On Wednesday December 7th pupils from St Augustine’s, Langton Green and St Matthew’s Primary Schools participated in a hockey workshop at St John’s Leisure Centre. The afternoon was organised by Chris MacDonald, supported by JSLA students from St Gregory’s School.

SSCo Tim Luck ran a series of drills to improve the children’s close control and their dribbling ability. The children were shown how to hold a hockey stick properly and how to control the ball at speed. Then they participated in dribbling exercises and practised turning with the ball.

The children were then shown how to do a push pass, and trap a ball that is passed to them. They then performed several drills to practice those skills.

Once the children had demonstrated that they had picked up some new skills they were given an opportunity to put them into practice in the form of small sided games. The children were split into three mixed groups and played against each other in some short games.

During this time the JSLA students came to the fore and took over the refereeing responsibilities. This was their first experience of running a game and they coped with it extremely well. These events are excellent opportunities for JSLA students to cut their teeth when it comes to coaching and working with younger children.

At the end of the session everyone agreed that it had been an engaging afternoon and all parties had learnt a variety of skills. It would be good to continue sessions such as these as the younger children benefit from experiencing a new sport and JSLA students get the opportunity to put their newly learnt coaching skills into practice.

Tim Luck
School Sports Coordinator