HERTFORDSHIRE HOCKEY

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HERTFORDSHIRE
HOCKEY /

2014-2015

JUNIOR ACADEMY CENTRE

PLAYERS GUIDE

Version 4.1

Date: January 28tht 2015

Simon Holloway

Hertfordshire Single System Administrator

County Welfare Officer

Home: +44 (0) 1394 384867

Mobile: +44 (0) 7973 712255

email:

Table of Content

Contents

The Single System

JUNIOR ACADEMY CENTRES (JACs)

Understanding JACs in Hertfordshire

JAC Venue Criteria

Funding for JACs

Management of the JDC and JAC Programmes

JAC Dates and Times

Clothing

The County website

Cancellation

Training Venues

JAC Competitions

Nomination to JRPC

Availability

Festival Hockey

Appendix 1: Clothing Advertisement

Appendix 2 EHB Core Skill

A.2.1Explanation of the Core skill - Outfield

A.2.2Explanation of the Core skill – Keepers

A.5.3Assessment Scoring

Appendix 3 Squads

A.3.1NAG Players

A.3.2 U17 Boys

A.3.3 U17 Girls

A.3.4. U16 Boys

A.3.5 U16 Girls

A.3.6 U15 Boys

A.3.7 U15 Girls

A.3.8 U14 Boys

A.3.9 U14 Girls

A.3.10 U13 Boys

A.3.11 U13 Girls

Appendix 4: JAC Lead Coaches

The Single System

England Hockey Board’s (EHB) Single System for the development of young hockey players in this country is now in it’sfifth year. This model was five years in the planning, piloted in 2008/09, and initially implemented in 2009/10. It is based on scientific research, or the Long Term Athlete Development Programme, which adopts a preparation, competition and recovery cyclical model of performance.

Figure 1: The EHB Single System

The Single System is a process of delivery with a structured pathway designed to enable, not just junior players, but coaches and officials, to fulfil their potential in an equitable, transparent and consistent manner across the country. It is designed to give equal opportunities and equity in coach delivery whether you live in Hertfordshire or any other part of the country. It is designed to ensure that suitable levels of coaching and competition are offered at appropriate stages of development to fulfil potential, be it as a club or International player, coach or official.

JUNIOR ACADEMY CENTRES (JACs)

This is the second step on the England Hockey Board’s developmental ladder and formerly county hockey. Nominated players from the JDCs will receive further coaching in the core skills and match play from qualified coaches with competition between the JACs within regions. JACs will run from January to May in a given season.

Hertfordshire are seeking to coach approximately 30 boys and 30 girls in the U13 and, U14and U15girls age groups, and approximately 24 boys and 24 girls in theU15 boys and U16 and U17 age groups in training squads. This season the U17 boys and girls championships have reverted to 2 competition dates.The first of these is a local festival and the second is finals day. The U16s have 3 competition days that count towards the East Championships. For the other 3 age groups U13, U14 and U15, there are 2 festival days when we will put out 2 squads and then a final championship day in which we will enter our best squad of 16 to 18 players.

Following the JAC programme, coaches will nominate players to attend assessments for the Junior Regional Performance Centres (JRPC’s), a sub-regional level of development for potential full regional players. Selection into the full regional squads will lead to participation in the High Performance Camps (HiPACs) for U15 and U17 and the Futures Cup for the U16 and U18 age groups.

Understanding JACs in Hertfordshire

JAC Venue Criteria

  • A minimum of one full sized floodlit water or sand dressed/based Astroturf pitch in a safe and secure environment.
  • Priority for county association bookings on dates specified in accordance with England Hockey Board’s Centralised Calendar.
  • Changing, shower and toilet facilities for boys and girls separately.

Funding for JACs

  • Hertfordshire Hockey Association fund the delivery of the JAC programmes in full through fees paid by selected players to cover pitch hire and coach appointments costs.
  • Hertfordshire Hockey Association offer reduced fees to players who are in financial difficulties. Applications must be made to the Single System Administrator in the first instances.

Management of the JDC and JAC Programmes

  • Hertfordshire Hockey Association will manage the JAC programme in their entirety through the appointed Single System Administrator. They will liaise with all JAC host centres and with all participating players and coaches directly.
  • Hertfordshire Hockey Association will manage the provision of coaches and the programmes used through the appointed Director of Coaching, whose duty will be to co-ordinate the delivery of the agreed programmes with the JAC Leaders across the County.
  • The Director of Coaching will be the point of contact for clubs and schools in the county concerning the JAC programmes.
  • There is an appointed County Welfare Officer for all JAC players.
  • The County will use the EHB system to make communications to players – therefore it is essential that players are registered on the system and in an “active” state.

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JAC Dates and Times

The Calendar for this JAC season is as shown below:

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Clothing

The County makes use of a facility offered by the Hockey Centre that allows you to order kit on-line. For JAC players, you are allocated a CountyShirt no. for life. The County recommend that the minimum kit to purchase is a county shirt and a pair of county socks. Boys can wear any dark navy shorts and girls can wear a dark navy skirt or skort (not shorts).For Goalkeepers there is a yellow smock. To order your kit please go to and click on the bottom button (Club Orders), then on the next screen click on the England Hockey logo and then finally on the next page you will see the HHA logo to click on. You will be asked for your shirt number, which you will find both in Appendix A of this document.

