England Hockey's New Strategy Promises To Make The Sport More Visible, Relevant, And Accessible

_{Photography by Mike Howell}

'Creating A Future for Our Game Together' - England Hockey's new strategy promises to make the sport more visible, relevant, and accessible

With an aim to make the sport of hockey more visible, relevant and accessible to all, England Hockey on 3 October announced the launch of a new strategy - 'Creating A Future For Our Game Together'.

This new five-year strategy is a continued effort by England Hockey to engage and re-engage with the hockey community to share the love of the game and bring new people into the sport in the future. 

The strategy promises to amplify the hockey story to ensure the sport continues to bring together generations of people regardless of age, ability, or background.  

Collaborate Inclusively, Care for People and Places, Play with Spirit Win with Grace, and Resilient in Everything We Do, are the four values that underpin the strategy and are what the hockey community has told us are important to them.

The strategy is built on the two years of consultation with stakeholders from across the game and the sporting sector. There are five key objectives on which the sport will be guided by for the next five years.  

The five objectives are:

• Lead Positive Change: to create and champion positive change within the community by broadening and widening the engagement of the sport and making it more ethnically and culturally diverse.
• Meaningful Growth: to make sure that our sport thrives and grows into the future, we want to nurture a love of hockey within a more diverse group of young players and communities to reflect society.
• Drive Visible Impact: to produce and release high-quality, engaging content that shares the love of the game, captures the passion, builds a deep connection and amplifies the voices of the hockey community with new and existing participants.
• Responsible Leadership: to provide forward thinking, compassionate and inclusive leadership. Leadership that fosters trust within physically and psychologically safe environments and which puts players, the community and sustainability at heart of every decision.
• Inspirational International Success: inspirational club and national teams delivering podium success in Europe and on the world stage, underpinned by a thriving talent system and domestic game.

Moreover, the ‘Creating A Future For Our Game Together’ strategy aligns with Sport England’s ‘Uniting the Movement’ strategy and UK Sport’s ‘Powering Success, Inspiring Impact’ strategic plan - both aiming to transform lives and enable extraordinary moments.

England Hockey CEO, Nick Pink, said: “We are immensely proud of the work that has gone into this strategy, and I know everyone at England Hockey is excited to begin working with the hockey community to bring it to life.

“We all love hockey and the positive impact that our sport has on people’s mental and physical wellbeing as well as bringing people together.

“This is your sport, but we want to provide the support for you to develop your club and the sport in your community.”

More information and a download link for the strategy can be found here