Youngest Youth

Do you like being outside and moving? Maybe hockey is something for you! At HCY, young children are also very welcome and you can start with the youngest youth from the age of 6.

With the youngest youth, playing fun is the starting point. Teams are not formed to win, but we try to train a player as broadly as possible. Here, going to training and matches with pleasure every week is the most important thing.

We offer a safe environment to learn the game of hockey through play and to experience the excitement of winning and losing. This way they discover at a young age how important working together in a team is.

Lines within the youngest youth

The youngest youth are all children between the ages of 6 and 10. The children are divided into different lines based on their age.

The Coolkids are all children who are at least 6 years old on October 1st of the hockey season, but not yet 7 years old. They start playing hockey in groups of three and train 1 hour per week

The "Under 8" children are at least 7 years old on October 1 of the hockey season, but not yet 8 years old. They also play in groups of three and train 1 hour per week.

The "Under 9" children are at least 8 years old on October 1 of the hockey season, but not yet 9 years old. They play in groups of six with a rotating goalkeeper on a quarter of the field. Within the youngest youth, players do not yet have a fixed position and they learn all positions on the field. Goalkeeping is also part of this, every week a different player has a turn to fill this role. The "Under 9" trains 1 hour per week.

The "Under 10" children are at least 9 years old on October 1 of the hockey season, but not yet 10 years old. They play in groups of eight on half a field. Also in "Under 10" the goalkeeper has a rotating role in the team. The training sessions for this group are 2x per week 1 hour.

Layouts

At the start of the new season, in principle all teams from the Coolkids will flow through as an "Under 8" team in the KNHB competition on Saturday. If the fun of the game seems to be compromised, for example due to insufficient team composition or if the group dynamics have not proven to be ideal, then teams can be re-assigned.

In the "Under 9" and "Under 10" line there is no selection but active composition.

The transition from "Under 9" to "Under 10" always leads to a new team division, because the number of players on the field changes. The teams are re-divided based on information that is collected by the line coordinator from the coaches and trainers. The division is made into teams where the game experience is central. Within the "Under 10" we want to give everyone a chance to grow further in playing matches as a team. We expect that children can learn from each other by playing matches together. We look for balance in a team by a mix of children based on technique, playing in positions and teamwork. In this way, the children can motivate each other and learn from each other.

The transition from "Under 10" to "Under 12" is the transition to the juniors. Consultation takes place between the line coordinators of those two lines. The selection policy applies to this.

All teams within the youngest youth are placed in a KNHB class for the first period by HCY, the following periods teams are re-classified by the KNHB based on the results. Within the youngest youth no rankings are kept, the match results are only used for re-classification of the different pools by the KNHB.

Downloads

Information set for the youngest youth season 2024-2025

Welcome to the hockey field: Fun and development for your child (KNHB)