It’s around this time of year a lot of club underage teams will be thinking about introducing some form of a winter programme for their underage teams, I have the perfect idea, Gymnastics!

My two daughters attend a gymnastics club in Ballyholland Sports Hall with Eimear Kane who set up her own Gymnastics company, called the “Inertia Gymnastics Academy” in Newry. She also doubles as a Ladies Gaelic Footballer in her spare time, playing for her club Saval. She won an All-Ireland for Down Senior Ladies Footballers a few years back. The link with Gaelic games is brilliant because it allows her to be in a position to explain very clearly the benefits gymnastics has on your performance in team sports and in particular the first love for most of our children in school Gaelic Games. I have had Eimear work with young pupils in school over the course of a 7/8 week block of lessons and the development in their core gross motor skills was very evident to see as the sessions progressed.

 When I think back a number of years to when I was a year 8/9 at school where did we gain the improvement in our gross motor skills?

Was it in Gymnastics?

No, it was from the outdoor mentality we had back then. We learned how to climb trees, we jumped over fences, we scaled walls, we learned how to hop, we skipped we jumped, we rolled and we learnt sometimes the hard way of how to fall, (also probably did things we weren’t meant to!) but we were constantly active and in a way we were teaching ourselves and improving the same skills you’d gain in a good gymnastics class.

Those days unfortunately are coming to an end. A recent study actually showed a third of all children under 15 have never climbed a tree before. A third don’t know how to play hopscotch. One in ten can’t ride a bike, a quarter have never rolled down a hill and almost 60% would rather play the computer/watch tv than go outside!

The mentality in our young has changed massively to being forced to come inside late at night. Let’s be honest most of us had to be dragged into the house to quickly eat our dinner or do some homework to the current day and age were we are begging them to go out the door at all. It’s an extremely worrying trend! 

So you may wonder what’s this got to do with coaching Gaelic Games, well plenty actually. Why not introduce a bit of gymnastics to your underage teams in a sports hall particularly at this time of the year when pitches are at a premium and the weather is extremely unreliable, start off with a simple circuit, of climbing, rolling, jumping, and landing. The benefits are crystal clear, here are some of the benefits gymnastics can have;

1Discipline and Commitment – The challenging nature of gymnastics requires concentration, focus and discipline. Commitment to the sessions and positive experiences will help build self-esteem and confidence, I see that at first hand when young students who struggle in PE leave with the broadest of smiles having fulfilled some sense of achievement.

2 Motor Skills, Co-ordination and Balance – Participation in gymnastics will help develop body awareness, control, agility, co-ordination and balance, all these skills are critical when playing Gaelic games, the amount of time spent on one leg during a game is undervalued, when you kick you are on one leg, jumping, tackling, running, balance is everything, in Hurling and football, co-ordination is key, agility is vital when you consider you change direction on average 350 times in a game!

3Core Strength – A weak core the origin of so many injuries, gymnastics will strengthen this crucial area of the body for you and help build solid foundations to build a platform for all round muscle strength, endurance and power. Gymnasts will develop lean toned muscles which will in turn improve posture and balance all vital in playing Gaelic Games. So as we enter November and the cold weather sets in, why not try something different this off season with your underage squads and see the difference it could make to them physically with some basic gymnastics.