Hockey is a rapidly growing sport in Ghana and is proving extremely popular with many schools and communities across the country. Many young Ghanaians are eager to play the game but, sadly, there are few opportunities to do so, especially at the grassroots end of the sport. This hockey coaching project will allow you to pass on your playing and coaching knowledge, enabling more children in Ghana to take part in fun, structured hockey activities. By organising coaching sessions and hockey matches in the local community you will be able to make a significant impact to this emerging sport.

 

Our hockey coaching projects are based in the KEEA District, a beautiful coastal area in Ghana’s Central Region, about 3 hours from the capital city, Accra. As a volunteer coach, you will help to create more hockey opportunities for the children in the schools and local community. You will be assigned to one of the schools in the local community where the hockey players range from 10 to 16 years old, and vary in talent. Your players will train and play hard during your hockey coaching sessions, many dreaming of representing Ghana one day. However, coaching hockey in Ghana is not all about slick stick skills and intense training. Your main goal is to simply allow more young athletes to play as part of a structured hockey team, giving them a sense of belonging and positive environment to learn and develop in.

 

We therefore welcome hockey volunteers with varied levels of coaching experience. We just ask that you have played hockey on a regular basis, have a good understanding of the game and possess a basic grounding in coaching principles. Enthusiasm and commitment will fill in the rest. So, whether you are a school, club or county player, or even a qualified coach, you are sure to be able to contribute greatly to the development of hockey in Africa through this sports project.

 

As a hockey volunteer, you will start by working with local coaches in the schools, introducing the basics of the game to 10-16 year olds. This will often be during PE lessons but you will also be encouraged to create after school hockey clubs for the keener players. You will need a good understanding of how to teach the game because many of the children will have never seen it played before. They will therefore have very little, if any, understanding of the rules. However, with your dedication and perseverance, the children will soon pick it up and prove to be strong hockey players. By introducing the basics of position holding, passing and tackling techniques, your hockey players will develop rapidly. You will also have plenty of support during the hockey project from our in-country team and our other volunteer sports coaches. This collaboration is great for organising sports days or hockey matches between different teams. You will also see that the competition between the volunteers can get quite fierce at times – but all in the name of good sportsmanship! However, whether it’s complex short corner routines or intense fitness training, you will soon develop your own hockey coaching programme unique to you and your hockey players.

 

A hockey gap year in Ghana allows you to combine gap year volunteering with gap year hockey coaching. You will meet lots of other gap year sports volunteers in Ghana, experience gap year travel in Ghana and return home with fantastic gap year memories in Ghana.