When is the season? It starts in September, and runs until the end of March, with breaks for half terms and in the school holidays. All training and fixtures are communicated on our club app, Pitchero.

Do I need experience to join? No; we welcome players of all abilities
How do I register my player? To come along, you need to register on our website using the Join button on the top right corner. You need to register and request the role of parent, adding your child. Please also add them as a player to the relevant age group for boys or girls (e.g. Girls’ u10 group) - this covers all teams within the age group. Once your request is approved you must log back in and add their details. It’s a two step process.

I can’t see how to add my child, what do I do? You need to be logged in, and go to ‘Your Account’. You then select ‘Manage Roles’ where you can request the role of Parent and add your child as a new member there, add them to the relevant age group, and then submit for approval. Once approved you need to log back in and take five minutes to add all their details.

How competitive is the club/ opps for beginners/ opps for strong players? We aim to be an inclusive club and ALL players are given match opportunities, at the most appropriate levels available. We have a thorough approach to our youth training programme, and also follow the Talent Club Player Pathway, enabling us to help all players develop at the right time and place for them.

Can my child play in the age group above/ below? We generally encourage players to stay in the age group appropriate for their date of birth.
Playing the age group below can be achieved with special dispensation from England Hockey in certain circumstances. Please speak to the coaches if you need your player to do this.
Playing in the age group above is something we will only encourage if we think it is appropriate for the person and players’ development, as we want players to enjoy being with their peers, develop in an appropriate social environment and develop skills through the coaching programme. However, there are occasionally opportunities to play ‘up’ at certain times if the coaches feel it is appropriate. It is entirely at the club’s discretion, and the coaching decision is final.

Are your coaches trained in dealing with ADHD/autism? This is an area of development for our coaches at this stage. However, our coaches have a wealth of experience over many years, and are also passionate about each players individual’s experience and how we can support them best. Please speak to our age group lead coaches to discuss the needs and best techniques to support your child.
If your child has more additional needs then we would strongly recommend our Flyerz Hockey programme, details can be found here. These are weekly sessions which may be positive first-look and experience of hockey with additional support. We have cases then of Flyerz players transitioning into the age group sessions, and playing/training with both teams.

When can my child go for county/TA? We are part of the Hertfordshire County Hockey structure, nominations are in September of each season. Our Talent Academy players attend Old Loughtonians or Hampstead and Westminster HC mainly, nominations for assessment happen twice a year in August and April. To find out more about the GB Talent System please see our Talent Centre Information.

Can I play hockey with my child? If you would like to be a parent helper or assistant coach, even if it is ad hoc, please let us know! We are always happy to welcome more volunteers, please message Lucy Briscoe our Head of Coaching Development here.
Additionally, while younger children are settling into the sport, we are always happy for parents to be involved, but they do need to be respectful of the coaches and the other players at all times.

My child cannot be with “x” - they don’t get on. We know that some children can have tricky relationships with others, but with such a large youth section it is very difficult to guarantee your child being separated from someone they don’t get on with. We also encourage them to view hockey as a different environment where relationships can develop differently and encourage the learning process of working with different people in different environments towards a common goal.

The main thing is it's supposed to be fun! That doesn’t mean that it won’t be tiring and challenging at times (learning new skills can be hard and running to improve your speed or fitness can be exhausting). But above all hockey should be enjoyable. Please read the Spirit of Hockey document here which helps explain more about expectations for kids and parents of those playing hockey.

Training

All training timings and days can be found here.

How do we know which pitch do we go to? When you arrive at St Albans HC someone will be able to direct you to the right area of the pitch for your age group, and one of the coaches or assistant coaches will be on hand to ensure your player is comfortable with the set up.

You should arrive 10 minutes before the session. Any individual warm-ups/stretching should be done before this time; the session should start promptly.

Goalkeepers - For U10 and above matches are played with goalkeepers. We will not be able to field a GK for all teams if multiple teams are entered for a tournament.
The club has GK kit which can be borrowed for training. It should be returned to the correct bag and returned to the container where it was found after the training/fixture. There will be training sessions to encourage players to try goalkeeping during the season (if they are interested - this is not compulsory!). Those who wish to play as a GK full time may do so. Please speak to the coaches if you are interested in this.

Purpose of Matches & Competition

Matches are a chance to learn about competition; both competing at hockey, but playing as a team, what it’s like to win, and lose, how to be gracious in defeat and victory and importantly learn to focus on the process and self-development, trying to put training concepts into action. In the majority of matches we will prioritise distribution of playing time and learning opportunities, rather than the pursuit of victory. That means that players may be asked to play different positions and rotate off the pitch to learn to watch and learn, whilst also learning different perspectives in different positions.

