Hampshire Coaches Forum – Sharing Ideas, Developing Coaches
One of the great strengths of the Hampshire Player Pathway is the range of coaches involved in it.
The first forum will take place at Trojans HC Clubhouse on Sunday 4 October 2026, from 10am–12pm.
We have coaches with many years of experience alongside others who are developing their coaching through assistant roles and our Coach Ambassador programme. Everyone brings different ideas, experiences and approaches to the pitch.
What we don't often get is the opportunity to sit down together and simply talk about coaching.
Our Coach Development Officer, Jim East, is hoping to change that with the launch of the Hampshire Player Pathway Coaches Forum.
Open to Hampshire coaches – past and present
The Coaches Forum is open to all coaches who are currently involved, or have previously been involved, in the Hampshire Player Pathway.
It isn't intended to be another coaching course or a lecture. Instead, it's an opportunity to get Hampshire coaches together, share ideas and practices, learn from each other's experiences and perhaps take a few new ideas away to try at your next session.
It's also an opportunity for our assistant coaches and Coach Ambassadors to learn from some of the more experienced coaches working across the pathway.
Session One: Your Favourite Training Exercise
For our first forum, we're keeping things deliberately practical.
We're asking coaches to bring along a favourite training exercise and, if they're happy to do so, briefly explain it to the group.
Tell us how it works, what you're trying to achieve with it and which skills or tactical principles you're trying to develop.
Jim has suggested a few possible themes:
- Receiving & Carrying
- Passing & Leading
- Goalscoring
- Defensive Positioning & Movement
- Marking & Intercepting
But these are suggestions rather than restrictions. If you've got a favourite exercise covering something completely different, bring that instead.
Once an exercise has been introduced, the idea is to open it up to the room: How could we progress it? Simplify it? Make it harder? Adapt it for a different age group or level of ability?
Nobody has all the answers, and that's rather the point.
An exercise one coach has used for years might spark a completely different idea in somebody else. Equally, a newer coach may bring a fresh approach that makes the rest of us wonder why we've been doing something the hard way for the last decade.
Come along – even if you don't want to present
You certainly don't need to arrive armed with a flipchart and a 45-minute presentation!
If you'd like to present an exercise, brilliant. If you'd rather come along, listen, join the discussion and pick up some ideas, that's absolutely fine too.
Jim would simply like to know whether you're attending and whether you'd be happy to present an exercise, so that he can get an idea of numbers and plan the morning.
Hampshire Player Pathway Coaches Forum #1
Sunday 4 October 2026
10:00am – 12:00pm
Trojans HC Clubhouse
Topic: Your Favourite Training Exercise
The full information sheet from Jim will also be available to download below.
Whether you've coached with Hampshire for years, have recently joined us, or previously coached within the pathway, we'd love to see you there.
Come along, talk hockey, share what works for you and, hopefully, go home with a few new ideas pinched from everybody else.
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