Saturday 29 February 2020

Hockey Heroes Helping Children Discover Their Hidden Super Powers

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Do you have children aged between 5 and 8 years old? If so then you need to read on and learn all about Hockey Heroes which my 5-year-old son has just taken part in and thoroughly enjoyed. Hockey Heroes is a fun way for children aged 5-8 years of age with no previous Hockey experience to learn about the sport in a fun way, the programme lasts for 6 weeks and is a great introduction to Hockey and team sports for young children.

J taking part in Hockey Heroes lesson

What is Hockey Heroes? 

Hockey Heroes is a fun and empowering program aimed at children aged 5-8 that aims to develop both their physical skills and character 'super powers' helping them unlock the hero inside them! It is a six-week introductory programme for beginners.


It costs £32 to take part and you will receive six one hour lessons, plus a Hockey Heroes t-shirt with your child's name on and two plastic Hockey sticks and a ball which you get to keep. Which I think is amazing value.

Hockey Heroes is suitable for boys and girls and for children of all abilities, with the focus of the lessons being on having fun. The lessons are taught in small groups and have a superhero theme to them and the instructors even dress as superheroes and the children are rewarded with stickers at the end of each session for unlocking their hidden superpowers.

J dribbling hockey ball at home in the garden

It is really great for helping young children get active, learn a new sport, make new friends and to learn about teamwork, it also helps to build their confidence all whilst having fun. Each week the sessions had a different focus such as learning to dribble the ball, pass, goal scoring etc and we also received weekly emails from the coach with ideas of things we could try at home which Jacob loved trying.

Signing Up

When I was originally approached about taking part in Hockey Heroes I was going to sign my 6-year-old daughter up as I wrongly thought that hockey was more of a girl sport. However I decided to sign my 5-year-old son up instead as I thought he would enjoy it more and I was so glad I did as there were loads of other boys there, there was actually nine boys and one girl in his sessions. 

Hockey Heroes lesson at the Parks North Shields

Hockey Heroes sessions run at Hockey clubs all over the country, here in the North East there are sessions at Tynedale Hockey Club in Hexham, Durham Hockey Club or Whitley Bay and Tynemouth Hockey Club which is at the Parks in North Shields. We attended the Whitley Bay and Tynemouth sessions on a Tuesday evening at 5.45-6.45pm. 

Before your first session, you will be sent a parcel containing your kit of branded t-shirt, two hockey sticks and a ball so you can practice at home as well as at your sessions.  

Taking Part

Arriving at our first session we were warmly greeted by coach Amy and helper Iona who were both dressed as superheroes with capes on. They were so friendly and Jacob instantly liked them both as they were so patient and great with the children and made the sessions lots of fun. 

Whitley Bay and Tynemouth Hockey Heroes lesson

At the start of each session, parents are encouraged to take part with their children, just passing and dribbling the ball and let's face it kids love getting parents involved. During the lessons, children were showing basic hockey skills as some children like mine were total beginners who had no idea how to hold a hockey stick while some of the older children had siblings who played and knew the basics already. Due to the small class sizes, the children all got shown how to master the skills and by the end of the course they were all doing really well. 

The sessions were really fun and a lot of it was made into games which really captured the children's imagination. By the end of the course, they were all dribbling and passing and playing little mini hockey matches, they had all improved so much in such a short space of time. 

Hockey Heroes Player of the week

Each week one player who had worked hard during class was awarded Hockey Hero Player of the week and got to take home the cape and mask for a week, Jacob got to take it home one week and he was so happy. 

Hockey Player of the week cape

What we thought

Jacob only recently turned five so he was one of the younger children in his group but he really enjoyed taking part in Hockey Heroes. He does play football and he does football training and plays in football tournaments already so he has some experience of team sports so he found playing hockey a bit similar and really enjoyable. 

He absolutely loved the coaches and he was always asking them for help which they were happy to do with all of the children. Every single child in the group seemed to enjoy the sessions, they were all getting involved and running about laughing and having fun and you could see their confidence growing each week. 

hockey heroes lesson

Jacob enjoyed taking part in Hockey Heroes so much that we are thinking of signing him up for future sessions as he really enjoyed learning to play hockey. As a parent I think that Hockey Heroes is a great introduction to hockey for young children, it is affordable and you get all the equipment you need when you sign up - so no having to go out and buy equipment before you know if your child will stick at it. The six-week course is great for teaching children the basics and seeing if they are interested or not before committing to proper lessons. 

Plus it is teaching children a sport that they may not know a lot about, as I know where we live in the North-East children just seem to be into football or rugby and hockey is not something any of my children's friends take part in. 

dribbling at hockey heroes lesson

If you think your child would enjoy Hockey Heroes as much as mine did you can find out more and sign up at www.play.englandhockey.co.uk/hockeyheroes  with sessions starting at Durham, Tynedale  (Hexham) and Norton (Teeside) in early March. 

Disclosure We received free Hockey Heroes sessions and were compensated for writing this post, however, all opinions are my own. 




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9 comments

  1. What a fab idea - I know my kids would have enjoyed this when they were younger. Looks like great fun - and anything to keep them away from the screens a bit longer!

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  2. Aww this sounds like so much fun! My eldest is about to turn five years old, so I will look into this for her :)

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  3. My daughter is six but has never tried hockey before. The programme sounds like it would be perfect for her.

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  4. My eldest took part in this and quite enjoyed! It was fun to get her working in a team and doing something outdoors!!

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  5. What a fun way of getting children outdoors more. This looks like a lot of fun.

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  6. What a great price for these sessions, it looks super fun too.

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  7. I think it's great that these type of sporting sessions are available for children to try out. We had a football one local to us that was a huge hit with some of the local children :)

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  8. Oh wow well this looks like lots of fun. I think if my girl had a chance at doing something like this she would love to.

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  9. I used to love playing hockey as a child. That’s a really good price for 6 lessons

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