Players can wear any socks, shorts, skirt, skorts they like as long as they sky blue. We will use numbered bibs for every training session.

The process for ordering clothing online is as follows:

  1. Sign on to the Herts web site and scroll to the bottom and select the Hockey Centre

  1. When the Hockey Centre web site comes up move your cursor over “CLUB ORDERS” and then click on “County Regional National Hockey”

  1. Once the new screen is select the Herts Hockey under the County badge

  1. When next screen comes up select either “JDC” or “JAC”

The County website

All events and news are posted on the County web site ( In addition there are other details about JAC and other County activities to be found there.

Cancellation

In case of bad weather, please refer to this website and/or email that Single System Administrator may send. If in doubt please call your JAC Leader on their mobile number(please don’t call the Herts Administrator). Please bear in mind, pitch inspection on the day will only happen 30 minutes before a training session and if the JAC Leader is in transit (normally between 8am and 8.30 am) he/she will not answer his/her mobile until he/she reaches his/her destination. Please leave a message and the JAC Leader will get back to you in the case of bad weather.

Training Venues

DameAliceOwenSchool

Address: 1 Dugdale Hill Lane, Potters Bar, Hertfordshire EN6 2DU
Web site:

Haileybury Sports Complex

Address: Haileybury, Hertford, Hertfordshire SG13 7NU
Web site:

The Noble School

Address:Mobbsbury Way, Stevenage, Herts, SG2 0HS

Web site:

Oaklands College (St. Albans H.C.)

After entering the college campus on South Drive, turn right behind the college buildings into East Drive and follow the signs to the hockey pitches.

Address: East Drive, Oaklands College Hatfield Road, St Albans, AL4 0JA

Web Site:

Queenswood School

On entering the school follow the signs to the right to the pitch. Please park in the car park and not in the sort road leading to the pitch.

Address: Shepherd's Way, BrookmansPark, Hatfield, Hertfordshire AL9 6NS
Web site:

Turnford School and Sports College

On entering the school, turn left through a gateway between the school and some outbuilding to enter the Netball courts in front of the pitch. You can park here.

Address: Mill Lane, Cheshunt, Hertfordshire EN8 0JU
Web site:

JAC Competitions

For U13, U14 and U15 age groups the first 2 competition dates will be festival type events. This will allow some of the Counties that in the past have not had very strong teams to take part in the JAC competition phase. In Herts, we will be running 2 teams for these 2 events. How these teams are constituted is up to the JAC Leader (unless there is a directive from the Director of Coaching).The final competition event will be for the Championship and Counties will select their best squads to play on this day.Herts will aim for this competition to have a squad of 16 outfield players and 2 keepers plus 2 non-travelling reserves (I should say non-playing to be more accurate as we would encourage these players to come).

The U16 and U17 squads are smaller and given that this is the same in other Counties we will operate our standard “Core 8 ” policy. What this means is that the JAC coaching team will identify during the training sessions a core set of players who will be the spine of the team. This “Core 8” will be asked to play on all competition days. The remaining players in the JAC squad will be grouped into 8’s as well and each of these other 8’s will play with the core 8 on at least one competition day. For the U16’s on the festival day we will put out 2 teams.

Nomination to JRPC

At the end of the JAC season comes the JAC Coaching teams for U14, U15, U16 and U17 will be completing a players JAC Assessment Report and looking at whether a player meets the requirements for nomination to JRPC. The Regional Performance Centre is the next step on the hockey elite ladder.

To be nominated for JRPC, the County JAC coaching team will be looking at players who have attained average JAC Assessment mark of between 3 (JAC Standard) and 4 (Above JAC Standard). Players with a JAC mark very close to 3 may also be considered for nomination but supporting comments will be required from the JAC Coaching team. This will be completed using the EHB Online Registration system by the JAC Lead Coach. Guidance on completing the form can be sort from the Director of Coaching. All Assessment Reports will then be reviewed by Director of Coaching before the results are released to JAC players to view, and also before they are sent to the East Performance Director. These nominations need to be sent by May 18th. The East JRPC Committee will assess nominations in line with coaches and invitations will be sent out to successful players by 30th May by eMail.

There are 2 locations in the East:

  • Northwood - this is based at Merchant Taylors Ground.
  • Bury - this is based at CulfordSchool.
Nomination Process to JRPC

The steps involved in the nomination to JAC are as follows:

