm

Great down here in the wesht also. Grandadaughter won't stop raving about it. Must be down to the instructors.

ciarriaithuaidh · 23-07-2019 4:21pm

greenspurs wrote: »

I think yee were lucky so.

Kids were very very disappointed with it this year.

Cúl camps are organised on a national level, but are very much left up to local clubs to run/organise as they see fit with often very little help within their own county. Club generally have to supply all equipment and also coaches and coaching plans. So, it's no suprise to hear of standards varying from place to place.

My suggestion would be to have a word with one of the camp organisers or club officials. Let them know in a diplomatic way that you felt your kid didn't get enough actual coaching maybe? I know of quite a few kids attending camps other than their local one which is not ideal but hard to disagree with in some cases.

Far from being a money-making racket, Cúl camps are overall a very positive thing and in the vast majority of them kids are taught new skills, enjoy the social aspect of it, have plenty fun and make new friends. One of the better GAA ideas of recent years to be fair. Very good value too in comparison with other camps.

threeball · 23-07-2019 4:35pm

greenspurs wrote: »

I think yee were lucky so.

Kids were very very disappointed with it this year.

My lads thought the football was crap but are enjoying the hurling. Depends who's running the show. The gear alone would cost as much as the camp so happy enough to let them off.

bruschi · 23-07-2019 4:41pm

ciarriaithuaidh wrote: »

Cúl camps are organised on a national level, but are very much left up to local clubs to run/organise as they see fit with often very little help within their own county. Club generally have to supply all equipment and also coaches and coaching plans. So, it's no suprise to hear of standards varying from place to place.

My suggestion would be to have a word with one of the camp organisers or club officials. Let them know in a diplomatic way that you felt your kid didn't get enough actual coaching maybe? I know of quite a few kids attending camps other than their local one which is not ideal but hard to disagree with in some cases.

Far from being a money-making racket, Cúl camps are overall a very positive thing and in the vast majority of them kids are taught new skills, enjoy the social aspect of it, have plenty fun and make new friends. One of the better GAA ideas of recent years to be fair. Very good value too in comparison with other camps.

not necessarily. In Wexford, pretty much all the organisation is done by the coaching staff in Wexford Park and clubs have little to contribute to it other than having the facilities ready. Coordinators have their own gear too but the club can help towards it if needs be.

Very much agree with your last paragraph. The gear alone would cost what is spent, never mind a full week of coaching and kids out of the house for hours.

As you also point out, one also cant tar an entire country of thousands of kids and hundreds of coaches and camps with the reaction of a couple of kids at one or 2 camps. Obviously it isnt good it wasnt run well, but instead of griping on here, go to the county cul camp coordinator and give them the feedback. If they dont get feedback, how can they improve?

greenspurs · 23-07-2019 5:00pm

ciarriaithuaidh wrote: »

Cúl camps are organised on a national level, but are very much left up to local clubs to run/organise as they see fit with often very little help within their own county. Club generally have to supply all equipment and also coaches and coaching plans. So, it's no suprise to hear of standards varying from place to place.

Far from being a money-making racket, Cúl camps are overall a very positive thing and in the vast majority of them kids are taught new skills, enjoy the social aspect of it, have plenty fun and make new friends. One of the better GAA ideas of recent years to be fair. Very good value too in comparison with other camps.

In Kilkenny, they were run by co Ordinator, and just had the use of local gaa clubs. Coaches were not from our club either.

threeball wrote: »

My lads thought the football was crap but are enjoying the hurling. Depends who's running the show. The gear alone would cost as much as the camp so happy enough to let them off.

Id prefer that the boys and girl going got the correct coaching, than gear.

bruschi wrote: »

not necessarily. In Wexford, pretty much all the organisation is done by the coaching staff in Wexford Park and clubs have little to contribute to it other than having the facilities ready. Coordinators have their own gear too but the club can help towards it if needs be.

Very much agree with your last paragraph. The gear alone would cost what is spent, never mind a full week of coaching and kids out of the house for hours.

