The biggest ever coaching survey conducted in Irish sport will see the GAA, LGFA and Camogie Association join forces to help shape the future development of Gaelic games.
Over the next three weeks coaches at every level of football, hurling and camogie are being encouraged and urged to make their voices heard via the online survey. The Gaelic games Coach Survey 2020 is a unique opportunity for coaches to provide an insight into their role, and their needs. It is the first time that such an approach has been taken across the entire Gaelic games family.
Targeting more than 10,000 responses, it makes it one of the most comprehensive coaching studies ever undertaken. Coaches that complete the survey will be offered the chance to take part in a draw, whereby three respondents will win Coaching Master Class sessions. The Coaching Master Class will involve a coaching session for the winning coaches' own team, and a coaching workshop for all of the coaches within their Club.
What are we doing?
Coach development has become an area that each of the Gaelic games Associations across the GAA, LGFA and Camogie Associations have targeted to work closer together on. Over the last 12 months we have been developing a new Introduction to Coaching Gaelic games award that will operate across all of the codes, and our coach education webinars taking place over the last two months have been hugely successful. In order for us to continue that development, it is important that we are building our programmes on solid information on the role and experiences of coaches within our games.
To help us to do that, we have developed a Gaelic games coach survey for 2020. This survey will look at all of our coaches’ experience, their practice and how coaches see coaching into the future. We are also very interested in coaches’ experience of coach education, and what coaches feel are their own learning needs. Those people that have dropped out of coaching are also part of this survey, to help us understand why they are no longer coaching, and whether there is anything that we can put in place to encourage them back into coaching.
Historically, we have not undertaken this type of task, and it is a mammoth undertaking.
Why are we doing it this way?
We wanted to build a coach survey that was easy for coaches to feedback into. So, this survey will take place online. It is a simple form that asks for feedback about your coaching practice and your coach education. The survey should take no more than 15 minutes to complete, and is completely anonymous, and confidential.
Who is involved?
This survey is across all of the Gaelic games Associations. So, if you are a coach of Camogie, Hurling, Handball, Gaelic football, Ladies Gaelic football, or Rounders your feedback is important. Equally, we are interested in the full breadth of coaches, so it’s not a case of getting one coach from a club to respond, the experience of each coach, regardless of your background or how long you have been coaching is important.
What will happen?
Once we have completed the survey we will be looking to speak to some coaches about the results that we find, so we will organise some focus groups to help us to understand more about what it is that we can do to support coaches into the future. Taking part in those groups is completely voluntary, and again all of the information that any coach will provide is confidential.
As a result of this survey we be able to build a profile of the different types of coaches that we have across Gaelic games and understand their needs. The reports that we produce will be made available to every code and County, and because every response is anonymous, coaches can be as honest as possible. This is important as it will allow us to build a really accurate profile of coaching across Gaelic games.
How do I access the survey?
The survey is available online, so you can access the survey through: Take Gaelic Games Coach Survey 2020
The survey will also be sent to each club secretary for circulation amongst the coaches within the club. If you have attended a coaching course previously, we will email the survey to you. If any coach wishes to receive the survey directly, they can do so by emailing [email protected]