Why is the attitude towards underage GAA coaches so negative?

On the streaming point - I mean from under 11 upwards. I look after the under 11s. There are about 6 very good players. Say, about 8 good players. And maybe 6 or 7 who are behind. If the teams are all mixed in together, those 6 or 7 don't get a look in. They would end up just standing around on the pitch. And as the months go by, they just get more disillusioned. But we do the streaming for the matches. And then they seem to really enjoy it. They are more confident in going for the ball, because they know that a dominant player is not going to come along and demand it off them. In a way it gives them a chance to put their own influence and identities on the games.

Havn't been involved for a while truthfully but back when I was 8 years ago roughly it was 3 teams (A,B & C). U14 & U16 teams. It was a urban club so could afford to - was never any issues with fielding a team.

What I found was that the lads on the C team were not interested or it was their 2nd or third sport. Some didn't want to be there by the looks of things (possibly put in club by parents and had not found 'their' sport yet??), others were not as consistent in attendance.

Got less time then the A team but truthfully I believe that wasn't the wrong thing.

The A team were serious lads who were in the gym on days that training wasn't on and their size/strenght was comparible to a C team 2/4 years older.

You're well clued in Tombo. 🙂

You must be a pro on the coaching circuit. Ya, I expect that 2 will fall away when we kick off in Feb 2026. And then there always be a few missing each week. When we are 13 aside, I don't think we'll be having many subs. But like you say, don't want any more than 3. 2 would be grand and easily manageable.

It's these kind of headlines that feeds the negativity towards GAA coaches and it really just the media looking clickbait articles or to sell newspapers. You are never going see articles with headlines like "My child loves GAA and Parent appreciates the work coaches do".

It certainly feels like there more negativity towards GAA coaches over say soccer or rugby coaches. Is it because almost every parish has GAA teams and most kids try it at least for a while and are more exposed to potential negative outcomes i.e child does like it or doesn't feel wanted. Soccer and rugby clubs are not in every parish and children go because they want to play or parent wants them to play i.e less chance of a negative outcome.

Also I think the Grab All Association mentality among a percentage of the public influences peoples perception of the GAA leading the negativity towards coaches.

Coaching my own children for the past few years the biggest stress factor has been equal playing time. When we have had subs at blitzes you are all the time trying to ensure they get a fair rotation and me and the other coaches have noticed that what actually happens in practice is that our own children often get sacrificed to ensure no one else feels they are not getting a fair shake. It must be said though we have a great bunch of parents in that the leave us to coach. Even a dad who played county will back up our instructions with respect to his child. They are not involved in coaching as due to work they cant commit but when I asked would he give some pointers at a couple of session he was delighted and said he didnt offer because he didn't want us to feel he was pushy. That all said it has been only up to under 10 so far.

Next year we go to under 12 and from talking to coaches in older groups this is where the "help" starts.

We will likely field 3 sides at that age group. The club ethos dictates that due to numbers the "A" team will be kids born in 2014 only. The "B" team will be remainder of 2014 kids and strongest 2015. And the "C" team will be 2015. As coaches we have already discussed who will take each team and they have asked me to take the "B" team. Now this is where my conundrum comes in. My own child would be borderline on merit to make the "B". If I bring them to that team I know there are children on or around the same level who will be left at "C". But if I dont the "B" side would be down to one coach as I matches tend to be on at the same time and my priority is supporting my own child. The ironic thing is if the B team was purely on merit my child would get into it no bother as the older age group has a strong core group but a lot of weaker girls who would drop to C, whereas the younger group has more strength in depth. The joys of being a volunteer coach.

But evidently, I am only in it for the reflected glory and am biased towards my own children.

Also, just to try clarify the age groups at which the Go Games model applies in GAA. There's often some confusion around it, not helped by this statement on the Go Games page on the GAA website itself:

Go Games are Camogie, Hurling and Gaelic Football for children up to and including 12 years of age, where every child gets to play (a Go) in every game, for the full game.

Go Games apply up to and including U12 in both Camogie and LGFA all right, but in GAA, it only goes up to U11, as shown in the Codes section of the Rule Book:

The other fault with that statement on the GAA site is how it says every child gets to play in every game, for the full game. This is simply not possible unless both clubs have exactly matching numbers.

For instance, U10 Go Games in my own club last weekend: we had 27 players, and the other club had 24. We did the obvious thing of splitting into three matches of 8 v 8. Meant that all their players got to play the entire thing all right, but we had to run lads in and out every few minutes.

I've never seen those guidelines applied when I had kids playing soccer. I've seen matches were its 7-0 and the coach still won't play all his players. Also parents complaining when weaker players are in played. Not everyone is fair or nice.

Lets be honest 99.9% of these kids will never be top players in top clubs, county etc. So there should much more priority and focus on the experience and value for the 99.9%.

To be honest, I've never seen them applied either. My own lad has been playing soccer with the local club here since U8, and he's up to U13 now in the season just starting. I helped out myself for two of those years. There was never an instance by ourselves or any club we were playing of following the guidelines of (for example) every single one of a squad of 16 for an U10 match getting exactly 50% of playing time in a 7 v 7 match.

I just pointing out that the guidelines exist and that they're not as 'perfect' as they're sometimes held up to be, because abiding 100% by them would mean some players may as well just stay at home instead of going to the match at all.