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How To Start A Hurling Club In America

What are the rules of hurling?

Basic rules of hurling via Regulators Hurling Club, Denver, CO, USA

Hurling Skills

  • I created a few tutorials on the basics of hurling on my YouTube channel: 

What equipment is used in hurling?

Championship Sliotars Size 5 | Play Hurling Logo
Hurling Equipment

For equipment, I’d advise using synthetic sticks rather than ash as they last longer in the varied temperatures. Reynolds, Cultec, and iHurl are the major players in the synthetic hurl space. If you’re interested in Reynolds, check out playhurling.com/shop or email [email protected] for bulk order information.

How to register a new hurling club in America?

  • The USGAA is the governing board for hurling in the US, excluding New York.
  • With regards to registering with the USGAA, I’d suggest to gain some traction first to justify the cost. Set a benchmark for 13 people showing up on a regular basis and then look into registering. It’s a chicken and egg situation, but having a regular schedule will get more people out.
  • Here’s more info on registering with the USGAA when you feel ready: https://usgaa.org/starting-a-club/

How to promote hurling in America?

hurling clubs near me US Canada
130+ Hurling Clubs in USA and Canada
  • When choosing a name, I’d suggest going with something simple like “[YOUR CITY] Hurling Club”, that way people can easily find it online. Choosing a name in Irish is great for preserving the history, but often it excludes the general masses and limits membership to only Irish-born and Irish-American. The same goes for a name with Saint or Gaels in it. Americans may be put off joining if they have no Irish heritage. With the name, I’d suggest choosing something that anybody could pronounce and understand.
  • Once you’ve decided on a name, claim the usernames for Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. And if you can, buy a .com. If you have a .edu email address, you can buy a .com on Namecheap (https://nc.me/) for about $5 for the first year. If not, Wix is the easiest thing, which I think is about $11 for the year.
  • A logo can be either designed yourself using Inkscape or if you’re not into that, get someone on Fiverr to design it for you.
  • Next, start building your Facebook page. You can manually invite all your friends to like the page, or use this script to do it automatically (when I started my page a few years ago, I used a similar script, but I haven’t tested out this one, but it appears to be legit).
    • Every training and match, create a Facebook event and make sure to take photos and tag people so their friends will see. It takes some time to get going, but it’s well worth it when it does!
    • You can also get a sign printed at Staples to explain what hurling is for people passing by. If you’re looking for a customized hurling sign, get in touch for a template that is currently used by Tampa Bay GAA, Charleston Hurling Club, and Play Hurling Los Angeles.
  • For training, liability insurance can be costly. It’s up to you, but I’d advise creating a waiver like this one: https://playhurling.com/esign/
    • Feel free to copy and paste and change the wording as you see fit.

Set a goal for at least 12 months

  • Lastly, set a goal to work towards. Like setting a challenge match against the nearest team (you can find here) or preparing for a tournament (like the West Coast Sevens). This will give people who show up something to work towards, and they’ll likely keep showing up.
  • Keeping the faith is 90% of the battle. It’s definitely worth giving it a go for at least a year to see how the turnout is and then adjust from there. 

Anything I missed?

Get in touch and I’ll add it to the list: [email protected]

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