We were delighted to welcome Olympian, GB and England player Calum Giles to Winchester HC for our virtual fireside chat on Wednesday evening, where he shared his experiences from his first taste of hockey at age 5, through to the fun side of coaching via some of his 140+ international caps.

With many insights into the international scene, (including some not so glamorous anecdotes), he covered some good tips for all our youngsters determined to keep improving their game, and some great takeaways.

Certainly at all levels of competitive hockey, goal scoring is the prime objective - the need to get in the “D”, and get the shot in is the only way to win, and as Calum rightly identified, you might score once and the Keeper may make 5 saves, but the goal is the thing that changes the game. His complete focus on the match, on the delivery technique and eliminating all distraction to deliver great goals, definitely helped in the delivery of 110 international goals in just six years.

The chat was nicely hosted by our own President and Olympian Simon Hazlitt who had skippered the GB side in India and Atlanta during Calum’s early international career, while questions from the audience revealed the time commitment and focus of self practice, and the raw emotion of hearing and singing the national anthem (at any speed) preceding an international match. And the importance of knowing the words to both the anthem and Rule Brittania!

Thanks to Calum & Simon; a great way to spend a winter evening, and we look forward to meeting our next chat guest soon.