As you also point out, one also cant tar an entire country of thousands of kids and hundreds of coaches and camps with the reaction of a couple of kids at one or 2 camps. Obviously it isnt good it wasnt run well, but instead of griping on here, go to the county cul camp coordinator and give them the feedback. If they dont get feedback, how can they improve?

Coaching - ? just being told to play a hurling match for a few hours is not coaching!!
Coaching is developing skills, and learning drills... She went to learn something, not play Chinese whispers with girls 2 years younger than her as part of the days activities !!!
And no G Football played at all!!

happywithlife · 23-07-2019 5:55pm

How did they play hurling all day if they weren't doing drills? They hardly had a match for 4.5 hrs?

If camp is club run why not feed back the disappointment and then follow up with doing your coaching course next winter and volunteering at camp next year?

beauf · 23-07-2019 7:45pm

In our area they are pretty much same as the local GAA training. Drills, stations, training matches. Same every year ours have been involved with them.

Make a formal complaint.

Rega · 23-07-2019 8:25pm

greenspurs wrote: »

In Kilkenny, they were run by co Ordinator, and just had the use of local gaa clubs. Coaches were not from our club either.

And no G Football played at all!!

Hi, I'm in Kilkenny too. I checked online a few months back and there was only one cúl camp in the county doing gaelic football. The rest were hurling, camogie, rounders and one or two doing handball. We were away on holidays for our local one so my kids missed it so I can't comment on the quality of the coaching.

grimbergen · 24-07-2019 12:41am

Definitely disagree on the money racket comment anyway - by far the cheapest of the summer camps on offer in my area and like others say the gear alone is worth the fee.

I think your mistake is to look on it as a coaching camp - it's not, it's a summer camp. Mix of games, fun, hanging out with other kids etc. for a pretty small fee.

It's up to the clubs to do the proper coaching the rest of the year

bruschi · 24-07-2019 10:14am

greenspurs wrote: »

In Kilkenny, they were run by co Ordinator, and just had the use of local gaa clubs. Coaches were not from our club either.

Id prefer that the boys and girl going got the correct coaching, than gear.

Coaching - ? just being told to play a hurling match for a few hours is not coaching!!
Coaching is developing skills, and learning drills... She went to learn something, not play Chinese whispers with girls 2 years younger than her as part of the days activities !!!
And no G Football played at all!!

What has the coordinator said to you about the camp feedback?

elefant · 24-07-2019 10:19am

When I coached at these camps they were either football or hurling Cúl Camps, not mixed sports. Maybe they've changed, but it might explain when they didn't play any football at your kid's camp. Apologies if that just sounds like stating the obvious.

beauf · 24-07-2019 10:22am

Ours are definitely all GAA focused.

yop · 24-07-2019 10:26am

Sending kids now for 3 years and it seems nearly every kid in the locality goes to it. From my own experiences and as a coach,, the club only provide the pitches and changing rooms. The rest is done centrally.
The gear is top quality and the kids love it.

Sounds like you need to have a chat with them there.

rpurfield · 24-07-2019 12:06pm

Two of my lads went to the one in our local club and it seemed well organised. The coaches seemed to be all of a certain age (I'm guessing students getting a summer gig) and weren't from the club from what I could make out. It seemed well structured and as pointed out before the gear is of a really good standard. I was very happy with it, and it seems a lot of other parents are too as it booked out weeks in advance.

Just on the gear piece one of the kids plays rugby also and done the Leinster camp in his rugby club last year. By comparison the gear is miles better at the Cul Camp. The rugby one consisted of a drawstring bag, a rugby ball and a tshirt that shrunk after about two washes. The Cul camp is nearly worth it for kitting them out for training for the year

For the OP I'd suggest you take it up with the county co-ordinator. I'd imagine given the sheer number of camps the quality could vary

BPKS · 24-07-2019 4:27pm

I would safely say that the percentage of people complaining about the quality and value for money of Cul Camps is less than one percent.

For Ireland, that is saying something.

For around a tenner a day, you get your kids "minded" for 4.5 hours and you get top quality gear on top of that.

