Day 5 brought about my first of 2 full days coaching in Belgrade. In the morning I taught the kids some passing and receiving skills, which then lead into matches to finish with. The kids tried to put the skills into the games wherever they could, which was great to see.
I was then taken to the local park, where one of the Belgrade Clubs clubhouse is, and shown their impressive trophy collection. After lunch it was back to the pitch for the afternoon session.
We worked on some basic, and more advanced elimination drags, with 3D skills, which the kids really enjoyed. The afternoons matches started with one handed hockey only, before ending with normal rules so the kids could put into practice their new skills, and so they could understand where they may use just one hand in various situations.
Tomorrow is the final day of the caravan, where I have 2 more sessions with the talented Belgrade kids.
The final day…
The final day of the caravan brought a full day of sunshine, and mid 30 degrees temperatures too!
After a request from one of the coaches, I taught the kids the forehand hit, as well as the backhand hit in the morning. Initially they found the backhand hit difficult, but after some practice they began to pick the skill up.
Between sessions I was taken to see the other club in Belgrades clubhouse, and was very impressed by their trophy collection again! For lunch I was taken up to the tower on the mountain next to Belgrade, by Damjanov and Marko, which had some spectacular views of the city.
For the final session of the day, and caravan, I taught the kids some keepy-uppy skills, which went down very well! Following this we looked at the slap pass, and some 3D skills, including playing hockey tennis. To finish the session we held a tournament, and it was great to see the improvements all the kids had made over the last couple of days.
A big thank you must go to Laki and Mia for their hospitality and showing me round the city, and to Marko and all the local coaches for help with coaching and translating to the kids.
This draws a close to the Balkan Caravan 2014, both myself, the kids and the local coaches, have thoroughly enjoyed the experience, and we have all gained a lot from it… bring on 2015!!!
We’d all like to thank Danny for this superb work on behalf of the EHF, thanks Danny, until next time…
Christmas comes early for Georgian Hockey!
The EHF is delighted to announce that whilst we will be launching the EHF Solidarity Grant system in 2021, the hockey players in Georgia will be the first to receive a much needed boost with sticks and balls coming directly from the EHF in the coming weeks! Recently...