A Young Person & Parent’s Guide
Shefford & Sandy Hockey Club 2015/16
Welcome to our friendly family-orientated and competitive
hockey club. We hope you will enjoy your time with us - improve
your hockey, make friends and have fun.
Training: Tuesdays from 8th September 2015 to Easter 2016
Tuesdays 6.15-7.30pm for JHA and 6.30-7.30pm for Minis.
Mini hockey (ages 5 to about 10 years old) runs on the right hand side of the pitch.
JHA (Junior Hockey Academy – ages 11 to 15 years old) runs on the left hand side.
We select the groups with age and ability in mind. After a few weeks the Minis and JHA will be split into further smaller groups to promote skill development and enjoyment. Friendship groups will be considered if changes are needed. If you are unhappy with your child’s group please talk to Tessa.
All juniors who are playing in a senior league team are also invited to attend senior club training on Tuesdays from 7.30-8.30pm.
We train whatever the weather EXCEPT when the pitch is frozen. Please check our website/facebook/your email for training cancellations.
Junior friendlies and tournaments .
We arrange friendlies on Sunday mornings for every age group – this means that your child will be invited to play matches against other clubs every 2-4 weeks from October to Easter.Our juniors all have the opportunity to play in local club tournaments, which operate monthly during the season. These are on Sundays.
It is the parents’ responsibility to make arrangements for travel to/from activities outside of training and also to be present during the events. The coaches attending are not child carers and are attending as coaches – often with their own children.
Senior Teams
Unlike many other sports hockey encourages juniors and senior players to be in the same team. Once a junior is 13 years old they can be selected to play in a senior team. If your child would like to play in a senior team please discuss this with Tessa.Sometimes our coaches will suggest a 13 year old waits a few months until they are ready to play senior hockey.
We have 4 ladies teams and 4 men’s teams.
County selection
S&SHC will recommend juniors to attend selection days for Bedfordshire County Hockey teams. In 2014/15 we had more than 14 of our juniors playing for Bedfordshire County Teams and 4 went on to Regional Hockey training centres.
Selection for County starts on the 5/6th September 2015 this year. Again talk to Tessa is you have any queries.
Safety when playing hockey:
SHIN PADS are an essential piece of protection and players will be refused training and matches if they are not wearing them. Football ones are OK but once players are in adult teams proper hockey shin pads should be worn. We have emergency spares.
GUM SHIELDS: We ask that all of our older players ( JHA - left hand side of the pitch) have a gum shield with them at training. The coach will pause before match play to allow gum shields to be fetched and worn.
Our mini hockey (right hand side of the pitch) should also have gum shields for matches.
We appreciate that gum shields can be very uncomfortable and often fit poorly. However a gum shield that is falling out is little use if a stick or ball does impact the face. Gum shields need to fit the teeth snugly and still allow the child to speak and breath (!). Shop bought ones that are heated up at home to shape to the teeth can work well or a more expensive (but very good) alternative is OPRO Hi impact £39.45 Sometimes dentists do good prices too.
GLOVES: Not essential but a sensible bit of protective kit as young people progress to adult teams.
Suppliers for hockey kit online include:
Sports
Suppliers on kit via a local shop include:-
Limitz in Bedford
Propshop in Hitchin
Term dates: Our junior training take a break at half terms and over the Christmas holidays. Our season finishes at Easter.
Coaches: Your regular coaching team is made up of qualified and volunteer coaches. We encourage our young adult players to get involved with coaching the juniors and this also helps when they move up to senior teams. Our Head Coach is Doug Dawson and Tessa Chiswell is the Juniors Coordinator. We have red coach kit so we are easily identifiable.
Dropping off and collecting your children: Please can all children be brought into the pitch area by an adult and signed in at the desk. Also all children need to be collected from the pitch itself as the car park is busy at 7.30pm.
Membership Cost:£50 for the season. Sibling discount of £5 for additional children from same family. Please pay by the end of September - cheques made payable to Shefford and Sandy Hockey Club or pay online. All juniors must complete a ‘Junior (U18s) membership form 2015/6’.
Content of training sessions: At Shefford and Sandy Hockey club we recognise that young players are the future of our club and we hope to engage them all in fun and effective training. We use the England Hockey recommended training programmes of Quicksticks and In2hockey.
Website : If you have not joined our website yet then please do so - there are lots of interesting news items on there and your child will have their fixtures posted here. We also use this database for our website generated emails. We have an active facebook group (SheffordandSandyHockey) that you are very welcome to join.
Discipline: Hockey can be a dangerous sport when people do not pay attention to their coaches and the other players. To avoid injury we therefore operate a ‘card’ system for unacceptable behaviour: Green = a warning; Yellow = 5 minutes out of the session, Red = removal from the session and a one week ban from training and junior matches. We ask parents to support our coaches in this.
for players and supporters: The club has clear expectations of how our members (Players and supporters/ parents) will behave. This is in the form of a Code of Conduct. Please read this with your child to ensure they understand.
Code of conduct for junior members:
- Treat everyone how you would like to be treated - never deliberately upset a team-mate or someone in your training group, even if they have made a mistake.
- Always listen carefully to what your coach is asking you to do, particularly when they are talking about safety.
- Always compete within the rules, and respect officials and their decisions.
- Always respect opponents, and applaud good performances whether by your own team or by the opposition.
- Never use bad language while training or competing.
- Always tell your coach if you have an injury or feel unwell.
- Keep to agreed timings for training and competition. (Please inform your coach / team manager if you are going to be late or unavailable).
- If you have to leave a training session / competition early, make sure that you have told your coach or team manger.
- Be responsible for bringing to sessions and wearing suitable kit (including protective equipment e.g. shin pads, gum shields, gloves, etc) for training and competition, as agreed with your coach / team manager.
- Do not smoke or take alcohol or drugs of any kind on the club premises or while representing the club at competitions.
Code of conduct for parents/carers
- Support your child to arrive on time and properly equipped for all practices and matches.
- Encourage your child to learn the rules and play by them.
- Discourage unfair play and arguing with officials.
- Help your child to recognize good performance, not just results.
- Never force your child to take part in sport.
- Set a good example by recognizing fair play and applauding all good performances .
- Never punish or belittle a child for losing or making mistakes.
- Publicly accept official’s judgments.
- Support your child’s involvement and help them enjoy their sport.
- Use correct and proper language at all times.
Child protection:If you or your child are worried at any time about bullying, name calling or any other unacceptable behavior please contact our Welfare Officer right away. Your officer is Tessa Chiswell. . 07787 970810.
Further info about our policies are available under CLUBS FIRST documents on our website.
(official site)
(casual chat site)
twitter.com/sheffordsandyhockey