Colts Keeping Busy During Lockdown 2.0

Our coaches have been coming up with creative ways to help SHC junior players stay connected and continue to develop during the latest lockdown.

We are conscious that many of our Colts won’t have access to hockey at school during this window and we know that SHC plays a big part in the physical and mental health of all of our young players. Our Colts coaches have been busy coming up with an array of challenges, tasks and videos to help their teams stay fit, active and engaged with one another while we can’t get out on the pitch together!

Here’s a few examples of what the Colts are up to…

• ‘The Two Lils’, (the GU14 Magpies / Harriers coaches) are doing a brilliant job of keeping their players engaged with weekly Zoom calls, each of which include a tactical discussion, physical challenge and a quiz or game. This week they will be covering strategies on attacking positioning in the D, as well as a squat challenge and a game ‘Which Lil?’. Sounds like fun…
• The GU14 Wrens and Eagles are taking on a hockey specific self-awareness task. Each SHC player has been matched up with an international player (from teams as varied as Australia, Netherlands, GB, USA and New Zealand) who has a similar playing style or position. Our girls will each do a mini project on their assigned player, researching their experience, strengths and development areas in relation to their own game – it should be fascinating.
• Inspirational Girls U10 lead coach Issy is also leading weekly Zoom calls with her young players for online quizzes and skills challenges. The GU10 have already tried out some 3D skills and are being asked to send in videos of them trying out each challenge. Well done girls!
• The Girls U12 groups and the Boys U14s are taking on weekly skills challenges, scoring points for completing the skills videos set by super coaches Tarek, Fred and Frankie. They’re even trying to replicate skills videos of some of the Men’s 1s players. So far we’ve seen keepy ups, drags and goalie specific reaction challenges…
• As well as completing their own weekly mini hockey challenges, the U10 Boys are also looking to the future, with coaches Billy and Max talking to the group about their experiences as Colts and senior players at Surbiton, and what to expect as you progress through the age groups at the club. This is a really valuable learning activity and it’s great to see the coaches drawing on their own experiences to help the boys learn more about hockey at SHC.
• Meanwhile, our Boys U16 group have been set a 5k running challenge. Can any of them beat their coach and Men’s first team star Ben Boon?! The race is on…

Well done to all the players and coaches for their hard work on this. Keep it going everyone!