Mintridge Bronze Hockey Programme with Shona McCallin MBE
Mintridge Bronze Hockey Programme with Shona McCallin MBE at Witham Hall Prep School
On Tuesday 29th September, Team Mintridge had their first school visit since March! We travelled to Witham Hall Prep School, for a day of hockey with the wonderful Shona McCallin MBE. The school were really excited for this special visit from our Olympic gold medallist and Team GB hockey superstar. With a few extra considerations in place, and a safe plan of action for the day, Team Mintridge had their face masks on ready for a day of hockey.
The day started with Year 3 and 4 games, with twenty-six very enthusiastic children, who were very excited to see Shona in her Great Britain tracksuit! Shona worked on a variety of skills with the students and taught the students how to dribble with control and talked in detail about why it is important to encourage others in a game situation. Team Mintridge made sure that there was time for socially distanced photographs with Shona at the end of the session for the students. One girl said to Shona, “this is the best hockey lesson ever!”
As we moved through the day, Shona got to work with both boys and girls from the school, who all worked extremely hard on the hockey specific skills that Shona had planned for them. Shona applauded the efforts of the children in the session and their hard work and determination throughout the drills. Shona spoke to the students about why it is important to play at their maximum potential, even in training, as this is what wins gold medal matches.
Under 11 girls games commenced in the afternoon, with the biggest group of the day so far. Shona’s session consisted of four mini games, focusing on agility, teamwork, perseverance and tactical thinking! The girls rotated around each group, so they all got some expert coaching from Shona and could pick up some top tips from her in each of their drills. The session ended with a really good Q&A from the students, some of the best questions were;
“How many goals have you scored in international matches?”
“Do you ever get nervous before a competition?”
“When did you start playing hockey?”
“How many caps do you have?”
We managed to squeeze in some socially distanced photographs and Shona was also asked to sign all the girls hockey sticks, so with her mask and gloves on, she did just that!
The final group of the day was the under 13 girls. Shona kept the tempo high in this session and the girls all worked extremely hard. With a few extra minutes at the end of this session too, the students were keen to ask Shona some questions about her playing career;
“Who was your toughest opponent in the Olympics?”, to which Shona replied, “probably Australia, as on paper they were stronger than us and we battled really hard and won.”
Another pupil asked, “Can you play multiple positions?”, Shona replied, “my coach once said that they needed people to play more than one position, as we do not have any subs! So, it is important to play more than one position to understand the game better.”
It was so great to be back in school for the first visit at the year and we are looking forward to more visits to come with our COVID safety procedures in place! It is always so great to see the impact our programmes have on the students we work with, and this was definitely the case with Shona’s visit on Tuesday, as the students were desperate for Shona to come back and visit again.
A big thank you to the staff and students at Witham Prep for their help and support with this programme and for inviting Shona to deliver this special day for them.
We can’t wait to visit you again soon!
If you would like to see any photos or videos from the day, please contact the staff at Witham Hall Prep School.
To find out more about our Mintridge Mentoring Programmes that can be delivered remotely, or if you are interested in a school or club visit from one of our Mintridge Ambassadors, then please get in touch with The Mintridge Foundation, via any of our social media channels, or send an email to katie@mintridge.org.uk.