Ross is currently in Lille in France with Kelburne Hockey Club-as Scottish champions, they are the country's representatives in the EuroHockey Club Champions Trophy.
The following is a report from him on the day of arrival on the Continent.
Hello everyone at SPACE Clinics!
This event is similar to that of the EUROPA League in Football, and Kelburne are hoping with some realistic expectation, to win the event having experience in recent years in the EPL which is the equivalent of the Champions league in Football. The event is running from Friday 6th of April to Monday 9th of April, and is pretty brutal on the players with 4 back to back games.
Each squad is allowed to name 16 players with 11 playing at anyone time, and rolling subs allowed. In any Hockey tournament a strong squad is required as under the competition conditions there is precious little time for recovery, which will likely make me a very busy boy indeed. For those interested a link to the tournament website can be found here:
EuroHockey Champions Trophy Information
After getting up at 5am and by using a cunning and elaborate transport system of planes, trains and automobiles, I finally arrived in Lille around lunchtime, somewhat exhausted from carrying all my kit up a number of flights of stairs at Lille train station.
With the issues of the previously mentioned tough tournament schedule and limited squad availability in mind you can imagine my delight on finally getting a wifi signal and opening my emails, to discover injury status updates from a couple of colleagues working with Scottish Hockey.
The email was basically not great reading, reporting that a number of the guys are either carrying or still rehabilitating from injury. This has complicated matters for me somewhat as I am not working from a clean slate so to speak, but now have to assess and judge fitness levels in the one training session available prior to the tournament beginning.
My goal was to determine strategies for the players and coaches by establishing who is going to be available for which games, and to what extent i.e how much pitch time/exposure they can safely have. This involved pushing the guys as hard and as safely as I felt appropriate, bearing in mind they were to compete the next day. In an ideal world all 16 would be readily available for all 4 matches (barring in match injuries). Currently we are working more towards certain players picking and choosing their matches as best I can guess they will be able to physically cope.
After quickly reading the important and useful information in my emails, the squad literally dropped off their kit and went straight to lunch, then straight from lunch for 1hrs pitch time at the tournament venue. This training time allowed the players to familiarize themselves with the conditions, and me to conduct fitness tests and assess players in functional activities, it also gave the squad the opportunity to check out the opposition who were on the pitch prior to us and after us.
Fortunately both teams were in our group, and my own personal view is that the Welsh team look like they might prove stiffer opposition than the Italian team called Roma who we play tomorrow 12pm kick off local time.
Currently the guys are all in good spirits and are optimistic of a good result tomorrow.
I'll keep you all posted as to how things go.
The following is a report from him on the day of arrival on the Continent.
Hello everyone at SPACE Clinics!
This event is similar to that of the EUROPA League in Football, and Kelburne are hoping with some realistic expectation, to win the event having experience in recent years in the EPL which is the equivalent of the Champions league in Football. The event is running from Friday 6th of April to Monday 9th of April, and is pretty brutal on the players with 4 back to back games. 
Each squad is allowed to name 16 players with 11 playing at anyone time, and rolling subs allowed. In any Hockey tournament a strong squad is required as under the competition conditions there is precious little time for recovery, which will likely make me a very busy boy indeed. For those interested a link to the tournament website can be found here:EuroHockey Champions Trophy Information
After getting up at 5am and by using a cunning and elaborate transport system of planes, trains and automobiles, I finally arrived in Lille around lunchtime, somewhat exhausted from carrying all my kit up a number of flights of stairs at Lille train station.
With the issues of the previously mentioned tough tournament schedule and limited squad availability in mind you can imagine my delight on finally getting a wifi signal and opening my emails, to discover injury status updates from a couple of colleagues working with Scottish Hockey.
The email was basically not great reading, reporting that a number of the guys are either carrying or still rehabilitating from injury. This has complicated matters for me somewhat as I am not working from a clean slate so to speak, but now have to assess and judge fitness levels in the one training session available prior to the tournament beginning.
My goal was to determine strategies for the players and coaches by establishing who is going to be available for which games, and to what extent i.e how much pitch time/exposure they can safely have. This involved pushing the guys as hard and as safely as I felt appropriate, bearing in mind they were to compete the next day. In an ideal world all 16 would be readily available for all 4 matches (barring in match injuries). Currently we are working more towards certain players picking and choosing their matches as best I can guess they will be able to physically cope.
After quickly reading the important and useful information in my emails, the squad literally dropped off their kit and went straight to lunch, then straight from lunch for 1hrs pitch time at the tournament venue. This training time allowed the players to familiarize themselves with the conditions, and me to conduct fitness tests and assess players in functional activities, it also gave the squad the opportunity to check out the opposition who were on the pitch prior to us and after us.
Fortunately both teams were in our group, and my own personal view is that the Welsh team look like they might prove stiffer opposition than the Italian team called Roma who we play tomorrow 12pm kick off local time.
Currently the guys are all in good spirits and are optimistic of a good result tomorrow.
I'll keep you all posted as to how things go.
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