Author Archives: alanmgormley

Braintree HC Walkers

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Braintree Hockey Club has recently celebrated it’s walking hockey 2nd birthday, numbers built then dropped but are increasing steadily again.
We run sessions through the year weather and bank holidays permitting with our sessions operated on a Monday evening, we did experiment with trying a second session during the day but failed to get the take up.

We are looking for clubs reasonable near us so we can have a match or run a tournament but at this stage have not had success having had a match against local rivals thwarted by the snow in 2018. So if anybody reads this whose club run Walking Hockey and would fancy having agame against us we would be only to pleased to hear from you.

Likewise if there are teams who would like to come to Essex we can put on a festival or Tournament.

Any body who reads this article looking to play walking hockey and is close enough to travel to Braintree then please let us know.

Bedford HC – Welcome to the Walking Hockey Family

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Jean Fitch from Bedford HC tells us about their Walking Hockey story:

The timings of our sessions were selected as, during the season, Wednesday might is Ladies’ Club training and Sunday mornings are Juniors. As we have to pay for pitch use, this enables us to piggy-back onto the pitch slots. We have continued on into the summer as the Walkers were so keen to keep it going, although we will take a break for July and August.
The Sunday morning sessions are quite a different mix from the Wednesday evenings. Although we do have a few youngsters who do the Wednesdays, with their parents and grandparents, we have even more juniors join us on a Sunday, coming to do the Walking, before or after their coaching sessions, whilst waiting for older or younger siblings to finish. We have, also, found the Sunday tends to attract more adults who have never played hockey before, and the timing was chosen to try and encourage parents to give it a go rather than standing on the side-line or sitting in the clubhouse, which some have done. The Wednesday sessions tend to be our more established Walkers plus some individuals looking to get back into hockey and some Club players using the sessions as a means of getting back after injury. We usually have about 18 turn up for a session – the most was 24, when we split them into 4 teams and did a mini tournament. The local council, with us providing a coach, also facilitated an 8 week course of Indoor Walking Hockey, which was great.
Next May Bank Holiday (2020) we will be having a Vetstival (Festival for us oldies!!) and are hoping to include Walking in some way, either with a show game or, possibly, by having an actual Walking tournament.
At the moment, there aren’t any other local sides who have taken up doing Walking, although we take every opportunity to try and get them to start, so we can get some inter-Club games going – watch this space!! We usually have a few Club Days through the summer, which is where we first tried the Walking a year ago. If there are any going on this years, we will definitely be looking to include Walking, and possibly invite some local Clubs to bring a team over to give it a go.

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Herne Bay HC – One year of Walking Hockey

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Herne Bay Hockey Club have joined the incredible Walking Hockey family, and are still going strong one year on from starting.
Walking Hockey is exactly as the name suggests – you play Hockey, walking. It’s designed to help people keep an active lifestyle regardless of age, health and ability, as well as getting those back into hockey who had to stop due to injuries or other reasons.
As well as the health benefits associated with most forms of physical activity; keeping fit and active, weight loss etc there are also many social health benefits that come with playing Walking Hockey. Taking time to socialise, meet new people or even build confidence are all part and parcel of taking part in this version of the game. Addressing the recognised need for healthier lifestyles, this Walking Hockey initiative comes at an ideal time to really positively impact on the local community.
Herne Bay Hockey Club see an opportunity to make hockey available to the local community to help meet the need for providing sports for all. Lucy Marks, the club chairman, has said, “We strongly believe anyone should be able to participate in our great sport, whether playing, volunteering, officiating or cheering us on, hockey has so much to give. No one in the surrounding area offers this, so we want to pioneer this for the benefit of our local community and so that we can continue to grow as a family friendly, fun club for all.”
Michael Lunn, Herne Bay Hockey Club’s walking hockey coach, has said, “The club are so happy to be able to offer this opportunity to support our local community. We can’t wait to see people of various ages and abilities coming together to have fun and make new friends whilst getting some fitness too.”
“Starting exercise after a prolonged period of inactivity can be daunting, but is made so much easier if it’s in a fun, social and welcoming environment with people in the same situation. Even if you’ve never held a hockey stick before, come along and give it a try – we are sure everyone is going to enjoy it.”