All New or Prospective Members

First of all welcome to the Ice Hawks Hockey Club and Academy. We hope that you will enjoy your time with the club and that you will make new friends and team mates! If you have not yet joined we invite you to come and attend one FREE Thursday practice session to help you decide if this club is for you. Please let me know vie email or SMS if you want to attend a Thursday session.

The Ice Hawks Hockey Club and Academy was established to firstly train prospective ice hockey players. You do not need any previous ice hockey experience or skating ability to join the club or academy. The Club is registered with the South African Ice Hockey Association (SAIHA) and we follow the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) curriculum for training purposes.

We have members ranging in age from 4 to 40! We are also fortunate to have entire families practicing with us (Mom, Dad, Son and Daughter!). Ice Hockey is the ideal sport to get yourself into shape while having fun with the rest of your family!

Training Session Formats

Training sessions take place on Thursday evenings and training is presented on three levels.

• The objective of the Academy is to teach new members to skate and do some basic stick handling. This Academy as a whole is under control of Rozie Cronje.
• The Intermediate group are people who can skate but need to focus on basic ice hockey skills like stick handling, passing of the puck, skating with the puck, etc. The intermediate group is under control of Michael Harris.
• The Advanced group will focus more on drills that teach you how to play the game and focus on specific advanced techniques and skills. The advanced group is coached by Riaan Willemstijn.

As you can see there is a place for everyone. As indicated, we have a dedicated coach for each level who will teach you together with no more than 5 – 10 other players.

What equipment do you need to start?

Although its always advisable to have as much of the ice hockey kit as possible, its not required when you start in the Academy. Basically you only need your own skates. In cases of smaller children the Academy do have skates available which were donated by the IIHF. The club can supply you with a hockey stick as well as gloves for the younger players.

Once you have progressed in your ice hockey skills, you can discuss your equipment requirements with your coach or the club manager. No player will however be allowed to practice in the advanced group without full ice hockey kit.

Training Sessions

As indicated on the web site we have 2 sessions per week. The Thursday sessions is used as practice session and the Friday slot for scrimmage (informal game played between members of the club in order to advance the game skills of our members). To participate in the scrimmage sessions it’s important that you have the necessary ice hockey kit to prevent injury. Also you need to be at an appropriate skill level to be allowed to play. As a result the club has a dual fee structure. There is a fee to only attend practice sessions, as well as a fee to attend practice sessions and scrimmage sessions. The fees are published on our web site as well as on the Club Application Form which you will find under the “Downloads” section of the web site.

Please feel free to email us any questions or contact us telephonically. You will also find a link on this site to our forum. If you register you can also use the forum to ask questions. In most cases we will respond to your questions within 24 hours.

Once again welcome and thanks for visiting our web site.

Marinus Willemstijn
Club Manager