Space, the final frontier.

Space, the final frontier.

Giving my age away there, but we are a rapidly growing club with an influx of Junior players threatening to overwhelm us. Can anyone give me advice as to how many children can be safely accommodated on a full sized hockey pitch? We hope to have a coach to player ratio average of 1%3A10, lower for younger age groups.

Hockey CoachCoach
TOP ANSWER
Hockey CoachCoach

Hey Cormac,

Our season just started and our first training day for new kids we already had over 120 new kids, so besides the teams we already have.

You need to adapt your structure to it%3A SPACE on the pitch, NUMBER of tainers, EXCERCISES adapted to agegroups and needs.

To stay within your question my experience is the following%3A

- age 4/5 year%3A 1 trainer on 6 or 7 kids

- age 6/7 year%3A 1/6 or 7

- as from 8 year%3A 1/10 should be fine

We alsways start ASSISTENT trainers (so potential new trainers) in the starting groups for extra support.

This way you can have 20 to 30 kids on a 1/4th pitch, but as from 12 years old this becomes max. 15 or a 1/2 pitch with increased numbers.

ANSWERS
Jeroen GronsveldTeacher, Netherlands

What do you mean by a ratio average of 1%3A10

Hockey CoachCoach

Hey Cormac,

Our season just started and our first training day for new kids we already had over 120 new kids, so besides the teams we already have.

You need to adapt your structure to it%3A SPACE on the pitch, NUMBER of tainers, EXCERCISES adapted to agegroups and needs.

To stay within your question my experience is the following%3A

- age 4/5 year%3A 1 trainer on 6 or 7 kids

- age 6/7 year%3A 1/6 or 7

- as from 8 year%3A 1/10 should be fine

We alsways start ASSISTENT trainers (so potential new trainers) in the starting groups for extra support.

This way you can have 20 to 30 kids on a 1/4th pitch, but as from 12 years old this becomes max. 15 or a 1/2 pitch with increased numbers.

Hockey CoachCoach

Many thanks Rob, that helps me a lot.  Now we need to find more coaches.  Several of us took extra sessions last week to cover gaps.  I need to work up ways of coercing/persuading parents to volunteer that doesn't involve violence ha ha.

Jeroen, lost in translation, I typed in a colon but the site translated it to %3A, god only knows what my percentage symbol will turn into.  We try to meet an average ratio of 1 coach to 10 players.  1 to 8 for our under 8 age group, 1 to 10 at under 10 and 1 to 12 at under 12.

Best of luck in the new season.

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