BTW - I spoke to somebody who has coached Cul Camps for 7 years. He told me how much more difficult the kids are getting to control etc as the years have gone on.

LoughNeagh2017 · 24-07-2019 5:17pm

Prior to the Cul Camp era we had a training session with the Fermanagh goalkeeper of the time who gave out Joe Brolly posters aftwerwards.

Ceist_Beag · 02-08-2019 3:36pm

I think it really depends what you are expecting from the camp.
In Kilkenny we have the Richie Hogan camp which is a proper hurling training camp with adult coaches (including many players from the Kilkenny senior squad). This costs more than cul camps and there is no gear but it is a well run hurling camp with the bonus of the wow factor of meeting your heroes. I'm sure not every county has something like this though.
The cul camps in my experience is more of a summer camp where you should not expect your kids to be coached. Our kids didn't really enjoy the cul camps, mainly as the mentors were young (as above, probably teens getting a summer gig) and therefore didn't really know what to do with the children so they ended up playing matches for most of the day. That and the fact the numbers were huge meant the children really didn't enjoy the experience.
However once you know what to expect it certainly provides good value. It just wasn't for us.

big_drive · 02-08-2019 11:55pm

Local Cul Camp at my club was suberb. As mentioned already the gear is if a high quality, I see kids still wearing stuff from 3/4 years ago and it’s still going strong.

Coaches were excellent, mostly students. With a lot of the younger ages they played a lot of games. But they have to. No 7 year old wants Gaa drills all day. They just want fun and if they associate the GAA club with fun that’s all you want.

I think someone mentioned already some people mix up the difference between a summer camp and a coaching camp

fuerte1976 · 14-08-2019 1:03pm

Apologies for side swiping this but its cul camp related.
We had our 2 booked in for a camp and paid for since June.
Unforseen circumstances required us to change plans and not send our 2 children to the camp that was due to run this week.
I sought a refund 3 weeks ago but still haven't received it.
It's almost impossible to contact anyone in relation to this. I've sent several emails but to no avail..
Any suggestions please?

average_runner · 14-08-2019 1:07pm

greenspurs wrote: »

https://www.kelloggsculcamps.gaa.ie/about-cul-camps

What they promised.....

"The camps are structured so that a different aspect of the game is worked on each day.
The programme involves coaching specific skills of the game and provide the opportunity for children to put into practice what they have learned through small sided games.
During the camp week, a "blitz" is organised to provide each child with an introduction to competitive games."

They just played hurling all day.... with a few games of Chinese whispers thrown in.
No Skills, no drills... NO Gaelic Football even !!

"coaches" standing around on their phones …..

Anyone else feel that this camp is just a money making racket now,
I will be sending mine to other camps next year!!

Youngest in one this week and loving it. They focus on skills and then matches. He loves it.
Our camp is just football but they made this very clear at the time of booking and it was on leaflet in what to bring, ie gumshields!!!

happywithlife · 17-08-2019 1:11am

fuerte1976 wrote: »

Apologies for side swiping this but its cul camp related.
We had our 2 booked in for a camp and paid for since June.
Unforseen circumstances required us to change plans and not send our 2 children to the camp that was due to run this week.
I sought a refund 3 weeks ago but still haven't received it.
It's almost impossible to contact anyone in relation to this. I've sent several emails but to no avail..
Any suggestions please?

Have you contacted the regional coordinator - contact details should be available online.

fuerte1976 · 17-08-2019 7:25am

happywithlife wrote: »

fuerte1976 wrote: »

Apologies for side swiping this but its cul camp related.
We had our 2 booked in for a camp and paid for since June.
Unforseen circumstances required us to change plans and not send our 2 children to the camp that was due to run this week.
I sought a refund 3 weeks ago but still haven't received it.
It's almost impossible to contact anyone in relation to this. I've sent several emails but to no avail..
Any suggestions please?

Have you contacted the regional coordinator - contact details should be available online.

They made contact yesterday.. Hopefully will be sorted early in the coming week..

Cul Camps 2019

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