The Oak Junior squads continued their preparations over the Christmas holidays for the next rounds of the English Junior Championships which are due to be played early in the New Year.
On Saturday the 23rd of December, Isle of Man player Alex Bell who is based in Sheffield and currently coaches at the University of Sheffield along with acting as Head coach of South Yorkshire and Performance Coach at Sheffield Hockey Club, ran clinics over the day at the NSC.
MHA Head of Performance joined him, Lesley Shimmin along with recent Manx Sports Coaching graduate, Connor Parfitt and Sports Science graduate, Leah Goddard.
The coaches worked off the principle of PIMS, purpose, immediate reaction, movement and support in each exercise.
Feedback from the players was hugely positive on both the exercises and the interaction with different coaches.
Saturday 30th December saw the Annual Challenge matches take place at the NSC. These fixtures involved the current under-18 sides, boys and girls taking on under-21 selections.
Both matches were fiercely contested affairs with the younger sides having to step up and work hard against some very organised play from both U21 sides. The fixtures well established on the Manx Hockey calendar are great opportunities to welcome back former squad members. It was particularly pleasing this year to see the return of no fewer than 4 previous captains, Sophie Howland, Ella Page, Oscar Lace and Will Hassall.
The girls’ March saw the u21 side the victory whilst in the boys’ fixture, the under 18 boys ran out victorious, with a massive 7 goals coming from Alex Andrew.
The squads have now returned to their regular training sessions at the NSC as they prepare for their next round fixtures which starts with both the Under 16 and 18 boys in action on January 21st.