Gaelic football | Activities

You’ll need

Size 4 or 5 Footballs
Sports cones
Bibs
Small goals or cones to mark goals
Whistle
Flipchart or printed scoring diagram

Gaelic football factsheet

PDF – 1.1MB

Download

Before you begin

Use the safety checklist to help you plan and risk assess your activity. There's also more guidance to help you carry out your risk assessment, including examples.
Make sure all young people and adults involved in the activity know how to take part safely.
Make sure you’ll have enough adult helpers. You may need some parents and carers to help.

Planning and setting up the activity

Make sure the young people are briefed prior to the event for appropriate clothing.
Make sure the area for play is suitable and clean.
Set out some markers before the young people arrive for the activity.
Print out the fact sheets for display and reference.

Running the activity

1. Warm Up Game – Handball Tag (5 to 8 minutes)

Mark out a small square area (for 10 people an area about 20 meters wide). Demonstrate a bounce to the ground and back to their hand and a hand pass to another person

Explain:

Everyone must move around the marked area while carrying or bouncing a ball

They must bounce the ball every few steps

Or handpass to another player

One or two players are the taggers – Their objective is to tag someone when they are in possession of the ball

If tagged they pass the ball to another player and do 5 star jumps before returning to the game

As the game progress judge how many active balls should be inside the square.

2. Skill One – The Solo Run (8 Minutes)

The Solo is a key Gaelic football skill where the player drop the ball onto their foot and kicks it back into their hands while running.

Splitting into smaller groups so each group has one ball – in relay formation can they run across the square while completing a number of drops and kicking back into their hands.

Teach the four points

Hold the ball in both hands
Drop onto foot
Kick gently back up
Catch and continue running

Add a challenge

How many Solos can they complete without dropping.
Create a slalom course for them so they are not running in a straight line.

3. Skill Two – Hand Pass and Kick Pass (10 minutes)

Hand Pass – Punch the ball using the fist

Support the ball with one hand
Strike the ball with a closed fist

In pairs standing 5 metres apart pass the ball back and forth – How many can they do without dropping the ball

Kick Pass – Inside of the foot passing to a team mate to catch

Start with a stationary pass to a partner 10 meters away. Progression can involve passing to a moving target player and then kicking while running

4. Skill Challenge Circuit (10 minutes)

Split into small groups and rotate every two minutes

Shooting – can then score into goals or over the crossbar
High Catch – throw the ball high into the air and jump to catch the ball above their head
Accuracy Pass – Knock over cones using the kick pass method
Solo Relay – Team race while solo running (dropping ball to feet and kicking back to hands while running)

5. Mini Match (10 to 15 minutes)

Play a match - split into teams ideally no more than 5 or 6 a side
Mark out a pitch with cones – in the region of 40 metres long – if you have access to goals even better
No goalkeepers

Play with simplified rules

Must solo or bounce every 4 steps
No tackling
Hand Passes encouraged

Play with some conditions – choose as many as these as you see fit

Everyone must touch the ball before scoring
Every person must score in a team before anyone scores a 2nd goal or point
Double the points for a successful Solo before a score
If one team is scoring all the points mix up the teams

6. Cool down and reflection (5 minutes)

Group discussion

What skill was the hardest to master?
What sport do you feel this was most similar to?
Would you like to play again or advance your skills to play Gaelic football more often?
If you have access to goals you could finish with a cross bar challenge – who can hit the cross bar from 7 to 10 metres away?

7. Optional Extras - if time and space allows or at another meeting

Introduce shadow tackling.
Watch highlights from and All Ireland Final or other match (can be found on media such as BBC iPlayer or on YouTube).
Learn about Refereeing signals for Gaelic football.
Run a min inter group tournament or even invite other groups from your District to a small tournament.
Find out about other sports under the GAA – such as Hurling or Camogie.
Find out about Hurling’s sister sport in Scotland – Shinty and the annual fixture which has a combined set of rules for Scotland to play Ireland.

Safety

All activities must be safely managed. You must complete a thorough risk assessment and take appropriate steps to reduce risk. Use the safety checklist to help you plan and risk assess your activity. Always get approval for the activity, and have suitable supervision and an InTouch process.

You must run your activities in line with the Safeguarding Code of Conduct for Adults (Yellow Card) and report any concerns to the UK HQ Safeguarding Team.

Outdoor activities: You must have permission to use the location. Always check the weather forecast, and inform parents and carers of any change in venue.
Contact games and activities: Make sure everyone understands what contact is acceptable, and monitor contact throughout the activity.
Active games: The game area should be free of hazards. Explain the rules of the game clearly and have a clear way to communicate that the game must stop when needed. Take a look at our guidance on running active games safely.

Make it accessible

All Scout activities should be inclusive and accessible.