Frequenty Asked Questions Stix awards
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Who is the Stix Skills Award for?
Stix Skills is designed for 11 to 14 year olds in school years 7, 8 and 9 and is ideal for junior club and school use.

What sort of playing surface will I need to complete a Stix Skills Award?
Do not worry if you do not have access to a synthetic turf pitch. A playground, sports hall or similar hard surface will work just as well if you do one or two drills at a time.

You can also complete the skill challenges on natural grass but you should be aware that the scores achieved would probably be lower because the ball moves more slowly over this surface.

A suggested layout for completing all the skill challenges at once is provided in this pack.

How many candidates can take part in a Stix Skills Award?
The Stix Skills Award has been designed to allow groups of five or six players to work on one skill challenge at a time. This enables one player to do the skill challenge, one to score and the others to collect the ball after each shot. Ball boy positions shown should be amended to suit your group, baring in mind that safety is paramount.

We suggest no more than thirty candidates should take part in a course in total.

How can I time the course?
The suggested layout for Stix Skills will enable you to time the course from a central point for all the skill challenges.

This means that each skill challenge may start and finish at the same time. Following the skill challenge the players scores may be recorded during the skill challenge changeovers.

How long does each skill challenge take?
Each candidate spends one minute on each skill challenge. A maximum of thirty seconds has been allowed for changeovers.

As a result a group of – say – five players should take about eight minutes to complete a skill challenge.

If two minutes are allowed for groups to move from one skill challenge to another, the entire programme should take between 60 and 70 minutes to complete – although you should allow 90 minutes if the maximum number of 30 players take part.

Can I split the Stix Skills course if time is short?
Yes. Stix Skills does not have to be completed in one go. You might prefer to carry out the skill challenges in separate phases allowing for 20 minutes practice before the skill challenge itself.