Hockey Ireland would like to welcome everyone in the hockey community to access the ‘Player Development’ resource on the Hockey Ireland Hub E-learning platform. This area of the Hub will focus on assisting all players across many areas of performance, such as strength and conditioning and nutrition.
Hockey Ireland are striving to make sure everyone in the hockey community has access to these key components of player development. We hope these resources will inform, educate, update, and assist players’ physical, mental, and social growth at all levels of hockey.
Through the ‘Player Development’ resources participants can learn the necessary skills to reach their full potential. We aim to provide a well-rounded resource that produces regular articles from leading experts in the field of performance sport. We hope to provide all participants with key information to help them develop as a person and a player.
An interactive approach will be taken where Hockey Ireland endeavors to answer any comments you may have towards articles produced. We hope the comment box will encourage and facilitate discussion on these important topics among the hockey community.
To access the Hockey Ireland E-Learning Hub please go to: https://hockeyirelandhub.ie/
Following the submission of a detailed application covering Club and NGB needs in September 2020, Sport Ireland has today announced the allocation of €240,500 to Hockey Ireland from the ‘Sport Resilience Fund’. The ‘Sport Resilience Fund’ was established by the government earlier this year in recognition that the sports sector is one of the worst impacted sectors by Covid-19.
Minister for Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport & Media, Catherine Martin TD and Minister of State for Sport and Gaeltacht Affairs, Jack Chambers TD, today announced an unprecedented €85 million funding package for the Irish sport sector, which has been significantly impacted by the various Covid-19 restrictions imposed since March 2020. [Sport Ireland Press Release]
CEO of Hockey Ireland, Jerome Pels, said “Hockey Ireland are delighted to receive this funding during these difficult, uncertain times. The past few months have been challenging for our sport between lockdown and playing restrictions. We appreciate this significant support from Sport Ireland and the Government through the Sport Resilience Fund and look forward to working with our clubs to create a positive impact for the sport.”
Hockey Ireland received a total of €240,500 under Scheme 2 and Scheme 3.
“Under Scheme 2: 20 National Governing Bodies will be supported with in excess of €5 million to offset 2020 losses. Broadly, this funding encompasses the loss of income from events, ticket sales, sponsorship, affiliation & membership fees, courses and services and the additional costs arising from the implementation of social distancing and Covid-19 protocols.
While in Scheme 3: The Club Resilience Fund supports Sports Clubs that find themselves in need of assistance due to Covid-19. Sport Ireland will not fund Clubs, Affiliates, Provinces or Branches directly and funding will be accessed through programmes established by each of the National Governing Bodies in receipt of funding.”
You can read the full Sport Ireland press release at: https://www.sportireland.ie/news/eu85-million-provides-timely-boost-to-irish-sport-sector
Hockey Ireland will be contact in due course with the relevant clubs who applied for the Sport Ireland Resilience Fund earlier this year
https://hockey.ie/sport-ireland-resilience-fund/
Hockey Ireland is excited to launch our new E-learning platform. The “Hockey Ireland Hub” aims to offer support to all aspects of the hockey community via courses, helpful downloads and articles. The launch of the Hockey Ireland Hub will see the new “Online Rules Test” being rolled out. The test is the pre-requisite to our umpiring pathway courses, but is also a great way to learn more about hockey as a player, coach, parent or hockey fan!
To access the Hockey Ireland Hub please go to: https://hockeyirelandhub.ie/. This link is also available in several areas of the Hockey Ireland website. You will need to create an account to access the resources on the Hub. All aspects of the site will be updated on continuous basis.
Online rules test
Learn about the rules of hockey and earn a certificate by taking the new ‘Online Rules Test’. The test is the pre-requisite to our umpiring pathway courses, but is also a great way to learn more about hockey as a player, coach, parent or hockey fan! Click here to access the test under the umpiring section. It costs €10 and is valid for 2 years from completion. You have 1 year to complete the course once you have paid. If you require assistance with navigating the e-learning course, please click here.
This test has been developed in partnership with all provincial umpire associations and the IHUA. It has been funded by the Sport Ireland Women in Sport programme. For more information on where the rules test fits into the overall pathway for umpiring, please click here. Please be aware that this is currently a draft form, with further details to come in the coming weeks.
