It’s an Olympic year and the Games in Rio this August will start many a child dreaming that they could be an Olympian some day. Here’s a look at six sports they are unlikely to learn at school but which could take them to that medal podium – with fun and fitness on the way.
Golf
The age profile of most Irish golf clubs would suggest it’s a game for older people. But this staid image is one Jennifer Hickey, golf participation officer with the Confederation of Golf in Ireland (CGI), is working to change, boosted by the youthful appeal of Rory McIlroy.
In areas where clubs are looking to recruit more junior members, the CGI goes into local primary schools with its “Get into Golf with Rory” programme, which is followed up with a fun day at the local club. To counter a marked fall-off when girl golfers reach their teens – a trend in most sports – the CGI also runs a “Golf 4 Girls 4 Life” programme, “to make it more fun and sociable”.
Already a glamorous, well-televised sport, golf is included this year in the Olympics for the first time since 1904.
Benefits:
“It takes them off the street,” says Hickey. As well as exercise through walking and pulling golf bags, the children are outdoors, meeting people, playing with friends, learning etiquette and how to conduct themselves, she adds. It’s also a sport that can be played for life.
Where to go:
If parents are golfers, their children tend to fall naturally into the junior sections of clubs. Non-golfing parents could enrol children for a club’s summer camp, suggests Hickey, or book lessons at a local driving range to give them a taste of it, before looking for a club with an active junior section. More information: cgigolf.org
Starting costs:
Junior membership fees vary widely from club to club, says Hickey, who knows one that charges €25 and another €275. When it comes to equipment, you can spend as little or as much as you want, with a child’s golf club costing under €10 from some sports outlets. Much the same goes for clothes. However, some clubs have a strict dress code and won’t allow tracksuits, for example.
Participant’s view:
Julie Foley is a golf “newbie”, having joined Naas Golf Club in Co Kildare last year. Her daughter Kate (11) has since become an avid player in the junior section, with little brother Josh (nine) now impatiently waiting for his 10th birthday, when he too can become a junior member. “The kids have absolutely no fear,” says Julie, whose husband, Paul, is also a golfer. “They just get up and hit the ball.”
Kate “absolutely adores it – she has longer drives than me”, says Julie. Her daughter says she loves going out hitting the ball, making new friends and going into the clubhouse afterwards.
Julie challenges the idea that children might not have the patience for the sport – that sense of impatience, she suggests, is more likely to come from their time-pressed mothers.
Irish inspiration:
Rory McIlroy (26) and twins Leona and
Lisa Maguire
(21).
BMX racing
Originating as a kids’ sport in California in the 1970s, BMX racing spread across the Atlantic in the 1980s and became an Olympic event in 2008. It is on the rise in Ireland, with competitions catering for children as young as four right up to adults in their 40s. The national championship series also includes a race for under-sixes on balance bikes without pedals – known as Striders.
More boys than girls participate but the number of girls has "grown substantially" in the past year, according to Lar Massey of BMX Ireland.
An event consists of a series of races, each typically lasting no more than 50 seconds, around tracks consisting of four undulating straights, linked by banked corners.
Benefits:
Fitness – it is a power sprint sport, says Massey. It’s also a very social activity and teaches children discipline.
Where to go:
Find your nearest club and track through bmxireland.ie.
Starting costs:
Parents can bring their child along to a BMX club without investing any money, to see if they like it, says Massey. “The club will give you a bike, a helmet; they will spend half an hour or so, depending on the child, showing them how to ride the bike.”
After that, he reckons a child’s BMX bike and helmet can be bought for €200. A Cycling Ireland licence (€5) is also needed, which covers insurance for a child in training or competition.
Participant’s view:
Wayne Quinn and his son Ryan just happened to come across the Cherry Orchard BMX track in Dublin several years ago; Ryan had a go and was hooked straight away. Now aged 11 and in fifth class, he has been all-Ireland national champion for his age for the past two years and is competing in the British championship series this year.
Recently back from a week’s training in the US, Ryan trains every Saturday and Sunday at the track in St Catherine’s Park, Lucan, does his own fitness work at home and is very disciplined in his eating, “which is unbelievable for a 11-year-old”, says Wayne.
