Talent System
County Hockey
- Junior County (Sub Area) Hockey is the new name for junior county hockey programmes previously known as Development Centres (DC) and Academy Centres (AC)
- Junior County (Sub Area) Hockey will continue to provide an exciting and aspirational representative opportunity for the U12-U17 age groups that provides a different experience to regular club or school hockey.
- It isa standalone development experience, focused on preparing for and competing in representative teams.
- For some players County (Sub Area) Hockey will be one of several talent foundation opportunities they take up and it is regarded as steppingstone towards both elite domestic and international performance hockey. For others it will be the pinnacle of their representative hockey and hopefully a steppingstone to life-long enjoyment and involvement in the sport. Both these outcomes are worthy aims and valuable to the long-term development of hockey.
County Hockey continues to offer an important development experience within the new talent system.
- It is one route to progress to the next stage of the talent system and counties can nominate players for Talent Academy and/or England Age Group trials.
- There is a huge opportunity for counties to access a wider group of young people by targeting more players who are unable to access regular high- quality hockey elsewhere and contribute to developing a more diverse talent pool.
- Junior County (Sub Area) Hockey also has an important role in providing development opportunities for players, coaches, administrators and umpires from different backgrounds.
Talent Centres
A Talent Centre club is a club that provides high quality provision for players at early talent development level (Talent Foundations). This provision will be embedded within the club’s junior programme. Talent Centre accreditation recognises the quality of a club’s talent development environment and provision, not individual players.
England Hockey will recognise, through accreditation, environments within the Talent System that provide high quality talent development. In time, we envisage the operation of around 100-120 Talent Centres so that every child should have reasonable access to one or more of these opportunities if they wish to and if it is right for them.
Talent Academy
Talent Academies are intended for the highest potential 15 – 18-year-old players.
There will be multiple opportunities most weeks for high-quality coaching and training through a combination of dedicated sessions and integration with other activity delivered by the host.
Every Talent Academy will have a squad of players selected through a robust process based on the England Hockey Player Profile.
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