Ship shape in Shepparton
Ventured up to Shepparton mid February to run a coaching session for the guys and girls of the U17 Goulburn Valley team. They are currently being trained by good mate, Matthew Higgins who has moved back there to help with the family business.
Had a ball there with the kids, they were a great bunch, enthusiastic and willing to learn. The amount they improved from the start of the session to the end was quite impressive given that at that age it’s almost too late to get kids out of their bad habits.
I concentrated on goal shooting as well as some elimination skills and being a fan of making hockey as simple a game as you can, I gave the kids some pointers on how I go about doing these skills and it was pleasing to see them all pick it up quite quickly.
Really enjoyed the session and its great to see the game I love being enjoyed by many in the country areas. In other states such as Queensland and NSW, country players make up a large amount of players in their representative teams. From my experience going through I haven’t seen the same happen in Victoria. From the era I went through I can only remember 3 guys from regional areas being part of state teams. I’m hope that its changed now!
The disappointing thing, and this isn’t just referring to country areas either, is the fact that the kids don’t get access to quality coaching. For the 2 hours I spent with these kids, I was able to see them improve quite a bit and know that they are in good hands with Higgo to take them forward and continue their path to improvement. Unfortunately this isn’t always the case and many kids will go away from a camp or a session with a quality coach and go back into bad habits that become engrained in their game. Quality coaching is hard to get but the importance of this can make someone’s experience of playing a sport either a bad one or a great one and their enjoyment of the game is normally a direct reflection of this.