“I really just like the adrenalin and looking forward to going to the track every day and jumping and learning to do stuff with your friends,” says Ryan, whose sister Ava (eight) also races but isn’t as serious about it.
Ryan’s dream is, of course, to race at the Olympics some day.
Irish inspiration:
Kelvin Batey
(34), British-born but with Irish roots, who is current World Masters champion and at time of writing may still qualify for Rio.
Gymnastics
Olympic dreams can begin on the garden trampoline because trampoline gymnastics is, since 2000, one of the sport’s four Olympic disciplines, along with men’s artistic, women’s artistic and rhythmic gymnastics. All forms of gymnastics start with fundamental movement skills, which are covered in PE in most primary schools. But the school equipment is not likely to consist of much more than mats and benches.
Benefits:
Fun and fitness for children of all abilities. It also enhances sensory skills and promotes awareness of how the body moves. These benefits will cross over to any other sport.
Where to go: A child showing particular talent or interest is encouraged to join one of the
100 gymnastics clubs in the country. Find one near you on gymnasticsireland.ie or through the new Federation of Irish Sports app, GameDay, says Aimi Baker, participation manager with Gymnastics Ireland. Some clubs run summer camps, which is a good way for children to find out if they would like to do it regularly.
There are a few trampoline-dedicated clubs, such as SuperSonic in Loughlinstown, Co Dublin. When children are using a trampoline at home, make sure there is safety netting, only one child is on it at a time, and that they are supervised, says Baker.
Starting costs:
Club membership, including insurance, may cost about €20 for the year but the cost of classes “is completely dependent on where they are going and the facilities, and so on”, says Baker. No personal kit is needed – “just turn up in a tracksuit”.
Participant’s view:
Moira McCabe was swinging on monkey bars at a GAA match four years ago when a friend of her mother suggested she would do well in gymnastics.
“I started training two hours per week and found that not only did I love it but I was quite good at it too,” says Moria (12), a sixth-class pupil at Presentation Girls School, Maynooth, Co Kildare.
She is now training almost 22 hours a week, competing at level seven in artistic gymnastics and dreams of being part of an Irish team at the Tokyo Olympics in 2020.
“I love being with my gym friends during training and learning new skills to help me improve as a gymnast,” she says.
Irish inspiration:
Rio-bound pair
Kieran Behan
(26) and Ellis O’Reilly (18), who will be the first Irish female gymnast to compete at an Olympics
Taekwondo
Two styles of this Korean martial art are practised in Ireland but only one, a type of full-body sparring, has been an Olympic sport since 2004. Body protectors, helmets and pads are worn, which, in competitions, have embedded electronic sensors for instantaneous scoring.
Children can start from the age of five, says Martin Fleming, president of the Irish Taekwondo Union (ITU), the governing body for Olympic taekwondo in Ireland – "if you have an Olympic dream, you have to come through us". Children are taught the basics and can then start presenting themselves for grading after about three months. Serious competitions start at about age 12.
Benefits:
Apart from the obvious fitness and health benefits, it also makes children aware of their own capabilities, says Fleming. “It builds every muscle group in the body as well as flexibility, stamina and strength – and the confidence that comes with knowing a martial art when you’re older.”
How to get started:
Find a club through taekwondoireland.ie
Starting costs:
Parents are advised not to buy anything for the first four to six weeks because, as Fleming says, “children are fickle, parents are fickle”. Kit such as a taekwondo suit (€20) is not really needed until they start doing gradings. Body protectors cost about €30 and a helmet €20, “so it’s not prohibitively expensive”, he adds.
Participant’s view:
Jack Wooley (17) heart- breakingly lost out on qualification for this year’s Olympics in the closing seconds of a qualification final in Turkey recently. But the fifth-year school student from Jobstown, Co Dublin, will be making the trip to Rio – as training partner for a female member of the Finnish taekwondo team.
“I took it up on my sixth birthday,” he says, having watched his older brother doing it for a couple of years. “I took to it like a duck to water.”
Jack, who was only old enough to start trying to accumulate Olympic qualifying points in senior competitions in the past year, says it is not just the martial arts side of the sport he likes but the whole healthy living aspect as well.
