Jelly Babies

Poor old Jack Zoers-Benstead’s had a hard week. First he got sent off in the cold against Ashby, then he twinged his neck in training and now he’s answering my pointless questions after a hard day’s coaching. I asked him about his role in helping out with the ladies threes this year.

“The ladies threes operate with a leadership team rather than having an individual captain running the whole show. This arose from not having a captain available at the beginning of the season, but the system seems to work well.”

“I have an interim role in the team, alongside Marti Vila Riera, who helps out with coaching and training. Liv Witts operates as the on-pitch captain and I help out from the side when I can. It’s a plan that works because the team is self-managing. They play the same system as the rest of the ladies teams – an attacking 4-3-3 – and this means players can interchange as they move through the side. High attackers are able to make leads, press and cover the zones.”

The leadership team seems to work, but why does it differ from the men’s set-up. There appears to be a gender imbalance in team management.

“There is, but I think it is a wider issue. I would agree that hockey and sport coaching and development for girls doesn’t appear to be pushed as much as for boys, but the opportunities are there and they just need more encouragement; and we do have ladies coaches coming through, such as Trinny Phipps and Maddie Down.”

It would be good to see ladies coaching across the whole club. “Sometimes a more compassionate approach to coaching can provide a more rounded experience for players. It would be good to break down the stigma of having predominantly male coaching staff.”  

I spoke to Liv earlier in the week, as she managed to write a match report about last weekend’s game, in between university studies.

We’ve been playing well so far this season, getting to know each other’s strengths. We’ve had some good wins and some games where we should have won!  We all knew that this week’s match would be a tricky game as we faced top of the table, Long Buckby. The weather wasn’t in our favour with close to freezing temperatures but all the ladies ploughed ahead.

Started the half with a speedy goal from Elsa which Long Buckby wasn’t expecting however they countered back with a goal to return.

Half time came around with a few jelly babies to perk everyone up and wise words from Jack who was thankfully helping us out on the sideline.

We kept our heads up going into the second half and managed to slip another one past their keeper by Caroline.

Unfortunately we ended with a 5-2 loss but now putting that behind us to prepare for our next game.

Elsa voted our MoM