In the past few weeks I have held informal discussions with hockey administrators from different clubs and associations who are concerned about the drop in junior hockey participants as the 2017 season gets under way. Their concern may reflect or not reflect an emerging pattern that is occurring across Australia. The situation appears to more evident in country based hockey associations where the diverse sports choices and ‘slick’ marketing of major sports codes who are backed up financially are attracting kids to play their sports and therefore significantly reduce the potential of hockey clubs to attract new juniors. Is it real? Over the last ten years I have witnessed the decimation of junior competitions in more than one long standing Queensland country association. This year another association faces the possibility of just fielding two Under 11 boys teams in total from the six clubs that make up the association.
This situation is further compounded by the limited number of properly trained available junior volunteer coaches and ‘drivers’ who can make junior hockey development work. Major sports codes have the luxury of employing paid junior coaches to go into schools and facilitate come and try events. So it is a ‘battle’. In 2015-2016 Ausplay research showed nearly 3.2 million children (69%) participated in some form of organised sport or physical activity outside of school hours*. The participation rates peak at ages 9-11 years old then drop away which is another issue but one for all sports and not just hockey. Ausplay also indicates hockey as a choice of out of school structured physical activity is the 14th biggest in Australia with 76,922 participants while children choosing to play soccer is 674,094 participants or AFL 366,462 or rugby league 126,754. Now these numbers from the football codes may be understood but the concern is what the future will hold. We have a changing playing field. Girls are now embarking on playing women’s rugby league, rugby union, AFL and soccer. Plus add the growing involvement of women in touch football then there is a concern that needs to be accounted for otherwise junior hockey participation totally will be decimated, particularly in country areas.
So what can be done about it?
- Take a united approach to making the Hookin2hockey program work
Hockey Australia have built upon the early beginnings of the Hookin2hockey program to provide a cohesive structure and resourceful program that is functional for associations /clubs to implement to attract and teach new junior players to the game. In March 2017 across Australia 1800 juniors were registered in the program. This is equivalent of 163 new hockey teams. Hockey Australia have provided additional opportunities for clubs and associations through partnering with Australian Sports Commission to be involved in the Sporting Schools Program. This gives registered clubs and associations access to schools who are engaged in the $100 million Australian Government initiative to increase the number of children playing sport. The platform has been set now it’s up to the associations and clubs to ‘drive’ it. Here comes the problem -funding and people to do it.
In New Zealand there is a similar junior development program called the ‘ActivePost Small Sticks’. A difference between it and the Australian program is that it has a sponsor which is helping to fund its implementation. New Zealand Post support the junior programme with their six-figure branding sponsorship deal. Hockey Australia are doing it tough without a sponsor as there is definitely a great need to fund area based Hookin2hockey program co-ordinators and promoters across Australia.
- Rethink the structure of association based junior hockey competitions
For too long now we have witnessed the unbalanced development of junior hockey using an 11 aside approach. In country associations particularly there may be 4-6 clubs in the association. Of these clubs some fail to get the numbers to field 11 players in an age group. When you get down to 3 teams playing it becomes a depleted, lack lustre competition which causes further junior players to leave hockey.
Another country association based issue is that hockey competes against other sports in terms of when competitions are played therefore leaving kids to make a sport to play choice.
What are the proposed solutions?
It is proposed that associations/clubs play Hockey Fives and consider reschedule their competition times to attract/entice keen sports kids from other sports to play hockey as well. Another proposal is abandon the early development of junior club hockey and build a school based competition approach where clubs work with allocated schools to develop a primary school based Hockey Fives program as an extension of the Hookin2hockey program.
An example of Hockey fives
Hockey Fives is an official FIH established competition with International accepted rules and competitions. It removes the barriers associated with the need for set plays, e.g., penalty corners and allows players to be involved in the game in a more creative manner. This explosive short format for field hockey played on a half-regulation size hockey pitch, is seen as a possible way for the future development and growth of the sport worldwide. The objective of Hockey 5’s is to allow flexibility so that it can be played on any surface, on different sized pitches and to have or not to have side restraining boards. It is ideal for teams that have a big range of abilities within the team. Hockey fives is a great format for associations/clubs with struggling numbers.
the hockey family
Marketing hockey as the ‘family sport’ is highly important. Saying it is one thing but then the next step is to get the whole family involved. Having parents on the sideline or involved in facilitating junior hockey is great but it is far better if in marketing it as a family sport our purpose is to get them play also rather than be spectators as in other sports. Again using a Hockey Fives model is good to get them involved quickly. Can this be done ploy be done with rugby league. I do not think so. Hockey has countless of examples where a parent has taken up playing because their child plays hockey. These people have powerful testimonies that can be shared. ‘Just a hint to the powers to be’.
Hockey may not have the corporate dollars to match marketing campaigns of the richer sports so we need to use what we have smarter. Establishing a hockey based social media platform that unites, builds and uses club based social media to reach out to the masses to promote playing hockey through carefully developed marketing campaigns that are driven by Hockey Australia and through State bodies. Also when united, hockey has a great commercial value to business. If this was capitalised on hockey would attract the dollars needed to build junior hockey participation and offset the horrific costs parents of talented junior hockey players face each year to play representative hockey.
hockey legend Nikki Hudson – ‘role model’
Finally, role models are often given as a reason for children taking up a sport. Hockey Australia in recent years has used our elite athletes to promote the sport of hockey. It is a no brainer to step up the exposure of our elite players to promote hockey to identified geographical locations where junior hockey participation is on a downward spiral.
There are more possibilities than mentioned above to ensure hockey grows and grow we must otherwise the much needed grant money we get as sport could be forfeited with junior participation decline. We cannot depend on the elite bringing home the gold to sustain the sport alone.
If you have any positive thoughts on how to develop participation in junior hockey and grow our sport
email editor@gohockeynews.com
Source: various
I was involved in coaching junior hockey for over 14 years and the one thing that always seemed to be a sticking point in encouraging junior players and family involvement was the cost of playing hockey. When I was playing, so was the family. We were a family of six and each member was involved in club, school, city and State teams and the cost was astronomical! It is the one reason a lot of parents list as to why they will not let their children play. They would rather go to another sport where the costs are less, their children receive more for their fees, and the majority of the fees remain within the community. With hockey you pay club, Association, State and National fees as well as insurance costs, ground fees for turf, umpires fees, and the cost of equipment seems to be getting further out of the reach of the average family. Hockey is becoming an elitist sport, only available to those who can afford the climbing costs. If you want to get more people involved you need to look at ways to reduce the cost otherwise it will slowly die in regional areas. We used to have two teams in most junior divisions. Now we struggle to get one.
Thank you Amgela. Waht you say is worth further investigating. Yes I agree we are fast becoming an out of reach elite sport.