Irish inspiration:
Jack Wooley
Modern pentathlon
Not to be confused with the athletics pentathlon event (in which Northern Ireland’s
Mary Peters
won Olympic gold in 1982), this sport involves horse-riding, swimming, running, fencing and shooting. But children usually start, from about the age of eight, by competing in events combining just two or three of those.
"It's very progressive from a young age: you do as much or as little as you really want to," says the high performance director of Pentathlon Ireland, Andy MacKenzie. Many junior competitors who progress into pentathlon come through the Irish Pony Club, which runs four-event tetrathlons (minus the fencing).
While you might be aghast at the idea of putting a gun into the hands of your offspring, the laser pistols used don’t endanger anybody. However, they are covered by firearms legislation and youngsters are taught to follow standard safety precautions on shooting ranges.
Expect to hear more about this sport, now that Ireland has its first European gold medallist, Arthur Lanigan-O’Keeffe, who will be hoping to add to his medal collection at Rio. And Ireland is hosting the Youth A (under 19s) world championships in Limerick this summer.
Under a “Pathway to Podium” programme, Pentathlon Ireland is looking for youngsters with talent in one or more of the five disciplines. The organisation runs taster days at which children can go along and have a go.
Benefits:
A real all-rounder event, involving every muscle group; it requires diverse skills and a high degree of fitness.
Where to go:
See pentathlon.ie and email queries to info@pentathlon.ie
Starting costs:
The sport has an elitist tag, says MacKenzie, but Pentathlon Ireland is trying to make it as accessible as possible. It can provide shooting and fencing equipment and you don’t need to have a pony/horse yourself. At competitions, the animal is provided.
“But I am not going to lie, it is expensive,” he says, once you are good enough to compete internationally.
Participant’s view:
Eimear O’Neill from Clonmellon, Co Westmeath, was invited to a modern pentathlon “taster” training weekend when she was 12, after coming second in a Pony Club minimus (swimming/running/riding) event. Four years later, she is competing both nationally and internationally and is training 20 hours a week in the run-up to the world championships in Limerick this July.
“The best feeling is when I see my hard work pay off, like when I won the British modern pentathlon championships last June and the senior Tetrathlon championships in Bishop Burton last August,” says Eimear, who is in transition year.
“Modern pentathlon is also giving me a great opportunity to travel and meet new people. I spent a year and a half in Plymouth college in England training and competing on a sporting scholarship and I am currently in France training.”
Irish inspiration:
Current European champion Arthur Lanigan-O’Keeffe (24) and
Natalya Coyle
(25) who finished ninth at the London Olympics.
Fencing
The sport is growing “phenomenally fast” in Ireland and is “wonderful” for children, according to Philip Lee of
Fencing Ireland
. Its glamorous image, with the all-white suits, masks and elegant sabres, can be deceptive; it requires effort and discipline. And you do need to learn the basics before you can really engage with it, he says.
Benefits:
High fitness, with speed as well as stamina are required. There’s also a strong mental component. It teaches etiquette, respect and self-confidence and has longevity – “you can start around six and continue into your 60s”, says Lee, himself a veteran fencer.
Where to go:
The principal club for juniors in Dublin is Pembroke Fencing, which runs classes for children aged six upwards. It operates in Ballsbridge, Dalkey and Loughlinstown. Other clubs can be located through Fencing Ireland (irishfencing.net) and a new club is about to open in the National Sports Campus in Abbotstown. Summer camps are an ideal way for children to try it.
Starting costs:
While you will pay for a child’s lessons, clubs will provide all the equipment.
Participant’s view:
Anna Lee (17), from Glenageary, Co Dublin, followed her father’s interest in fencing and started when she was still in primary school. Now in fifth year, she typically trains six days a week, has represented Ireland at the junior world championships and her dream is to fence with an Irish team in the Olympics.
“I really enjoy the mental aspect of fencing,” she says, “as you need to work out every opponent’s strengths and weaknesses and constantly need to change your tactics within a fight.”
Irish inspiration:
Brendan Cusack
(23) and
Victoria Duxbury
(20).
swayman@irishtimes.com
