LOCAL hockey players were given a rare treat earlier this week when they took part in training clinics run by local representative star Samuel Mould and French international player Maxence Lecointe.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Mould moved to France last year to follow his own playing dream and after spending a season with Lille, with Lecointe as a teammate, he is back in Australia and made the trip home to Dubbo for a few days to help pass on some advice.
Dubbo Hockey Association’s Simon Callaghan, who is also Mould’s uncle, helped organise the sessions and said they were far more advanced than any session seen here before.
“They were just awesome, it was above anything else we’ve had in this town,” he said.
“He said he was coming home for a few days and asked if we could do it so we made it a focus for the representative kids and for the ones at that high level to realise they still have to work on the basics of shooting, trapping and passing.”
Mould, a striker by trade, put a focus on goalscoring while the more defensive-minded Lecointe showed the aspiring youngsters how to control games from the middle of the field.
“It’s not everyday we get someone like Max (Lecointe),” Callaghan said.
“The kids got heaps out of it, the main focus from Samuel was on the goalscoring as he is a striker and also on setting up play inside the ‘D’ and body position to get past players.
“Max is a centre-mid and a bit more defensive so he was a little bit more about distributing the ball and settling play.”
Lecointe, who has played in the European Championship and has been a member of French national squad training, said he enjoyed his time at Dubbo and passing on his experience to the next wave of local talents.
He made the most of the trip by taking visits to Taronga Western Plains Zoo and the Wellington Caves but said coaching the eager juniors was another highlight.
“Everything we do, we do with a purpose,” he said.
“We don’t trap just to trap, we don’t train just to train, we don’t pass just to pass, we do everything with a purpose and the most important thing is to enjoy what we do because without that it becomes a ‘job’.”
While the clinics were hugely beneficial for local juniors, Callaghan said it didn’t stop there with local coaches also attending the sessions while Mould admitted to working on his own game during the sessions.
“He’s (Mould) improved by miles and he said even at these clinics it was great for him because it reinforces for him what he has to keep doing,” he said.
“We’ll still keep working on these things, the representative coaches came along and picked up on things so we can keep drumming these skills into the teams.”
