Page 20 - Producing a Video to Communicate a New Model of Coaching to GAA Coaches

I have been a member of the GAA since childhood, first participating in my Primary

School, ‘Scoil Ailbhe’, and with my local Club, ‘Durlas Óg’, in Thurles, in the
hurling obsessed County of Tipperary, and while playing, performing and winning

were important to me it is the social capital I experienced through participation in

Gaelic games that has left the greatest mark on my sense of the essential value of the
GAA.

I know from experience that it is not always easy to feel like you belong. I struggled

to make Club squads and teams as a child and County squads as a teenager, but I will
always cherish the opportunity the GAA gave me to feel a part of something, to

‘belong’ to a community, and to make friends through those formative experiences.
Those experiences were most often facilitated by caring and supportive coaches,

including my father. (Photo 1.3).

My passion furthered my struggle to succeed also, and through application I became a

key player and leader of the teams I played for. Collaboration and teamwork were
and are hallmarks of my application. We were not a group of individuals to me, we

were a collective ‘we’.

Photo 1.3 Durlas Óg, All-Ireland Féile na nGael U-14 Champions 1990. Mark King,

a critical friend, is the third player from the right in the back row

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