The Great Britain women’s Ice Hockey team attended their 2nd off ice training day at the University of Gloucestershire on 31st August 2014.
The women’s squad received full screening, purchase fitness testing and sports psychology sessions with the day culminating in fully individualized strength and conditioning plans developed from our Sports Therapy and Strength and Conditioning students.
The training event, arranged by Kirsty Hopgood (Sports Therapist) from the Sports Therapy team and Dr Jonathan Hughes (Course Leader – MSc Strength and Conditioning) from the Strength and Conditioning Team, was part of a development plan make the sport more professional in this country. It was run in conjunction with Ice Hockey UK, and was part of the squad’s preparation for the World Championships in Dumfries, Scotland in April.
Since the first camp that was run back in February 2014 the women’s team have made significant strides in improving their off-ice fitness with several players making large gains in their physical capacities. Dr Jonathan Hughes said “This is an enormous credit to the women for taking the programme and support offered to them by the university to make these gains, they are being treated as professional athletes and these gains are reflective of the commitment they have put in and will now be able to start benefiting from these in games”
From the perspective of the University of Gloucestershire, hosting the camps also gave around 20 students an opportunity to work with an international sports team, and benefit from the experience that this has given them.