Vanessa Lam
7 April 2015: There's hockey on ice and on the field, but four University of Canberra students are taking hockey underwater and conducting a four-week boot camp as part of their internship with ACT Underwater Hockey.
The students are running the boot camp as part of an internship for their special sports studies units.
Third year sports coaching and exercise science student Antonio Badalassi said he's looking forward to running the boot camp and that it's a great opportunity for them to use their knowledge and expertise to introduce people into underwater hockey.
"This boot camp is designed to ease people into the sport nice and slowly over four weekly sessions. Since we've completed coaching units, we have a good knowledge of what we need to do to keep it interesting while building up participants skills," he said.
-
Four University of Canberra students are running an underwater hockey boot camp as part of their internship. Photo: James Harris
The boot camp will be held this month at the AIS and is designed for adults of any fitness or skill level.
Underwater hockey is a fast moving team sport. Similar to ice hockey the players have to try move a puck into each other's goals, however the players are flicking or passing the puck along the deep-end of the pool. Six players on each team play with the addition of a mask, snorkel, fins and small bats.
"We don't want them to feel too intimidated if they don't know anything about the sport, we're going to be able to teach them what they need to know, everything from using flippers and a snorkel to the strategy of the sport," Mr Badalassi said.
Third year psychology and sports coaching and exercise science student Breanna Toombs is also using the boot camp as part of a research proposal about how participants hold their breath for her study unit.
"I'll be testing their breath-holding abilities over each week just to see if there are any improvements, gauging their feelings of anxiety or excitement and how they feel about their fitness levels pre to post boot camp to see if there are any changes," Ms Toombs said.
ACT Underwater Hockey contact officer, Fiona Game said the students have been fantastic in organising the boot camp.
"They have gone above and beyond to take on everything from marketing the boot camp, designing the exercises and activities to conducting research on participants' fitness before and after the camp," Ms Game said.
The underwater hockey boot camp is on every Monday night this month at the AIS Pool from 8:00pm - 9:30pm.
