Dunfermline and Carnegie Hockey club players, Nicola Crawford, Sarah Deighan and Ruth Poole travelled to Glasgow to meet and learn from Maddie Hinch MBE, who is hosting camps around the UK this summer. It is a great opportunity to receive top quality coaching from the recently retired Hinch and other top-quality players/coaches she brings on board for the camps including the Dutch internationalist Donja Zwinkels.
The camp was attended by around 20 other goalkeepers from across Scotland, which meant the trio got to have quality individual input within their small groups.
For Nicola, facing shots from a Dutch international legend was an incredible experience. “Both Maddie and Donja gave us great advice and pushed us to our limits. The journey back to hockey from my ACL tear has been tough and this camp felt like a huge achievement in my return to the pitch.”
Sarah’s experience was about learning a lot in a short time. “Being able to have having world class goalies’ critique and improve your play is great”.
For Ruth, the opportunity to get top class coaching is always a winner. “Having the opportunity to develop skills and techniques and learn new ones whilst being pushed to be the best that you can, by the best in the world is invaluable, just knowing you can save strikes from international players such as Donja, is a huge confidence boost, and no she was not going easy on us!”
To round off their evening, Nicola and Ruth were crowned joint Camp Champions after the final fun timed shot saving round ended up with the pair facing a running penalty each from Donja Zwinkels to determine a winner. With nothing to separate the teammates, they both took home the prize, each receiving one of Maddie’s shirts.
