Club Development Suggestions
The WHU are keen to assist clubs in every way possible and have provided the following suggestions which have been proven to help Club development.
Recruiting junior players
Organise Junior Events
Fun Days, Tournaments, Skills Sessions, Recruitment Days, etc.
What to think about?
When and where to hold the events? What age groups to target? Who will staff? Staffing Ratios? Risk Assessments, Costs, Coaches / Umpires, How to market the event. Contact the WHU office for advice on holding such events
School visits and promotional work
What primary / secondary schools are in your catchment area? Who are the PE teachers? Contact the teachers / send club information booklets to the schools, organise taster sessions after school, ask for a notice board in the school / local leisure centre, put posters up around the area. Click here to contact your Local Hockey Development Officer for advice on junior fun sessions.
Marketing/Promotional Ideas, Sponsorship
Marketing your club can be extremely beneficial when done properly, and it doesn't need to be costly. The following ideas can be extremely effective, and can be utilised by any club, big or small:
- Contact your local Primary/Secondary Schools, Colleges and Universities. Find a contact within each provision and use them to pass on information to students.
- Put posters up around your local area
- Ask for a notice board at your club ground/local leisure centre
- Send match reports/club news to your local paper
- Contact your local radio station
- Set up a club website
- Write to/approach local businesses for sponsorship.
- Ask your members if they have any useful contacts.
- Utilise the skills of your members and spread the word.
Setting Up a Club/Getting Started
Who to contact?
For advice and support on setting up a club in your area, please contact the WHU Office, email [email protected]
Club requirements
In order to set-up a club, and affiliate to the WHU, a club must have the necessary structural requirements in place, and implement the WHU policies.
Including Players with Disabilities
There are many forms of disability including hearing impairment, visual impairment, learning difficulties, and physical impairments including cerebral palsy, wheelchair users and amputees. The WHU guidelines (downloadable below) aim to give coaches and teachers basic ideas on how to include people from all of these groups into hockey sessions. In most situations, one or two people with disabilities can be included in a hockey session with only a little adaptation. All players will be different, so focus on what players with disabilities can do!
Best practice examples
If you would like to share your ideas, please e-mail your suggestions to [email protected] so we can publicise them.
Case Study: Whitchurch HC
Currently Wales’s only Level 3 Accredited Hockey Club. To discover how this top men’s hockey club is structured, how it delivers a quality programme of coaching to a membership of 250, and what it took to achieve Level 3 Accreditation, contact Chairman Roger Harris, via the club’s website: www.whitchurch-hc.com
Also in this section:
Welsh Hockey Accredited Clubs Scheme (WHAC)
