The NEW Format of the Hampshire DC

My main concern is that EH's new way forward will result in many young players being unable to access the higher-level coaching that was associated with the now abolished Player Pathway. The new system will see a collection of clubs becoming Talent Centres and at the time of writing, I believe 3 clubs in Hampshire have been accepted to become TCs or are working towards it. Then there should also be a selection of Talent Academies across the country, for the elite 25 players for each gender in an area.

From what I understand, a player doesn’t have to be in a Talent Centre in order to be 'selected' for a Talent Academy. Players can also be ‘spotted’ during County activity and rest assured, our coaches will make sure no talent will go un-identified! 

Some people in the know have told me that being a Talent Centre club is nothing more than an extended accreditation system. However, as expected, we have already seen a lot of movement of young players away from their local clubs to clubs that are set to become TCs and I believe this will have some serious repercussions on junior hockey at club level.

I don't know how this process will evolve in years to come but what is clear is that if a player has the talent to be selected for Talent Academy level, he or she, and their parents/guardians, will need to commit a lot of time, travel and money to the cause, something that not everyone will be able to do.

In any case, here in Hampshire we will continue to focus all our efforts on delivering great development opportunities for all our young players and working towards creating great Hampshire County teams that will compete against their opposite numbers from London, Berkshire, Buckinghamshire, Oxfordshire, Surrey, Sussex and Kent.

Despite the fact that our activities in Hampshire have always been the county elements of (at first) the EH Single System, and later the EH Player Pathway, our main driving force has only ever been to create opportunities for players to become the best they can be.

As much as that can sound like a cliché, it really is true. We measure our success not by how many Hampshire players end up playing for England, but by how many players are still excited to return to the DC and the county teams at age 16 or 17, and how many are still playing hockey at university level and beyond.

Personally, I don't believe we have any business looking for the next international talent among our 12-17 year old players. That is just far too young. All we need to do is provide excellent coaching and development opportunities for players at various stages throughout the cycle. We take an occasional snap-shot to identify where the talent is at that moment in time, and then group them together to give them coaching and opportunities tailored to that level. That is what the original Single System, introduced over a decade ago by then EH Performance Director, David Faulkner, was so good at. It allowed us to provide higher level coaching to a wide base at DC and then select the players that were ready to represent their county (AC). From those, we could nominate players to the regional level where they would receive appropriate training that, in turn, could lead to a place in the Future's Cup. And guess what: players were not forced to choose between that and representing their county, as the cycles ran concurrently. 

Representing your county in a challenging and meaningful County Championship has got to be one of the greatest honours for any young player. If you ask Alex Danson, gold medal winning England & GB International hockey player, she will tell you that representing Hampshire in her teenage years, comes second only to pulling on a England shirt. 

This is why Hampshire and the other counties mentioned earlier, have worked so hard to keep our County Championship alive, despite England Hockey's re-organisation and re-zoning which has basically put paid to the county hockey associations as we knew them.

I do not know what the immediate and longer term future looks like for talent development under England Hockey but I, and my colleagues on the HHA Player Pathway Committee, together with our excellent Hampshire coaches, are going to continue to deliver an exciting sub-county and county programme in order to keep giving our young players a place to develop their skills and become the best they can be.

Koo Janzen

Hampshire Player Pathway

March 2022