Dear Parents/Girls/Boys
It is September already. Where has the time gone? We hope that you have had a good summer and are desperate to start playing hockey again. We changed the format of the training last year to try to improve the quality of the coaching that we gave to your children and hopefully increase their enjoyment. The aims that we stated last year were
“To develop children, players, between the ages of 7 and 17 in the in the game of hockey. To improve equally the skills of all players, whatever their standard.”
These remain our aims but we have spent a long time discussing how we can improve again this year. New for this year, we will be moving towards grouping children by ability within broad age categories as this will allow us to better tailor the coaching to the group as a whole and to each child. To start this off, we plan to spend the first three weeks of the season assessing the groups. Following this the broad age category will still train as a group at the same time, but within we will split into ability sessions. We will be continually assessing the children and their performances compared to their peers. This assessment exercise will particularly apply across the age bands from 7 to 11 and (girls) 12 to 14, when they start 11-a-side and which experience shows is too early for some.
In addition, we are introducing a new boys side, the Badgers, which will be a mixture of our older boys together with some of our more experienced (ie older!) men. This side will play on Saturdays as part of the main club and we hope will aid the development of this group and the transition to adult hockey.
Coaches
We are very pleased that Sarah White will again lead the coaching programme which will be delivered by our enthusiastic band of assistant coaches, all volunteers. We have also retained the services of Paul King who will oversee the boys training and games on Sundays, as well as captaining the Badgers side on Saturdays.
As always we welcome any additional support. The role of an assistant is mostly to do with control and ensuring the players follow the coach and less to do with hockey knowledge and skill. All parents are therefore well qualified! We also always welcome assistance for almost anything, from managing (not coaching) any of the teams, to running (or helping) with the refreshments for our Christmas and end of season tournaments. Just ask, we will find something!
Subscriptions
We will again have two paid coaches to deliver the hockey and in addition a goalkeeper coach to provide some sessions for us this year. However, we have been able to balance the costs better than we expected and the increase is lower than we indicated last year; we have only increased the subs by £10 this year. Details can be found on the attached sheet.
Important Dates
We will be holding our popular Christmas and end of season tournaments at our clubhouse in Woodcote Road, on 12 December and 10 April. Details will follow; please put the dates in your diaries.
NEW - Registration evening
As you may appreciate, there is a considerable amount of information we have to obtain and/or update each year. As a new venture we will be holding a registration session this year on Tuesday 14 September (6-7.30pm) and Wednesday 15th September (6-7pm) at Epsom Hockey Club in Woodcote Road. You will be able to pay your subs and check/confirm the personal details that we currently hold. You will also be able to buy kit and try on the new lines that we are selling to ensure the right size. This will enable us to get the majority of the paperwork out of the way so that we can concentrate on the hockey on Sundays. It is not compulsory, but really would help.
We look forward to seeing you all over the coming season and at registration!
Best wishes
Mark Sydenham and Richard Skinner
CLICK HERE FOR FURTHER INFORMATION
