Photo courtesy of Colm Walsh.
They also realised that you needed to be very fit to play
the game. This was a shock to some of their systems!
WHAT WAS THE LEARNING CURVE LIKE?
Some of the students were good straight away. These
were ones who had played sports before. Others were a bit
slower but there was a marked improvement by the end
of the eight weeks. Semester two in the Spring of this year
saw new students sign up again so the popularity of Gaelic
football was growing in BDIC.
DID YOU PLAY ANY MATCHES BEFORE THE
ALL CHINA GAMES IN JUNE?
Yes, before the All China Games we invite the students to
our “Gaelic Football Family Fun Day”. This was a day out
to introduce Gaelic Games to the Beijing Community. We
played a number of matches and the students played as a
team against members of our club and we also mixed them
in with other teams. It was a great experience for them.
Closer to the games, once the squad had been selected, we
invited them to Beijing GAA training. This again helped
them with match practice and also made them feel part of
the club.
WERE THE STUDENTS EXCITED BEFORE THE
EVENT?
Extremely excited. They knew that they were representing BDIC and also Beijing GAA. They were very
proud that they were going to be the first Chinese
Gaelic football team to ever participate at the All China
Games. Everyone in the club was excited especially all
the coaches as the number of people involved in the
coaching had now grown from two to ten.
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