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Each year we welcome new players to our club. This happens in dribs and drabs throughout the year but we always have a big push in May-June with the England Hockey Back to Hockey initiative. Back to Hockey is a six week programme designed to encourage people who haven’t played for years, or who have never played at all. It’s promoted heavily by England Hockey, and as well as publicity, they provide clubs with fliers, leaflets and posters to help them generate interest.
Over the years, Worksop Ladies have seen lots of players come through the Back to Hockey programme, becoming leading goal scorers, players of the year and some finding themselves in the club’s first team.
The stories are all similar, roll up to Back to Hockey without a clue and end up loving it. I absolutely love this scheme. It can literally change a person’s life. I’ve seen it time after time; and this year was no exception.
Amongst this year’s recruits, we met a woman called Caroline. She was very nervous at her first session and admits that she almost turned around and went home. As well as this, as the weeks went by she was constantly toying with the idea of giving up.
This week, though, Caroline played her first match! So, we asked her to tell us all about her journey, and this is what she told us.
The first step…
“The day of the first back to hockey session was spent thinking up suitable excuses to tell my friend why I couldn’t go. I couldn’t think of anything that she would believe so nervously I set off. My trainers were 10 years old, which I had only bought to do a Race for life ( that I walked) and had to be dug out from the back of the shoe cupboard”.
“On arriving, I felt sick and did ask my friend if we could just go and get back in the car. We started to warm up and I was convinced I’d die before the end of the session. If this was the warm up, how was I going to survive the full hour? I survived. I resembled a beetroot, but I survived. And not only did I survive, I quite enjoyed it. Not that I admitted that out loud at the time”.
Caroline continued, “The following morning I couldn’t get out of bed. Not because I was tired, but because my body no longer worked. I had to lift my legs out one at a time. I felt like someone was stabbing me with hot knives every time I moved, all day. By Sunday, when the pain had gone, I had a sharp realisation that it wasn’t actually long until I had to go back and do it all again and the sickness returned. Why was I putting myself through this? I wasn’t fit, I’d never enjoyed a sport of any kind in my life and here I was, 34 years old, thinking I could survive 6 weeks of this”.
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Caroline after her fisrt 6 weeks
Finding her feet
“Wednesday arrived quicker than I would have liked and I turned up again. By the end of the session I actually had to admit to myself that I’d quite enjoyed it. I enjoyed it so much so that I stayed after the 6 weeks to join in with summer training and even found myself registering with the club.
Now I’m still not very good but I’m having a ball. The girl that has made a life out of hating sports has now purchased her own stick and shoes and looks forward to Wednesdays training”.
“The fear didn’t totally leave though when people mentioned taking part in a match. My initial reaction was to categorically say no. There was no way on earth I was putting myself through the fear and possible (likely) humiliation. As the match date drew closer and all my fellow Back to Hockey mates were agreeing to play, I decided to give it a go. Then came the uniform!”
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Caroline with her Back to Hockey mates
Reality bites
“As someone who is used to keeping my legs safely hidden under trousers the idea of a “skort” was not a pleasant one, then it arrived! It was worse than I’d imagined, so very short, and I tried it on not daring to look in a mirror. My lily white legs blended in with the socks and I wasn’t sure I could be seen in public like it. The only positive I could drag from it was maybe if I looked this silly, it would put the other team off their game!”
“Then match day arrived. I have never felt fear like it. Here I was about to put myself so far out of my comfort zone, I wasn’t sure I’d ever get back. I was nervous that I didn’t know the rules well enough, that I wasn’t good enough and I was going to let the team down”.
“We set off and had such a laugh in the car that I did start to calm down. The feeling of calm was short lived though. When we pulled up in the car park, I wasn’t sure my legs would carry me to the changing rooms, never mind around the pitch!”
“We warmed up and had a quick run through some of the things we might need to do and that was it. Time to face my fears. I still wasn’t certain I could do it, but I did. We all did. Not only did I do it, I loved it! I almost didn’t want it to be over. I was so proud of my Back to Hockey friends and really did feel part of the team. Now here I am waiting for Wednesdays training with a bigger drive to get better and actually looking forward to the next match!”
I think stories like that just prove that with a little encouragement anyone can do something they don’t think they can do. And having met Caroline, I would think this has to be one of the greatest success stories I’ve seen at our club.
So, if you’re reading this and thinking about attending a Back to Hockey, just remember Caroline’s story, and remember that there’s a massive network of support that will get you through those tenuous first few weeks.
You can find out more about Back to Hockey on the England website, with clubs all over the country taking part.