Starting a kids roller hockey club

by Peter Maisey

Back in the 1980's Southsea (Portsmouth) Roller Hockey Club dominated the roller hockey scene in the UK. The senior team was so successful, the club lost sight of the dwindling number of younger players coming through the ranks. In the early nineties, with injury, retirement and players moving away, the club almost died.

Southsea struggled on for several years, and have managed to claw their way back into the lower echelons of British roller hockey. But once again, over the last 3 or 4 years there has been no real emphasis on building the base of any successful club - kids teams.

In the summer of 2005 we bit the bullet and resurrected children's roller hockey, and this is how we did it.

We discovered that our Council ran sports taster sessions for children during the summer holidays. We contacted them and arranged four summer sessions, with the council supplying venues and equipment. A dozen kids turned up over the four sessions, at the end of which they were invited to a free session courtesy of the roller hockey club. On the basis of a decent turn out we then decided to set up a kid section.

So we had the kids and we had the equipment, which the council was happy for us to continue using.

Plenty of people had warned us that the drop out rate would be high, and that we needed to recruit continuously. We wanted to keep the kids, so we decided on some very specific tactics to do this.

Above all, the sessions had to be safe, but fun at the same time. We introduced very strict rules about obeying the whistle at all times. With that out of the way, we concentrated on the fun aspect. Every session included a game on skates. Bulldog, dodgeball, relays. Nothing to do with roller hockey, but excellent at improving skate skills.

We listened to comments by the kids, especially if they liked a particular activity. If an activity was unpopular, but necessary to their development, we tried to introduce it in a different guise.

We started with two hour sessions, allowing us time to develop skating and roller hockey skills. It quickly became obvious that two hours was too long. Unfortunately the sports centre we use does not book half hour slots. Reluctantly we had to drop to one hour, but the shorter session always leaves the kids wanting more.

Roller hockey drills are about passing, receiving, shooting, or simply skating with or without the ball. Repeating the same drills week after week was a sure fire way to drive the kids away. So we put in a lot of time and effort working out different ways of doing essentially the same thing. They are still passing, receiving, shooting and skating.

One of the most important things when coaching kids isn't to sink to the lowest common denominator. They always need pushing, but on the limits of their ability, not way beyond it. The emphasis is to get them to do their best, which should be a little better than last week.

Parents play an important part in our kids training sessions. We invite them to join in. If a parent has a reason to come, beyond taxiing their kids around, better membership retention seems to result. Kids just love skating rings around their parents, or playing on the same team as their mum or dad.

Today we have a dozen kids turning up week after week. But we are aware that it could all collapse very quickly if they lose interest. We aren't playing leagues this year, so we are organising "friendly" tournaments with nearby clubs.

We are also actively looking for new members. We visited a local school's sports fair last week. We have adverts in local supermarkets. We send write ups to the local paper. A local sports centre is about to start roller discos for kids. We are helping out initially, but we will certainly be looking for potential recruits to roller hockey.

It isn't easy. We admit we were lucky in getting council support. But we also recognise that you cannot rest on your laurels. We are constantly looking for new members and new ideas. Only when we see the first kids big enough, old enough, fast enough and skilled enough to join the seniors will we feel we have achieved some sort of success.

Links

Playrollerhockey.net - details about [mainly] UK roller hockey

Talkrollerhockey.net - lots of enthusiastic discussion about roller hockey issues all over the world.

NRHA.co.uk - National Roller Hockey Association of England

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