"What's hockey?" someone in Rm 18 asked me on Tuesday.
Well, in just a few minutes the class found out. We went over to the Papatoetoe Sports Club for our training with Counties Manukau on Tuesday afternoon. This was the first of three sessions we will have on hockey with at PSC.
The first thing that happened was we got a brief description of the game and how the sticks work from the coaches.
Our first lesson was mainly about learning the correct way to hold the hockey stick. Here's what we learned:
1. You have to hold the stick so that you only hit the ball with the flat side of the stick.
2. You hold onto it tightly with your left hand at the top (no limp wrists!)
3. You make a L (a back to front one) with your thumb and index finger on your right hand and use this to hold on lower down the handle to control it.
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| Being shown how to make a L-shape with our right hand |
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| Caleb, Arush and Ronnie show us how it's done |
It doesn't matter if you are left handed; everybody holds the sticks the same way so no one gets hurt. And left handed people will have a good strong backhand.
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| Ready to play! |
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| Practicing our swing |
When we got a handle on how to hold the stack, we learned how to do a push pass. This meant we had to put our feet at a right angle to the way we wanted the ball to go and then put the stick against the ball and push the ball away. If you hear a whack when the stick hits the ball, then you are doing it wrong.
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| All lined up opposite our partners |
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| Listening carefully to the coach's directions |
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After a few rounds of passing the ball to our partners we finished our lessons and went on back to class. Rm 18 can't wait to go back again next week and find out more hockey skills.
