Kids taught new skills at blitzes

Blitzing it: St Colum’s U10 hurlers travelled to Ballineen on Saturday to take part in their first hurling blitz of the year. They played opposition from Clonakilty, Kilbrittain and Bandon.

THE first of the monster hurling blitzes was held in Ballineen last Saturday morning when the U10 hurlers took to the field.

Each team played three games (ten minutes a half) with players rotating to different positions in the team in every game.

A new feature of the monster blitzes this year is that a different skill is coached at half time in the second game. Last Saturday the skill was striking off the hand on the player’s non-dominant side.

Each player had two strikes of the sliotar from 15 feet from the goal, scores were not kept, and this shows where the player is at in terms of skill development. The players will be retested in the next U10 hurling blitz in a month’s time.

Next Saturday it’s the turn of the U8 hurlers, with a blitz in Kilmeen. The skill of the day will be striking off the ground on your non-dominant side.

The Cork U15 squad travelled to New Ross last Friday to take on Wexford in two games, and they came home with two good wins with some great football being played by both A and B teams.

On the U15 squad from West Cork were Mathew Bushe (Ilen Rovers), Fionn Herlihy (Sam Maguires), Gavin O’Connell (Bandon), Jamie O’Neill (Urhan), Neil O’Sullivan (Adrigole) and Darragh McElhinney (Glengarriff).

This squad’s next big day is an All-Ireland tournament in Kildare where they will play Mayo, Dublin, Meath and Kildare, which will give be a great experence to these young players. A panel of 48 players will be named in each squad, in U14, U15 and U16, in both hurling and football, for their respective summer tournaments.

There will be primary school hurling blitzes held in centres around West Cork, starting in Clonakilty on April 21st, in Skibbereen on April 23rd and Bantry on April 24th. This is for third and fourth clases with schools being emailed with dates and times.