Our Foundation Section is the programme at Stone HC for players from school years 1 through to 5. We aim to provide a fun and enjoyable introduction to hockey, including mastery of basic physical and hockey-specific technical skills, and offering weekly opportunities for gameplay both within the club and against other local clubs. Our Foundation Programme is led by Fran Gamble who works alongside our Junior Committee to ensure our Little Eagles have great opportunities to play, develop, socialise and have fun.

Foundation Training
Foundation Phase coached training sessions take place on a Tuesday evening from 6-7pm at our Enson Lane venue. The Head of Foundation leads a team of fantastic Foundation Coaches who deliver sessions in line with EH Guidance on Golden Thread and Change It methods with player coach ratios no more that 8:1. Our session groups are (generally) determined by age but there may be exceptions to ensure we can provide adequate development and stretch for all of our players.

New Members
All that we hope for from our new Junior Members is the enthusiasm to want to get active, make friends and find out about hockey. We offer up to 4 weeks of taster sessions to players to help them consider whether hockey at Stone HC is right for them. We can provide hockey sticks for trial sessions, disinfected within hygiene guidance. Mouth guards and shin pads are required, and we are looking at having an onsite shop in the near future to be able to purchase these from.

Competitions
All our Foundation players in the U8 and U10 age groups have the opportunity to take part in Mixed Festivals on Sundays arranged throughout the season. These festivals involve teams from a number of local clubs and take place in a 7aside format on half a pitch. This is a fantastic provision for our junior players to develop as both players and people in an unpressurised matchplay environment.
For our U8s & U10s the highlight of the year has to be the In2Hockey Championships in Feb/Mar where our Junior teams have the opportunity to test themselves against all clubs from across Staffordshire.