Become a SCO Developer

We encourage any umpires wanting to improve to get experience as a coach - even if you just shadow an existing developer for a match. It's amazing how much more you can see when the pressure of having a whistle isn't there! If that's what you're interested in, please make sure you get in touch.

If you're thinking about scaling back your umpiring but still want to be involved with hockey, becoming a developer can be a great way to stay in touch and give back to the sport. We are desperately short of Level 1 coaches (and umpires) in the north of the South Central Area, so if you've been thinking about this, please get in touch as soon as you can!

There are three possibilities: become a coach, an assessor or both! We will advise you after your initial training whether we think you are better suited to coaching or assessing (some people don't like perceived pressure around assessing someone, especially their peers).

We don't ask you to give up umpiring completely (unless you want to!) and we don't ask you to be available every weekend or go to the furthest depths of the Area (again unless you want to!), but we usually train people using the following process:

Step One: you shadow an existing developer for a match or two, listening to what they take notice of and offering your thoughts to the developer before you watch and learn from their debrief.

Step Two: you shadow a developer with more input into the points to be raised and lead the debrief with support from your developer. You'll get feedback after this around areas to think about for the next one. We will repeat Step Two until we feel you're ready for Step Three.

Step Three: you lead the observation and debrief, with an existing developer shadowing you. You get feedback from the umpires as to how you have done, with notes as well from your developer. Again, we will repeat this step until we feel you're ready to step out on your own! Once you have completed the training, we will ask England Hockey to formally recognise you as a developer.

Most people will start off at Level 1 developing, but if you are a current or former Level 3 umpire, we may slot you straight in at Level 2.

All developers in South Central (candidates and full developers) are invited to a pre-Mixer session on Monday evenings in season, which starts at 7pm. This is a chance for all developers to chat about any themes or aims for the following weeks.