The Italian Hockey Promotional Project
The Italian Hockey Federation is working in four ways to develop and promote hockey:
1. Hockey in the schools
2. Hockey Youth festivals
3. Recreational hockey
4. ´Beach hockey´ in the Summer
1. Introducing hockey in the schools.
The school activities proposed will contribute to develop school sports which will help teachers in their educational and formative aims for their pupils. FIH takes part in this activity via the NHA Development Grants.
The aim is of the school project is to spread the knowledge and experience of hockey in:
Level 1: ages 11 to 13 years
Level 2: ages 14 to 18 years
Most of the Federation´s activities are concentrated in the Primary and Level 1 schools, i.e. ages 8 through to 13. We believe that this is an important age group for the following reasons:
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These are formative and receptive ages
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Every activity at this age has a cultural influence
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By starting so young there is the possibility of having a ´ long term plan`
We propose to present our program in the schools as follows:
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a global educational project – what do you mean by this?
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a proposal which will have a high standard of culture, methodology and content
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a collaboration between clubs and schools
In order to bring hockey into schools we have created and will continue to do so, a network of school teachers who will coordinate all activities in a specific geographic area. They will be hockey´s representatives (even perhaps hockey ‘ambassadors’) for schools helped by the clubs in that area. They will be assisted by the `Regional Committees´ in providing assistance in the form of:
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Coaches
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Equipment
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General guidance
2. Promoting hockey through Youth Festivals
The Federation considers that in order to make hockey a fun sport it is also necessary to hold events such as tournaments and festivals. Here children can play and stay together having a lot of fun and also teachers can meet to discuss how projects are developing, solve common problems and organise future programs.
These tournaments and festivals can be organised in collaboration with the various institutional and political bodies whether regional or with specific cities and towns. It is possible to organise a hockey festival or tournament in a particular city or town where some traditional event is held on a specific day of the year. A hockey tournament for under 10´s, 12´s and 14´s can be included in the city or town festival and can be promoted by that city or town. Examples of such festivals carnivals could be:
- The carnival in Viareggio
- The chocolate carnival in Perugia
- The beach festival at Cesenatico
Thus a group would be together for a few days which would involve children, teachers and parents.
3. Recreational hockey
The future of sport will have many different forms and expressions in an atmosphere of continuous development. Young people will participate and practice sport only if:
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They are able to achieve a high level
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They have fun and enjoy doing these activities
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The sport has some formative aims
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In order to achieve these aims as above, the Federation considered a format of so called `RECREATIONAL HOCKEY´.
This would involve a project to make hockey easy to play in say 6 lessons. This would guarantee quick learning and makes it possible to reach a good standard of hockey and this done in an atmosphere of fun! What would be important in this project would be the capability of the child to learn and not necessarily the actual level of competence of the player. What is required is a text that needs to be a guide for schools to enter the world of hockey. Also necessary are the materials necessary to play the game (equipment and facilities) and included in this are the opportunities to play the game during holidays at festivals and tournaments (as in 2 above)
4. Beach Hockey in the Summer
The Federation considers that ´BEACH HOCKEY` is a very fun way to play and get to know what hockey is about. There are simple rules, use of migstiks, and it is easy to find a place to play.
This opens the game of hockey to everyone and it is a perfect place to spend time together having fun and knowing that you will remember this as a fun sport when you have to return home. To be able to participate in beach hockey it is not necessary that you are a regular hockey player. It is a promotional game with equipment (migstik and ball) provided and a good relaxing activity to unite people and have an enjoyable evening.
NB Equipment is, of course, needed in school activities where a special plastic “migstik” makes the game easy and safe.
Our Federation believes that for the successful development of hockey in Italy we need to have these sticks and simple rules in the early learning phases of the game for our junior players.
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