St. Patrick's ARLFC Under 14s

Keith and Chris

You may remember our lads coming to your place the other week. The invitation came via Tim Sharkey.

Firstly, thanks for a great evening. The lads thoroughly enjoyed the experience and gained a lot from it with regards to both fitness and team spirit.

Keith asked us for comments on ways the experience could be improved and I have spoken to the lads themselves and parents and come up with a few (sorry but very few) suggestions. (one of the lads said the slippery plastic sheet on the slope wasn't slippery enough. I have ignored similar comments.)

I would suggest that teams be sorted out before the occasion and each team provided with one of your lads as a leader who can supervise and encourage and guide the lads, give them ideas, shortcuts etc. We all thought the spirit of competition was a major factor and the level of encouragement was tremendous. Anyway if this can be improved it will improve the experience.

We told the lads to wear old rough trainers and track suits etc. but some still turned up in clothes they did not want to dirty. These lads were lent boiler suits. I would suggest extending the boiler suit idea to providing one for each participant, with different colour for each team. Name tags would also be useful. The lads could write their own name and stick one on the back and one on the front of the boiler suit to allow their leader to shout personal encouragement (or abuse).

A blackboard with each team's scores and updates may increase the level of competition.

The lads didn't enjoy the "tyre" excercise at the end as much as the rest. There were (lighthearted) accusations of cheating. The team leader would maybe keep count and be trusted more than the lads themselves.

I'm afraid that's all we can come up with. I suppose that is a testimony to the way you have thought it out and set it up yourselves.

Note that where I have written "lads" the word "girls" may be substituted.

Best of luck and thanks again.
Tom Kelly St. Patrick's ARLFC Under 14s