On Saturday February 11^th2017, the Cayman Islands Kids Gaelic Football Club will host a ‘Start of Season Blitz’ at the Camana Bay CIS Football Pitch. This event will encompass training skill sets for each age group and culminate in a round robin of games. All children between the ages of 5 and 18 years old are welcome; the event is open to all children who have not played before and to those who attended the inaugural games last year. Registration is at 9.30am, with the training running until 11.30am. This event is free of charge to all.

The training will start with a basic warm up for all players, followed by a quick fun game to get everyone familiar with catching and throwing the Gaelic Football. The coaching will then move on to learning a couple of specific techniques used in Gaelic Football, followed by a chance to practice these new skills in drills. To further develop these practices, a short, fun-orientated game for each age group will take place to challenge the players to incorporate their new skills into the team play environment. Finally, a competitive game will close the session, with the training finishing at 11.30am.

With a growing interest in Gaelic Football across the school ages, in May 2016 the Cayman Islands Kids Gaelic Football Club Committee was established to introduce and develop Gaelic Football within the child and youth community across the Cayman Islands.

Over the summer months, a number of coaching sessions took place, followed by challenge matches and involvement in local summer camps. This started with two training practices for children of Senior Cayman Islands Gaelic Football Club members in May and June, with 35 children in attendance. The skills learned were put to the test with the challenge fixtures for U9s and U14s on the Senior Club Finals Day in June. Over the school holidays the Committee further provided six Gaelic Football coaching sessions at two summer camps at Camana Bay Multi Sports Camp in July, where over 150 children participated and the YMCA Summer Camp in August, where over 90 children participated.

To build the knowledge to develop Gaelic Football skills amongst children across Cayman, the Club was extremely fortunate to secure the services of Mr. Colm Egan, full-time games development officer from the North American Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA), to deliver the GAA Certified Foundation Level Coaching course in October.

The course provided parents, players, teachers, volunteers and sports coaches with the competences required to introduce Gaelic Football skills to all ages, and included two days of theoretical class room based and practical on-pitch modules. Colm has delivered this course in clubs across North America to great success, and we are now proud to say that we have 25 GAA certified coaches within our Club.

Total attendance for the 2016 Kids Gaelic Club events has reached over 300 participants, and the Committee aims to move forward over the coming year with this same presence, enthusiasm and energy and to continue to bring Gaelic Football to the wider kids community within Cayman.

With all of the new coaches ready to go, the Committee welcomes everyone to attend this free of charge event on February 11^th 2017 at Camana Bay CIS Football Pitch from 9.30am to 11.30am. If you are interested in registering your child please go www.caymangaa.com/kidsgaelicclub and register on the online link. If you need any further information please contact the Kids Gaelic Club Committee at [email protected]. We look forward to seeing you there!

Please note: Parents are asked that children come with the following:

• trainers or football boots. No flip-flops
• water
• hat
• sunscreen

Children participating MUST be accompanied by an adult. This will be strictly enforced on the day.

If you are interested in registering your child for the training, please fill out the registration form in full before 6pm Friday 10th February. There will be no registrations accepted on the day.

More information on the Cayman Islands Kids Gaelic Football Club can be found at www.caymangaa.com/kidsgaelicclub

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Bringing Gaelic Football to Cayman’s Youth

From website www.caymangaa.com/kidsgaelicclub