Sport Ireland Skills Clinics offer kids a chance to learn from top Irish sports stars
Does your child want to learn how to kick a free like an All-Ireland winner or swim like an Olympian?
Well now they can with our Performance Skill Clinics, which feature world-class athletes sharing their expertise and experience.
The clinics include:
- Badminton Skill Clinic with two-time Olympian Nhat Nguyen.
- Gaelic Free Taking Skill Clinic with Dublin All-Ireland winner Hannah Tyrrell.
- Hockey Coaching Skill Clinic with Irish hockey international Róisín Upton.
- Swimming Skill Clinic with Shane Ryan, Ireland’s first male three-time Olympic swimmer.
- Girls Football Skill Clinic with Ireland forward Amber Barrett (main picture), who scored the goal that sent Ireland to the World Cup for the first time.
- Athletics Running Skill Clinic with Olympic 800m runner Nadia Power.
The skills clinics are delivered in the high-performance facilities of Sport Ireland Campus, where Ireland’s top Olympians and sports stars train.
Attendees will gain exclusive insights into elite training, learn tips for training like champions and be inspired by the best in the field.
The clinics, which run during February and March, cost €70. Places must be pre-booked as spaces are limited.
The inspiration may not end with the session though, as Sport Ireland’s Children’s Sport Participation and Physical Activity Study found 60% of boys and 48% of girls said sports stars were the most likely to inspire them to play sports, surpassing other influences such as parents, coaches, and friends.
The SHE Research Centre has carried out detailed data analysis on sub sections of the student survey, to provide compelling evidence for the positive influence of these elite athletes on young people's sports engagement.
Aside from helping them to make progress on the pitch or in the pool, an analysis of research studies across 50 years found that physical activity has a positive impact on children’s cognitive outcomes and academic achievement.
The 2013 ‘Keeping them in the Game’ report, commissioned by the Irish Sports Council and compiled by ESRI researchers, found that children who are physically active and participate regularly in sport are likely to have better academic performance than their inactive peers.
Research in the UK also found that participation in sport is also associated with higher incomes and promotes the development of valuable life skills such as teamwork, communication, leadership, and resilience, which boost employability and productivity.
Further information on the clinics is available here.