Originally posted by Comic Book Guy:
Lads,
I might have worded the thread wrong but here goes. Im a primary school teacher in Kildare trying to spread the hurling gospel. Its a big football area and there is no hurling club in the parish so hurleys,sliothars,helmets etc arent exactly in plentiful supply. The kids are mad to play and parents are great but persuading them to spend money on all of the above is not going to be an easy task especially in the present economic climate. So my question is this:Can primary schools apply to the GAA for a grant for equipment? We should be able to raise money ourselves but it wont be a whole pile. All replies appreciated.

Originally posted by South Limerick Referee:
A sore point with me at the moment. In fact its a very sore point. I bought a rake of equipment for the Limerick primary schools out of the proceeds from the book. Only two schools came back to me on it. The gear is now lying in a shed, and to be honest as I am not in permanent employment, I could have done without shelling out the money on it.

But anyway I thought I was a superhero, and that everyone would flock to me looking for the gear, and that we would have hurling academies in a load of schools. People told me I was mad and they were right. But such are pipe dreams I guess. I emailed the schools in early June that the gear was freely available with one proviso, they must provide a coaching plan. The dream hasnt come through, and I will probably give most of it to the likes of James Ryan, Ollie Coffey, Sean Herbert, Ger Downes etc. for their own use as they are going into the schools anyway.

In any event as regards official funding, there are Croke Park and Munster council grants that are paid to the Munster counties. In Limerick these are split between the four divisional Cumann na mBunscols within Limerick and they buy gear and distribute it to the schools. How its distributed depends on the divisions themselves but I think most of the time its shared equally.

This message has been edited - 10-sep-2010 @ 19:02

Originally posted by offaly:
Why dont the childrens parents just pay for the sports gear if they want them to be participating in sportand getting active then they should have no problem paying for sports equipment.

Originally posted by manfromdelmonte:
Cooney`s €300,000 a year would go a long way for equipment for primary schools...

as a teacher   (wanting to do hurling in a football school  )  , I invested school funds 3 years ago on indoor hurleys - we don`t play much indoor hurling   (2/3 blitzes a year  )  , BUT they can be used on the tarmace yard all winter and are grand for doing the fundamentals skills with kids   (using beanbags etc  )  . we also purchased line balls and pegged sliotars from Cumas.

when we go to play on the field in spring, kids have their own hurleys   (and I have a bag of spares in case of breakages  )  

each county board runs a subsidised equipment scheme for schools and clubs   (or should  )  
basically hurleys and helmets provided for a cheaper price   (I think the VAT is reclaimed or something  )  

lastly, don`t let kids buy their hurleys themselves. source them   (from wherever  )   and fit them for the correct hurleys yourself   (its a big job but will save you so much bother when doing skills - buy a box of grips with funds and give with pne each hurley sold in school  )  . then as they grow out of them they can be returned to school and reused by the next class...
failing all that, ring Cultec and see if they`d give you a discount for buying a set of plastic hurleys for the school

Originally posted by manfromdelmonte:

lastly, don`t let kids buy their hurleys themselves. source them   (from wherever  )   and fit them for the correct hurleys yourself   (its a big job but will save you so much bother when doing skills - buy a box of grips with funds and give with pne each hurley sold in school  )  . then as they grow out of them they can be returned to school and reused by the next class...
failing all that, ring Cultec and see if they`d give you a discount for buying a set of plastic hurleys for the school

Originally posted by South Limerick Referee:


Generations of Limerick hurling talent have been ruined because parents buy hurleys up to hip height. 1960s mentality. The reason kids hold the hurley with the weak hand on top is because they have to put the strong hand down to carry the weight of a hurley thats too big.

Sports shops should be banned from selling hurleys and parents should be banned from buying hurleys also.

Cumas Hurling Grip Correctors are a mighty job to change the grip.

Originally posted by South Limerick Referee:


Generations of Limerick hurling talent have been ruined because parents buy hurleys up to hip height. 1960s mentality. The reason kids hold the hurley with the weak hand on top is because they have to put the strong hand down to carry the weight of a hurley thats too big.

Sports shops should be banned from selling hurleys and parents should be banned from buying hurleys also.

Cumas Hurling Grip Correctors are a mighty job to change the grip.

Originally posted by offaly:


I thought that holding a hurley with the weak hand on top was the correct way.

Originally posted by South Limerick Referee:
You thought wrong.

Dominant hand on top. If you are training schoolkids that arent in your own class, call to their room and in the presence of a teacher, mark every kids dominant hand with an X with a black marker before they leave the classroom. Makes it easier to spot that their dominant hand is on top

Even 6 year old kids will lie to you about which hand they write with, to trick you into letting them put their weak hand on top because they are more comfortable   with the wrong grip.

Originally posted by South Limerick Referee:
You thought wrong.

Dominant hand on top. If you are training schoolkids that arent in your own class, call to their room and in the presence of a teacher, mark every kids dominant hand with an X with a black marker before they leave the classroom. Makes it easier to spot that their dominant hand is on top

Even 6 year old kids will lie to you about which hand they write with, to trick you into letting them put their weak hand on top because they are more comfortable   with the wrong grip.

.

Originally posted by hard shoulder:


Altough I have good regard for you on many topics,   (I`m not LK and even bought ur book  )   this is bull\\ SLR. On your logic Lar Corbett should be banned from hurling   (yes he is right handed  )  . He seems to be doin OK with his current grip. Aidan Fogarty won an all-star but would be run from the field if you had your way. Joe Cooney would also have come under your fascism. Gary Kirby etc. It`s like betaing the young lads back in the 50`s to turn them into right handers. Like it or not some kids are conditioned to put non dominant hand on top. It`s abseloutely not just to do with big hurls or small hurls. This is a myth doing the rounds. In our family there were 6 all right handed but 3 of which put dominant hand on top and other 3 put non dominant hand on top. This extended from hurling to holding a brush, a shovel a rake and a multitude of other things.In fact one of us played senior county and it wasn`t any of the 3 with the "correct" grip.


It might be right to change them but it needs a lot of common sense and playing by ear.

Hurling is hard enough for a 7 year old without forcing them to hold the hurl in a way they don`t want and putting big x`s on their hand making them feel stupid. There are different levels right or left handedness. Tread carefully here. Change if it can be done easily but don`t make it a precondition for a 7-8 or indeed 25 year old.

Originally posted by South Limerick Referee:
Hard shoulder

While there are exceptions, it is a handicap to a player if they dont hold the hurley with their dominant hand on top. Some big names got away with it, but they are the exception rather than the rule. It cost many others better hurling careers. Yes there are poor players who are technically correct, yes there are outstanding players who are technically not correct. But you are doing a first class child a massive favour by changing their grip at a young age when it is still mentally possible for them to buy into the change and get used to the change.

Wayne Sherlock was changed at 13. Diarmuid Lyng tried to change himself at 23.

.

This message has been edited - 12-sep-2010 @ 12:02