As of midnight, on Wednesday 21st October, the Republic of Ireland is moving to Level 5 COVID-19 restrictions. These restrictions will remain in place for a period of 6 weeks. The effect of these restrictions on Hockey activity have been highlighted below.
These restrictions will apply to all Clubs in the Republic of Ireland.
Under Level 5, individual training only is permitted, and no matches are to take place. The exemptions to this are:
- Non-contact training can continue for school-aged children, outdoors in pods of 15. This means that at no point during the session should a player come within 2m of another player. Exercises involving tackling (such as 1v1s), marking or match play should not be undertaken.
- Elite sports* are permitted to continue behind closed doors – For Hockey this has been defined as the National Senior Men’s and Women’s Programmes. They are permitted to train and play behind closed doors.
*Please note: This category has been defined by the ‘Return to Sport Expert Group’ which has been established by the ROI government to provide guidance to Ireland’s sporting bodies to prepare for the phased return to sporting activity.
Facilities & Travel:
It is permitted to open outdoor sports facilities for training sessions and scheduled matches for the exempted categories of sport, i.e. high performance. It will also be permitted to open outdoor sports facilities for structured training sessions by school aged children, i.e. those aged 18 years and younger, in pods of no more than 15, under the supervision of designated coaches and in compliance with approved COVID-19 protocols and all relevant public health guidance.
During these training sessions, it will only be permitted for participants and relevant coaching and support personnel to be present. In the case of children’s sport, parents will be permitted to attend for child safeguarding purposes, however they will be required to comply with social distancing and other public health advice.
Under Level 5, while domestic travel restrictions do not allow movement outside of a 5-kilometre radius of home, it is permitted to take school-aged children to club training sessions. Club coaches may also travel to training sessions.
Northern Ireland
Ulster Hockey has advised that all hockey club training is suspended until 14 November 2020. This coincides with the timing of the NI Executive’s current restrictions. Please check the Ulster Hockey website for the latest guidance.
Hockey Ireland will continue to follow the developments and will respond as soon as possible to any changes in the situation. Hockey Ireland would like to thank all branches and clubs that worked hard to get hockey competition back under the strict protocols. We hope we will be back again as soon as possible.
The Hockey Ireland Return to Play and Competition Protocol will be updated shortly and available at https://hockey.ie/covid-19/
Please see below for current clarification on Level 5.
NOTICE OF ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING
Notice is hereby given of the Annual General Meeting of
Irish Hockey Company Limited by Guarantee “Hockey Ireland”
on 26th November 2020
This AGM will take place online and registered delegates will receive a link prior to the meeting.
Full details can be found here: HI AGM Notice 20 Oct 2020
On Wednesday 14 October, the Irish government announced the removal of the exemption for senior club championship to be played in Level 3 of the Living with Covid-19 plan.
Following this change, the Board of Hockey Ireland has decided to postpone all hockey competition on an all-Ireland basis until further notice. Training can proceed subject to Hockey Ireland protocols and restrictions and any restrictions that may apply locally.
This also means that the Interprovincial Competitions scheduled for the end of October are postponed. Hockey Ireland recognises the time and energy the Interprovincial Working Group and the provincial teams have put into the preparations for these games. Suitable dates for the running of the competitions will be considered.
Elite hockey activity can proceed, and this applies to the Irish Senior Men and Irish Senior Women’s teams only.
Hockey Ireland would like to acknowledge the work of the clubs that has gone into hosting games over the last few weeks. The support of volunteers to follow the protocols and keep our players safe has been phenomenal. We must endeavour to keep club hockey activity going whilst we continue to observe Covid-19 guidelines and hopefully, we can resume competition soon.
Congratulations to two of our umpires Amy Jones and Victoria Johnston both of which are mentees on our Elite Umpire Development Programme funded by Women in Sport. Having joined their Provincial Panel before Lockdown in March 2020 both Girls have been awarded a place on the EHF Umpire 4 Nations (U4N) one year programme finshing with the Push Tournament in Breda from 20th-22nd August 2021. The programme includes mentoring, observational learning and practical appointments. They Join Richard McNabb who had a place on the programme last year which was interupted by Covid-19.
In the photo attached (L-R) Victoria Johnston, Kim Collins (IHUA), Amy Jones.
