DC, AC, PC -What’s with all the acronyms and how does it all work?
Confused? You're not the only one. Read on for the ultimate Hampshire Player Pathway 101
Everything we do in Hampshire today stems from an original idea first introduced by England Hockey around 2011 and adopted in Hampshire in around 2014, known as The EH Single System.
The Single System's primary goal was to foster consistency in coaching techniques and messages across all England Hockey development age groups and was designed to benefit boys and girls who are believed to have achieved or have the potential to achieve a certain standard of hockey.
While not always perfect of every sense, the Single System introduced a whole new way of identifying talent and allowing that talent to develop in their own space and time. We worked from the view point that young players develop at different times and different stages in their life and provisions were made that players were seen every year from 11/12-17 years old and assessed for a place on the system.
The Single System was made up of the Junior Development Centre (JDC), Junior Academy Centre (JAC) and the Junior Regional Performance Centre (JRPC), with the highest performing players looking for a place in the High Performance Academy Centre (HiPAC) or Futures Cup, depending ion their age. The FC was the route to the international U16 and U18 (National Age Group Squads (or NAGS).
So, you can see where the acronyms started… 😒
In 2017 the EH Single System became the EH Player Pathway and the Js were removed from all the centres. In 2021 EH completely abandoned the pathway with the introduction of the Talent System, and while this is not the place to air our grievances over that, it had, as a direct result, that Hampshire and many other counties now run their pathway completely independently from EH.
The Talent System is completely separate from the Hampshire Player Pathway and we have no connection with them.
Here is how it all works
Development Centre (DC)
Of the club or school feels your young players between the ages of 12 and 16 is talented and would benefit from some dedicated, higher level coaching with his or her peers, they can nominate the players for the Hampshire Development Centre (or DC for short).
This not to say the club can't provide an excellent level of coaching, but you will find players of mixed abilities at most club training sessions, and that will likely determine the quality of the session a coach can deliver.
So, the club or school nominates the player and they can participate in the DC.
Upon completion of the DC, if a aplayers is not nominated for the AC Assessments, this where their participation in the Player Pathway stops for this season. They will be invited back next year, providing they remain nominated by their club or school.
Academy Centre (AC)
At the end of the DC, the centre lead coach can nominate players to attend an assessment process for the Academy Centre (AC). At these AC Assessments, the best players from DCs all over the county come together for a couple of sessions to be assessed by the Hampshire County (AC) coaches.
DC nominees will be joined at these assessments by players who have just finished the Performance Centre (PC). A PC player will typically have been an AC Player in the previous season.
From this group a squad is chosen of around 20-24 field players and 2-3 goalkeepers to represent Hampshire in the South Areas AC Championship, where they will train and compete against teams from Kent, London, Surrey, Sussex, Berkshire, Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire.
You may get the invitation for the next cycle's DC before the AC is finished and before you're told if you've been selected for the PC or not. In that case, sign up for the DC anyway.
If you get selected for the PC, we will simply transfer your registration on the system to the PC. The cost is always the same.
Performance Centre (PC)
During the AC cycle, AC coaches will identify and select players for the Hampshire Performance Centre (PC). These players do the PC in place of the DC, because they have been identified as the highest talented players, and the DC would not be the right environment for them.
While in the PC, selected players are invited to the squad that Hampshire sends to the National AC Championship in Nottingham.
At the end of the PC, a player goes straight into the AC Assessments
At every stage of the Hampshire Player Pathway,. players continue to play for their school and club. We do our very best to minimise clashes.
No player ever goes straight in the AC squad,. Regardless of a player's history, they will always need to go to the AC Assessments. Occasionally we may defer the assessment to a later date (i.e. a training date, if a player is managing an injury for example.
How does the TA fit into all this?
If a player is selected for the TA, they are usually advised that they can't do any other activity. In Hampshire we are happy for players and parents to decide what is best for them , although the England Hockey Centralised Calendar does show clashes between practically all the AC match days and TA competition days, so it may not be practical to do both.
Very helpfully, in 2025 EH have given over every single Sunday in September to the TA trials and carelessly dedicated 2 of those Sundays to County (AC) assessments as an afterthought. For players invited to the TA trials, who don't want to potentially lose out on an AC place in case they are not selected, this is not ideal. Make sure you stay in touch with us and keep us informed if this affects you, and we will do our very best to make sure you get seen in at least 1 AC assessment.
What if I stop playing in the TA?
While in the TA, as mentioned before, you probably won't be doing anything else other than club hockey. If, at some point, you decide to stop participating in the TA, you can re-enter the Hampshire Player Pathway at the AC Assessments. You don't have to go back to the DC. Contact us for more details
Game Changers
Game Changers isn't part of the Hampshire Hockey Pathway (yet), but it is a tool we would like to start using in the future to spot talented 11 year olds (U12s) who may be ready for U13 DC a year early.
At the moment, while we try to discourage it, we do allow clubs to nominate U12s if they feel they are ready for the DC. We ask for a letter from a L2 (min) qualified coach to support the application, but more often than not, this doesn't come, or is sometimes written by a coach who hasn't had the benefit of seeing too many players of a certain level on the same pitch, thereby not having a great grasp of what an exceptional player looks like.
Some U13s can be big, confident and fast, and putting a small 11 year old in the mix can be intimidating for that player especially if they don't know anyone there. So this needs to be managed much better and, hopefully, Game Changers can help us with that in the future.
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