The last few weekends we saw the St Brendan’s u-7s take another big step forward as they donned their helmets and grabbed a hurl for the first time. I had been told repeatedly by our GPO Christian and other mentors in the club that “the kids will absolutely love the hurling training” but I hadn’t really been convinced. In my mind it is so much more technical, there are more moving pieces and surely it would be harder to learn. But wasn’t I wrong. You could see the excitement on their little faces despite the piercing cold on that Saturday morning in Grangegorman. It was interesting to see how much attention they paid to Christian as he showed them how to grip the hurl and change their stance. They were almost delirious with happiness when they saw the rope with sliotars on it that they could belt to their hearts content. It shows yet again how even little seven year olds can turn their hands to new skills very quickly – like ducks to water.