Some of our kids’ team travelled to the Shamrock Cup in Blanchardstown last weekend to take on some of the best kids in Ireland.

We had competitors from Peewees, Juveniles and Juniors, with some of the guys taking home silverware in all of the divisions, while others narrowly missed out.

But the most important thing is that our kids go in, shake the referee’s hand, behave as great sportsmen and sportswomen, and have a good time.

Medals are great, but so is testing your skills, overcoming your nerves, and having the resilience to get up and start again.

We use competition at underage level as a tool for self-improvement, not as a means in and of itself. Our job is to get the kids into competition, have them face their fears, manage their nerves, challenge themselves, and try to put their own game plan into action.

Once we’re done, it’s about a smile, a handshake for the referee, and thanking your coaches for their hard work. That’s our goal.

Some of our standout performers included Louie, who overcame a very difficult first match to take the gold.

Oliver, who picked up a small injury in training the week before, showed real grit and delivered an outstanding performance.

While we can’t all pick up medals all of the time, the important thing is that we’re challenging ourselves and putting ourselves to the test.

We’re absolutely delighted with the kids from Saturday.

If you have any more photos from the event, send them — we’d love to see them.

Of course, we were really busy coaching and running around the place! We’re not always able to stop and pose for photos, or even get pictures of all of the kids.

That’s one of the hardest parts of competition — not being able to enjoy ourselves as much as we’d like!

But we absolutely love watching the kids, coaching them, and seeing them put all of their hard work into action.

Thank you so much to all the parents who support their kids and who support our goals. We’re all on the same journey, and it’s always great to have such fantastic parental and family support.

See you on the mat!