Raharney camogie player recruits 'Cúchulainn' to combat teen sport dropout
A St Joseph’s Rochfortbridge student has turned to engineering to solve a growing crisis in Irish sport: the teenage dropout rate.
Raharney camogie player and sixth year student, Aoibheann Murray of Kinnegad has spent two years developing ‘Cúchulainn’, an innovative training device designed to keep hurlers and camogie players engaged through a system of “external rewards”.
The project was born out of a stark statistic. “One in five teenagers drop out of sport,” the student explained during the Young Scientist exhibition. “I wanted to solve this dilemma by increasing their motivation and performance.”
Her solution, named after the legendary Irish hero, is a mechanical training partner that rewards accuracy with instant gratification.
The device features a coloured target panel that is mounted in the top corner of standard GAA goals. When a player successfully strikes the panel with a sliotar, the mechanism is triggered.
“Once this panel has been tilted, a sliotar is launched out to you as a reward,” Aoibheann explained. “It frees another sliotar, and that is launched out… it increases their motivation.”
She designed and built the machine herself over the last two years, utilising her school’s 3D printers and laser cutters with the support of teachers Eoghan Dunbar and Alan Maloney.
Aoibheann didn’t just stop at the prototype, as she took ‘Cúchulainn’ on the road to some of Westmeath’s most prominent clubs, and tested it with 80 teenagers at Raharney, Ringtown, Crookedwood, and Delvin.
“I got a brilliant response,” she said. “Motivation and performance increased in each of those clubs.”
Despite the advanced engineering involved, Aoibheann was determined to keep the device accessible for local communities. “I tried to get it as cost-effective as possible so that every club would be able to afford it. It cost around €150 to make.”
With a passion for engineering and technical drawing, Aoibheann hopes to pursue these subjects at university after her Leaving Cert, while, of course, keeping up with her camogie commitments.