  1. The Lead Coach, or a member of the coaching team assess, each player at each session. The County supply an Excel spreadsheet which contains the player’s name and their bib number and colour to help the coaching team carry out the assessment.
  2. The Excel spreadsheet will then generate an average score for each player for the whole of the season. The Lead Coach reviews these average marks and rounds up or down to make a whole number as the EHB system only acceptance scores of 1, 2, 3 or 4. In the vast majority of cases the score is rounded up, there are guidelines issued to the Coaches on how to use their discretion.
  3. The comments from all the sessions are then used to produce the JAC Areas of Strength, Areas for Development and General Comments.
  4. The comments and scores are then entered into the EHB system and then signed off by the Lead Coach. The Director of Coaching then carries out a review of the JAC report for all players. If necessary he may refer back to a coach a report for some further explanation or if he is happy, he will mark the assessment as complete.
  5. When an assessment report for a JAC group is marked as complete the system then sends an email to each player in that group to say the report is available to be read.
  6. When Director of Coaching marks an assessment as complete, he will send the Single System Administrator an email to let him know the names of the players who are to be nominated to the next stage. The Single System Administrator will then send the relevant yes or no email concerning nomination to JRPC and complete the return for the East of the Herts nominations. The former email is done through the EHB system using the contact system, which means that all correspondence is marked against a player.
  7. On receipt of the JAC report, players and parents can post a comment, which will be fed back to the lead coach. Or alternatively, contact can be made to the CountyWelfare officer. If the contact comes through to County Welfare Offices it is treated as an appeal against the assessment.
JAC Assessment Appeal Process

Step 1:If a player does not agree with the assessment marks given to him/her, then the first step is to contact the JAC Lead Coach through the comment capability on the EHB system. This means that that the comments are registered on the EHB system. It is incumbent on the JAC Lead Coach to reply to these comments (The EHB system will send an email to him/her to say there is a comment for him to review).

Step 2:If no reply is received or the reply still does not satisfy the player, then the next step is to email the County Welfare Officer (). Please provide the following information:

  • A copy of all correspondence with the JAC Lead Coach
  • A copy of the relevant JAC report

In the email please state the reasons for going to appeal (i.e. what is it you do not agree with or are unhappy about. The County Welfare Officer on receiving this information will make contact initially by email and then by phone to talk to the player. This is to provide him with more detail before the internal review.

The internal review now takes place. Here the County Welfare Officer and The Director of Coaching review the JAC Report in the context of the rest of the squad. They will contact the JAC Lead Coach and other members of the coaching team to get their views. Either the Director or the Welfare Officer will contact the player by phone and discuss the result of the review.

Availability

It is the responsibility of the Player and his/her family to inform their respective JAC Leader of their availability. This is particularly important for the JAC Competition dates. The County would recommend that you enter all the JAC dates in to your own calendars and where you identify issues to let your JAC Leader know as soon as possible.

Festival Hockey

Hertfordshire will continue to offer to its U16 and U17 JAC boys and girls the chance to take part in festival hockey. In the past the U16/17 boys and last year the girls have gone to the Weymouth Festival at Easter and for the last 2 years U16/17 Mixed team took part in the Berkhamsted & Hemel Hempstead Mixed Festival.

Appendix 1: Clothing Advertisement

The Hockey Centre

01727 226128

200 Beech Road, St Albans, AL3 5AX

ORDER ONLINE FOR YOUR JAC SHIRTS, HOODIES, RAIN JACKETS

Go to to Club Orders, to County, Regional National Hockey, to Hertfordshire, then to JDC

Garments are printed to order and will be posted out to you. You can pick Goods up from St Albans if you wish. We collect from the shop once a week and when we have them we will contact you to arrange a collection time

Please note that for the items above have to be ordered online no stock is kept in St Albans!!

Do you need a new stick, shoes, hockey shinpads (not football ones!), glove, gumshield, water bottle,

kitbag?

Go to “Hockey” on and select what you need and add to the cart

OR

If you would like advice and an opportunity to have a look at sticks and try on shoes etc. then ring us, or e mail, to arrange a time to come over. As we work from home, after school and evening appointments are available.

PLEASE RING 01727 226128 OR EMAIL:

Philippa and John Hurst

Appendix 2 EHB Core Skill

A.2.1Explanation of the Core skill - Outfield

  • Winning Mentality (coach-ability): the desire to be successful, a willingness to listen and to try to apply coach input.
  • Speed: raw speed over 5-25metres
  • Agility: the ability to change direction very quickly with good control, footwork and balance
  • Endurance: the ability to perform high intensity work for a prolonged period of time
  • Comfort on the Ball: this includes ball carry position, close skills, first touch, and ball retention techniques such as V drags and Roll-outs.
  • Hit: the ability to hit with power, pace, consistency, use of correct grip and ball carry position in relation to body
  • Passing: the ability to see passes and to execute with a range of skills e.g. long hit, push pass plus push pass on the move
  • 1v1 Elimination: the ability to beat a player and break a line with evidence of change of pace and good angles of running
  • Attacking Circle work: awareness and use of space, understanding of deflections and second phase, body positioning etc
  • Defending: evidence of defending skills and responsibilities relevant to your position
  • Mental toughness: evidence of error recovery, ability to stay in the game and concentrate, not over react etc
  • Game Intellect & decision making: evidence of understanding of shape, system, use of space, coach-ability, recognition of core game principles-e.g. when to stretch v. when to post up; when to hold space v. when to step up and how frequently the player makes the right decisions
  • Additional Core skills: reverse stick hit, aerial ball and Penalty Corner Attack roles- injection, trap, drag/strike,

A.2.2Explanation of the Core skill – Keepers