Joe Kodde and Marcell Allo, two members of EHF’s Coaches for Europe (C4E) recently participated in a Sportways lab in Terrassa, Spain on 8th – 12th December.
Over 30 coaches worked together to plan all the details for 2015’s camps. The lab started with some socialising and a barbecue, after which the group got to work in the clubhouse of Atlétic Terrassa Hockey Club.
Each coach gave a brief presentation, where they all explained what topic they had chosen to be their focus during the week’s lab. After the presentation, all were split into groups, each group led by an experienced coach who planned and oversaw the execution of the work plan. Every mentor had to lead the 4 less experienced coaches so they were very busy during the lab. After discussing how to develop the sessions with the team leader, each coach had time to work individually. The day closed with a presentation by Hans Streeder about the important physical aspect of the game, which was illustrated with short clips from the Rabobank Hockey World Cup.
The second day started with field work but as a storm ran through the city, cutting off the electricity, the group went back to basics and worked using pen and paper. The next day, catch up was necessary, and the whole group worked extremely hard. For the whole day, the clubhouse was full of coaches planning, executing, taking notes and analyzing potential ideas for the clinics. The atmosphere was extremely helpful and very cooperative, as even though each coach had his/her own individual plan, there was always an effort to help one another. The third day closed with a presentation by Thomas Tichelman about ‘peak training performance’.
Thursday was the last day of the lab. In the morning Thomas gave a training session on the field for the coaches, where he focused on ‘speeding up the game’. It was really useful for everybody to understand the work/rest ratio, and how to create game like situations. During the rest of the day everybody fine-tuned and recorded their sessions. The lab closed with an amazing meal at a Catalan restaurant owned by an ATHC player.
The European Hockey Federation would like to thank Sportways for sponsoring Joe and Marcell to participate in the lab.
Source: Joe Kodde and Marcell Allo