KEW Hockey Club

Following the Aussies securing their 10th Champions Trophy in Melbourne, the Kew Kids starting counting the six sleeps until they would actually meet their Kookaburra heroes, Mark Knowles and Jamie Dwyer.

Mark and Jamie have kicked off “1 & 9 Coaching”; a program bringing their simply awesome hockey talents to the grass roots; the local hockey clubs.  The big emphasis is having fun – Mark’s and Jamie’s coaching program is full of fun and some super secrets of hockey.

So the little KewCumbers gathered at the SNHC last Saturday – and what a fantastic day we all had.  After some intros, the lads got right into the secrets of top class hockey.

1.  Learn from the Best

Mark detailed the techniques of:

• The slap pass
• Hitting hard flat balls
• Trapping into space
• The spin (later re-named the “zoomer”)

Jamie focused in on dribbling skills, especially:

• Ball carrying position
• Head up while dribbling
• Drags, jinks and dinks
• Elimination skills

Following a rotation through Mark or Jamie’s session, the groups could immediately apply their learnings in mini-games.

2.  World’s Best Skills Demonstration

All the kids and parents were called in and the boys demonstrated some truly spectacular hockey skills.  Mark and Jamie thrilled the group with goal shots, chips, flicks and then some serious party tricks.  The main message was “DO try this at home – just NOT INSIDE the house…”

Jamie was asked to demonstrate his spectacular “Toma” goal from the Champs Trophy game v The Netherlands.  Mark quickly emphasised that it was a typical Knowles pass that set it up – so we saw the whole play re-enacted…

FIVE TIMES IN A ROW – BREATHTAKING – ALL UNSTOPPABLE.

Young hockey heads were inspired.  Old hockey heads nodded sagely, caught their breath and noted that:

a) in my day it’s back of the stick,

b) my back is sore just watching, and

b) it was ABSOLUTELY no fluke

The Kew Kids had their turn to show their own tricks – under the watchful eye of the Aussie skipper (Knowles) and the World’s Best hockey player (Dwyer).

This session finished with the biggest game of HOC-TOPUS you’ve ever seen; 40 kids bearing down on Mark and Jamie with their dribbling skills.  Seems that the Kew Kids skills were too sharp for the boys through the first phase – and then Mark and Jamie’s tackling skills seemed to warm up!

Then Jamie tried to take them all on – however he didn’t count on the perfect Eliza B tackle (see the photo).

3.  Q and A

The lads spent some time answering lots of wide ranging questions from the kids, including enquiries re their training program, their beep test results (high 15s, low 16s), their hockey highlights and the most goals Jamie’s ever scored in a match (22).

One very interesting point came out of this Q&A.  Aussie coach Ric Charlesworth has been emphasising to the Kookaburras the incredible importance of the trap, the hit and the slap – especially the trap.  No use having fancy dribbling and shooting skills if you haven’t trapped it.

4.  Hero Time

To wind up Mark and Jamie were wonderfully generous with their time following the sessions, with all the kids making sure they got everything signed, and the Mums and Dads taking hundreds of photos.

What a fantastic opportunity to meet, learn from, and tackle the World’s best players.  Mark and Jamie, seeyou next year and

GO THE KOOKABURRAS IN THE 2010 WORLD CUP