Series 4 Episode 6 - This month on the EuroHockey Institute Podcast, we have an extra special guest with FIH World Cup winner Christopher Rühr talking to Jack Rolfe. They discuss coaching creativity, motivation and how this marries with the high-level tactical awareness that is synonymous with German hockey. Have a listen to this fascinating chat with one of the sport's current superstars!

To celebrate International Women’s Day, we have a special EuroHockey Institute Podcast this month with Shirley McCay, Ireland’s most capped sportsperson who is now making a major impact on the next generation.

Her story is symbolic of the “Green Army” and their rise from nowhere to the top table in the world, reaching the 2018 World Cup final.

She speaks to Jack Rolfe about growing up far from the hockey hubs of Ireland but how her background helped shape her, how her ‘stubbornness and steeliness’ drove her to never wonder ‘what if’.

Beyond her playing days, she has had a direct influence in guiding and inspiring the next generation. She has been involved for almost a decade as a talent coach with Ulster Hockey, the northern province in Ireland, overseeing programmes from primary school level up to Under-21 level.

Her approach is very much a player-centred one, making sure to listen to athletes and observe the new evolutions in the sport rather than hark back to the elements which influenced her early career.

Enjoy episode five of this fourth series of the EuroHockey Institute Podcast.

Series 4, Episode 4: Norman Hughes talks to Jack Rolfe about his remarkable life in hockey, from a reticent 16-year-old who took up the game when he "wasn't big enough" for football.

From the sulphur-fumed pitches of northern England, he would soon travel the world, winning Olympic and World Cup medals as a player and then coaching the Great Britain senior men on the highest stage.

Hughes went on to use those experiences in his role as the EHF's Education and Development Manager and playing a pioneering role in the growth of Hockey ID in Europe.

With candour and humour, he speaks to Jack about his love affair with the sport.

Series 4 Episode 3: In our first EuroHockey Institute podcast for 2023, Jack Rolfe speaks to the wonderful Cecilia Rognoni.

She reflects on an outstanding playing career, highlighted by Argentina’s breakthrough Olympic silver medal and the “best tournament of my life”: World Cup gold in 2002 in Perth when she was named player of the tournament.

The journey took her to the Netherlands to initially play and then coach. Cecilia talks about those experiences - and playing with Luciana Aymar - and how they have informed her coaching, specifically on the importance of giving freedom to players and the tools to solve problems on the field as well as the separation between the role of a coach and trainer.

Series 4 Episode 2 - “I don’t find it my work! I can do this 24 hours a day with zero remorse. I love it. It’s a full time hobby!”

Tin Matkovic speaks to Jack Rolfe about his journey in hockey, from its beginnings in Croatia to playing, coaching and umpiring across Europe. It has been a hugely varied set of experiences, feeding his “addiction” to the sport and has taken him to the EHL Men’s KO8 with SV Arminen, the Junior World Cup with Austria and, most recently, to Berliner Hockey Club where he is currently the women’s first team coach.

He reflects on the challenges of coming from a smaller nation on the hockey scene and how the EHF’s education programmes - Coaches 4 Europe and the Top Coaches Programme - had an influential role in his personal evolution.

Despite his many adventures, though, he reckons he still has some catching up to do to his star umpire girlfriend Ivona Makar when it comes to major tournaments!

Helen started her international career in 1999 at the age of 17 and became the youngest ever woman to represent GB hockey at an Olympics in Sydney the following year. She went on to compete at four Olympic Games and as part of the senior leadership group played a central role in propelling the women’s game to victory on the world stage at Rio 2016. As she stepped on to the podium alongside her team mate and wife, GB captain Kate Richardson-Walsh, they also entered Olympic history as the first same sex married couple to win an Olympic medal playing for the same team.

Tune-in to Helen in conversation with Jack Rolfe, as they discuss the exciting journey and where and what Helen is doing now in sport pyschology and team leadership.

Robin Rösch is a coach with extensive, successful, and international experience in top-class hockey. Whether as a sports director, as a coach, or even as a coach educator for the EHF and FIH.

Robin is currently the sports director at SC Frankfurt 1880 and the Head Coach of the Austrian Men and U21 teams.

Tune-in to Robin in conversation with Jack Rolfe, founder of The Coaching Lab, as they discuss indoor hockey, Robin’s journey and more.

With more than 300 international caps for Trinidad and Tobago, Kwan Browne has had an illustrious 17-year international career. A career that has seen him represent his country at the Commonwealth games, Pan American Games and Pan American Cup. Add to this his domestic career for Canterbury, East Grinstead and Hampstead & Westminster and you begin to see why Kwan is such a stalwart of the global hockey community.

Alongside playing, Kwan has become a distinguished coach, having been heavily involved in the GB junior system and Elite Development Programme. Kwan now acts as player/coach for Hampstead & Westminster, Head of Hockey for Mill Hill school and as an assistant coach for England and GB senior men’s squad.

Listen to Kwan in conversation with Jack Rolfe, founder of The Coaching Lab, as they discuss the dynamic of player/coach, his coaching principles and youth development.

Adam David Commens is a former field hockey midfielder from Australia, who was a member of the team that won the bronze medal at the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney.

Commens was nicknamed Billy by his teammates, and earned a total number of 143 caps (20 goals) for Australia.

Commens was named head coach of the Belgium national field hockey team on 4 July 2007. Commens was coach and a key player of the Royal Antwerp Hockey Club (RAHC). His new assistant will be Murray Richards.

Commens became coach of the Australia women's national field hockey team at the start of 2011, but was stood down by Hockey Australia in 2016 after their investigation into allegations that Commens "had engaged in behaviour amounting to serious misconduct", which is reported to have involved Commens exposing himself and making lewd remarks to some squad members during the Rio Olympics. When he took over as coach, he dropped five experienced players from the national squad:Kate Hollywood, Fiona Johnson, Alison Bruce, Shelly Liddelow and Amy Korner.

Since the Rio Olympic Games, Commens has been appointed as the High Performance Director of the Belgian Hockey Federation and won Belgium's first ever World Cup in 2018.

In conversation with Jack Rolfe, Founder of The Coaching Lab.

Today we are celebrating International Women’s Day and Siobhán Madeley took over the EHF Podcast from Jack for a special edition with Marijke Fleuren, EHF President, Executive Board Member FIH, Member IOC Commission "Women in Sport", Member of the EHL Board and we are joined by Marco Moers and Mandy Beck who are part of the ABN Amro Diversity & Inclusion policy team. The theme for IWD 2021 is “choose to challenge” so it seems fitting to discuss this topic with Marijke, Marco and Mandy as they are leading the charge to structurally change the pattern of inequality between sportsmen and women.