Over the past few months lockdown restrictions have meant the cancellation of all indoor and outdoor team sports. This cancelation has had a large impact on many for whom team sports were a large part of their lives. I interviewed Sophia Moss from Spencer Hockey Club to find out more about how the loss of a team sport has affected her over the past months.
What would you describe to be the main impacts of not playing hockey over the past few months and if you where to break up the impacts into physical and mental which one do you believe has been most significant?
Well, before lockdown I was playing roughly around six to seven hours of hockey a week so hockey was definitely a large part of my life. I think physically the loss of hockey has meant that I have become rusty on a few of my techniques and meant that I have had to supplement some of the time that I would have spent playing hockey with other training such as running or HIT workouts which have been fun but are not the same as being on an actual hockey pitch.
However, I think that mentally the loss of hockey has been much more tough. For me, hockey provided quite a bit structure to my life and also helped keep me motivated on other things outside of hockey such as school work. Without hockey I sometimes feel that I get more easily distracted and I definitely miss the sense of community and team spirit that being part of a hockey team provides.
Without hockey I assume that you’ve had quite a bit more free time on your hands, how have you spent this time?
Over lockdown I’ve definitely had more time on my hands which I’ve enjoyed. I’ve spent quite a lot of time baking and have also gotten into embroidery which has been quite fun.
And finally, how do you feel about starting hockey training soon knowing that you’ll be under COVID restrictions?
I’m very excited and grateful to start playing again. I am not too bothered about having to adhere to restrictions as I know that the more we stick to them the more likely it is that we get to keep playing.