Availability - Training & Fixtures

Training - Please mark your availability using the Pitchero app prior to a training session - preferably 48 hours beforehand so that the session can be planned. If your child is ill/injured close to the session, please change your Pitchero availability and message the coaching team using WhatsApp.
If your child needs to leave training early, please flag this with the coach before the session (preferably on Pitchero “notes” section AND at the start of the session).

Fixtures - to ensure your child gets the optimum fixture experience and opportunity, please update your child’s availability as soon as they are published, or as soon as possible. The availability enables us to enter local leagues and regional leagues week-on-week, without the information we are unable to provide this opportunity for players.

Will we be less likely to be selected if we train once a week only? ALL players are given match opportunities. We appreciate that it can be tricky to juggle all diary commitments, so try to avoid attendance being a primary factor in team selection.
If your child is unavailable for a fixture, that is absolutely fine, there is no pressure to and we want to promote the children to play a variety of sports and other activities, however as your child progresses through into the older age groups, availability may be considered in selection.
Please note that if a player is rarely available for any training and a team is settled in structure from a training session, then they may not be placed in the highest teams.

When will we know which team they are in? This is decided by the coaches ahead of each match. They see all the players in sessions and will take into account the needs of any given team, and consider the England Hockey & St Albans HC Complete Player Qualities.

If your availability changes after fixture selection, please let the coaching team know immediately on your parents WhatsApp group. Obviously injuries and illness can happen but please make every effort to attend if you are selected. Your teammates are left without a player and that can be detrimental to their enjoyment and learning. It is up to you to let the coaches know that your child is pulling out of their team if they cannot make it.

Weather

You should assume that training is going ahead unless you hear otherwise. Hockey is played in the rain, and when it is warm. In potential freezing weather the hockey pitches can get slippery and hard when frozen, and can be unsafe for play - it does depend somewhat on the construction of the pitch, but generally speaking you can’t play on a ‘frozen’ pitch.

If it is cold, please ensure your child has extra layers underneath their playing top to keep warm. Many players will wear ‘skins’ under their shorts/skort when it is cold as well.
It can be quite cold in January/February, but it’s quite hard to play hockey in mittens or thick gloves. If your child feels the cold in their hands, a pair of thin sporty gloves (these are available from sports shops) may be sensible.
If there is thunder/lightning during a session, we may move children indoors until the weather clears.

Fixtures/Tournaments

There are likely to be a number of fixtures and tournaments during the season. These take place on Sundays, and could be at any point during the day. Most will be away from home in Hertfordshire. Timings can occasionally shift due to the host club's pitch allocation.

We will try to select as many players as possible for games from those who are available; for tournaments, we may enter A/B/C teams in order to try to get as many players as possible a chance to play, all aiming to put place players in an appropriate level competition to ensure the most positive experience.

Training is not possible generally on large fixture days due to coach or pitch availability for example, our pitches may be being used for another tournament for another age group at the normal time for training.

Kit

Outfield players must wear shinpads and are strongly advised gumshield in order to take part in training and fixtures. Goalkeeper kit can be borrowed from the club.

My child struggles with a mouth guard. We know that using mouth guards can feel uncomfortable, but for safety reasons we strongly advise that players wear them. There are a number of different ‘fits’ of mouthguard available, and the majority of young players do adjust to wearing them quite quickly. Please do ask coaches and fellow parents for advice on different brands that their children have experienced.

All players should bring a water bottle, a hockey stick (but you can borrow one from our storage), as well as something to keep warm during and in-between games, it can be really cold if there is a 20 minute or half an hour break between games in a tournament!

You can borrow a stick if you don’t have one for training. They aren’t always the best (many of the grips are very worn!), but they will enable you to get started. Please ensure that you return them at the end of the training session. Coaches do not take spare sticks to matches, so ensure to borrow a stick before a fixture weekend.

If you are buying a stick, a coach can advise on sizing, but a good rule of thumb for youth players is that the stick should go up to their belly button (if you measure that distance that can help you select a stick size online). Don’t buy your tiny child an adult hockey stick!

Astroturf shoes are different from trainers. They are recommended as they provide much better grip.

Children may wish to wear a protective hockey glove. At older age groups a protective left hand glove is highly recommended (England Hockey make this mandatory for children playing age group national hockey). Some children may wear protective right and left hand gloves, partly for protection and partly for warmth.

All U18s should wear face masks if they are defending penalty corners (from the higher ability U10s and above). These will be provided by the club, but you are welcome to bring your own. Please name them if you do.

Fixtures - It is preferable if players selected for fixtures have club kit (club shirts and blue shorts, orange socks). However, it is not mandatory and not a problem. If they do not, please wear an orange shirt, and bring a white top as well. If you don’t have club shorts/socks, wear blue shorts and orange socks (you can get something that works for a few pounds from SportsDirect).

Please find a link to our Club Kit here to find out how to order club kit.

Youth to Adult Transition
You can play adult hockey from the age of 13. Please find information on this next step in our club pathway here.