Where young players soar
Hawks Junior Hockey Academy
Hawks Academy is designed to develop the personal skills and confidence of young people in hockey.
Members of our club receive some of the best junior hockey coaching available and our club activity is designed to give players the ability to play in Hawks Teams and compete while having fun as part of a club environment.
Our academy offering is available as an additional hockey environment for juniors looking to achieve a number of personal development goals. The snippets below explain who the academy is aiming to help and why.
Performance Players
Players showing high-potential at Hockey from the age of 12 upwards, start to have opportunity to try challenging external “pathway” environments.
County Hockey, Talent Academy and even National Age Group teams, might be a level certain players want, and are able, to take attend to take their hockey to the top of the game.
Supporting members with these aspirations, the Hawks Hockey Academy often focuses on “Performance Players” to increase the chance of success in the pursuit of being selected for these “pathways”.
Developing Players
Not everyone is ready to be a “performance” player, but some would like to be.
We believe every young person has potential to improve and those who are super keen on hockey but just need some fine tuning, we describe as “developing players”.
It might be the case that these young people want to break in to an “A-Team” or that they just want to develop more confidence in their current team.
The Hawks Academy often focuses on these players, giving them a small program to help their individual development.
The academy uses multiple formats to help progress players personal abilities. These include:
Outdoor Academy
Using the outside pitch at Worth School, the outdoor Hawks academy gives participants the opportunity to hone core and more advanced skills.
Lead coach, Calum Giles, knows that technical understanding and then relentless practice is the only way to master one of the complex skills involved in playing hockey.
Calum will lead our outdoor academy and each term will focus on a few of these core skills, and give coached practice to the academy participants, aiming to help them master the skill.
These skills are always often part of normal club activity, but there is not always time to apply the level of focus to master them.
Indoor Academy
Using the indoor sports hall at Copthorne Prep School, the indoor Hawks academy will use the pace and small courts of indoor hockey to stretch core skills in academy participants.
Our indoor academy is designed and run by one of the countries most experienced coaches, Sue Perry, and the purpose of these sessions is to give experience to our academy players of the indoor environment.
It is well known that playing indoor hockey, hones skills like receiving, carrying and passing because the ball moves much quicker over short distances. Players reactions need to be sharp and in turn their ability to execute important hockey skills, increases.
Plus, it’s great fun (and dry).
Players are picked to play attend the academy’s outdoor or indoor sessions based on a combination of age, ability or experience, from the current pool of academy players.
You don’t choose which, we perscribe the appropriate session based on the half-term ahead of us. But all academy participants will have a taste of both formats over a 2-term period.
How to take part in the Hawks Academy
Hawks academy activity is available to Hawks Club members and invited guests.
Club members will receive information via email and our MyClubHouse system on how to take part.
Guests will be invited. If you would like to be considered, please email: hello@hawkshockeyclub.org.uk