Get ready for the new season - Part 3 - it's nearly here !
What a difference a week makes, it really does feel like we live in a 'Nation Where Hockey Matters' ! Catch up on this weeks pre-season round up
What a truly amazing seven days for our sport - who could not be inspired by the skill, dedication, determination and sheer grit of the GB Women's squad in Rio. For Club's across the country this is a once in a generation opportunity to propel the sport to new levels of participation and support. With the surge of interest in hockey we've been getting our name out there this week tweeting about the club and what we have to offer !
Coming out of the frenzy of the post Rio excitement it's been full steam ahead in getting ready for the new season and as we focus two themes that came out of a pre- season planning workshop we held in May :
- Being a Great Hockey Club
- Having Great Match Days
More about these themes in the first BlueNotes Newsletter of the season that will be out soon. But if you're a bit of a cynic about strategy and vision and changing how things are just take a look at this short video made by England Hockey in 2013 setting out their vision and strategy for 2013-17. As a #OneClub we are setting out on our journey to transform Timperley over the next few years so lets hope we can be as successful !
http://www.englandhockey.co.uk/page.asp?section=1154%A7ionTitle=Vision+and+Strategy
So now onto this weeks pre-season update !
Great match day - on the ATP's
- The super new Harrod 2012 Blue Goals are confirmed for delivery by 16th September
- the old annual goal refurbishment work and conversion of the oldest set of goals into mobile dugouts was scoped up today with our friendly welder and will be done by the 16th September too
- Andy our new groundsman has started work on the blue pitch to tidy the kick boards and 5m dashes needed around the circles for the IWHL
Great match day - around the club
- Join us on Sunday 4th Septemberr for the 'Big Club Clean'.We're finalising plans with the Club but need volunteers to help paint the corridors and changing rooms, help sort new noticeboard and signage for hockey sort the new and old photos to go up, take down, wash and re-site pitchside banners, give things a good clean to set us up for the start of the season
We need volunteers to make this happen - please let us know when you can come down to help by completing the Doodle Poll - ideally we'd like 2 shifts of 2-3 hours !
http://doodle.com/poll/887sithicvd4vayn
Wear old clothes, bring painting or gardening gloves and we'll provide the rest !
Creating a better impression when people arrive at the Club was a key theme that came out of the pre-season planning workshop and we want members to be proud of their club.
Great hockey club - on the pitch
Summer training on a Saturday comes to an end this week. No training for the ladies on Saturday 27th August as the 1's and 2's have games. It's the final men's 12noon - 2pm training session too so lets have a good turnout !
Men's Club Training (4.5.6's) has one more week 8.00pm - 9.00pm and then from Tuesday 6th September will move to 7.00pm - 8.00pm
Women's training for the earlier group (Cheshire League teams 3/4/5's) the times are 6.45pm - 8.15pm
North League (1/2's) be down from 7.30pm - 9.30/9.45pm
Caroline Small is also finalising plans to:
- run a Goal keeper Only training session on Tuesday 7.00pm - 8.00pm - Caroline is working on how we could structure this across the men's women and older academy keeper
- run an extra nights training for the Women's 1's
- run blocks of indoor strength and conditioning sessions in the clubhouse with Rob Poole who ran the pre season fitness sessions
Start the season with a bang / #HockeyFest Club Day - Sunday 11th September.
Academy - 10.00am - 12.30pm
Seniors - 1.30pm - 4.30pm
More details next week but we'll be putting on some Olympic themed hockey
Great Hockey Club - off the pitch
Lots happening to get us in good shape for the season - we know no one likes admin (...well there are a few!) but without an efficient 'machine' that sits behind the hockey we offer at the Timperley its almost impossible to run .....11 senior league sides, 3 vets sides, a mixed side and over academy sides with 500 plus people involved !
Do help us to help you by making sure you:
- pay your TSC membership subscription in September to save time and effort with chasing people. Payment via the website is now up and running - special thank you to Nigel Stanhope the first person to use the new payments system !
- register for the website - or update your details and go to settings and opt to receive emails / weekly updates - we now have 150 people who've done this which is great !
- availability ! Women to complete the google doc for all teams - Men to let Rick Kenefick or your captain know your availability for September as a minimum before we switch to an on line system. Chasing player availability across our 11 senior captains can take hours every week so it really helps our volunteer captains who are giving up their time if players provide availability
- respond to invites to play / match requests within 8-12 hours to save others time chasing up numbers. If you have to pull out for any reason let captains know asap
Fund-raising
Big weekend ahead with the Car Boot Sale on Monday 29th August - thanks to all the players, friends and family that have volunteered to help set up on Sunday (A few more volunteers needed) and on Monday - we need sun - sellers and buyers so do all you can to get word out there over the weekend !
Cake Stall - donations needed for car boot sale cake sale. Please leave in committee room on Sunday in container labelled with your name, phone no and details of what cakes are and suggested price !
Sponsorship and advertising - we're starting to get some good interest and have found club members asking their contacts / employers works best - so can you help ? See link for details - this is a really great way to support the hockey at Timperley and all we do. We're a community club run by volunteers and we need to raise more than £10,000 a year to support what we do - without this sort of support things like match fees would have to increase so if you can sell a pitch side banner for £300 or two for £500, or a match day sponsorship for £50 you'd be making a real difference
That's all for this week in our final pre season update as from 3rd September weekend hockey will be in full swing for most senior teams and the Academy will be back from 11th September