The fourth National Training Weekend took place at the Bushfields Sports Centre over the weekend of the 7th/8th May.
It incorporated not only training sessions for Under 13’s, the National Schoolboy Development Squad, the National Schoolboy Squad, The National Junior Squad, the National Ladies Squad, the National Senior Squad and specific goal-keeper training, but also a 2 day Referees Workshop and 2 x 1 day Coaching Courses both run by professionals.
We were also honoured to have Vitor Hugo with us, from Portugal, who, on Saturday, trained with the Juniors, took the under 13’s for their 3 hour session and then trained with the Senior Squad. On Sunday he also trained with all the groups. Vitor, both as a player and a coach has achieved the highest awards possible for Club and Country as a player and a coach.
Meanwhile in meeting rooms at the local Marriott Hotel, we had Professor Luis Gouveia conducting 2 x 1 day Coaching Courses and Jorge Pauleta conducting a 2 day Referee Workshop.
The idea of the National Training Weekends is to provide training for as many players as possible by having the Under 13’s Foundation Scheme, Development Squads for all the National Teams, specific Goal-keeping Sessions and to also involve new or existing coaches.
Over this weekend we started on Saturday with 9 Juniors for their session, followed by 29 Under 13’s followed by 10 Seniors.
On Sunday we had 30 Schoolboys and 15 Ladies.
At the Referee Workshop we had 9 referees.
At the Coaching Course we had 9 on Saturday and a further 4 on Sunday.
The mix of players from various clubs was as follows :-
UNDER 13s FOUNDATION SCHEME -
Lipson/Plymouth 4, Middlesbrough 1;Pace – France 1; HBU 2; Herne Bay 2; Letchworth 7; Ely 4;
Bury 3; Peterborough 2; Cambridge 3.
JUNIORS-
Bury 2; Farnham 1;Letchworth 2; Middlesbrough 1;
Maidstone 1;Norwich 1; Pace – France 1.
SENIORS -
Grimsby 1; HBU 5; Sheffield 1; Middlesbrough 1;
Kings Lynn 1; Bury 1.
LADIES- Cambridge 2; Colchester 2; Middlesbrough 2;
Kings Lynn 1; Sheffield 3; Lipson/Plymouth 3;
HBU 1; Alcorcon, Spain 1.
SCHOOLBOYS – Kings Lynn 5; Bury 4; HBU 7; Herne Bay 3; Colchester 1; Manchester 3; Maidstone 1; Letchworth 1; Pace France 1; Middlesbrough 1;
Girona, Spain 1; Plymouth 1.
This gives a total of 89 players from 17 UK Clubs with 4 English players coming from Clubs in Europe. Together with the 13 Coaches and 9 Referees we hope that everybody agrees that it was a successful weekend for English Roller Hockey.
This whole package would not have been possible without the assistance of Carlos Graca, CERH (the European Roller Hockey Federation) President who agreed to Keith Allen’s request to permit Jorge Pauletta and Professor Luis Gouveia to come to England and help with our Development Programme. We are grateful to Jorge and Luis who gave up their weekend and brave the climate. We thank too the special man, Vitor Hugo who worked so hard with all the players showing them both the basic and the finer points of the game.
We also had the assistance of the Coaches involved with the National Teams but also Sue Grant, Dan Barton and Carlos Amaral Jnr. who helped at various times and in various sessions.
Keith Allen wishes to acknowledge too the ‘Ladies on the Door’ who recorded the names of the players and their Clubs who attended.
He thought it was a thoroughly successfull weekend where there were a lot of people working together to improve the standard of Roller Hockey in the UK.
NEXT National Training Weekend will be on the 4/5th June at the Bushfields Sports Centre in Peterborough.
The programme for the sessions will be posted shortly on www.nrha.co.uk.
More info:
Reporter: Aileen Barker
