THE island’s junior hockey players have been treated to some offbeat Dutch coaching.

Held at Foote’s Lane, 64 local budding players between the age of 11 and 16 were put through their paces by the world renowned coach, Thomas Tichelman (pictured).

The 49-year-old is the assistant coach of the Netherlands national team and he was with the side in Beijing last year as they just missed out on an Olympic bronze.

Tichelman is also the founder of SportWays, who ran the course.

According to Elizabeth College’s David Wray, who helped organised the trip, it was certainly unusual but effective.

‘It was brilliant and the children loved it,’ he said.

‘They have their own way of delivering it. They had some loud music going on off the pitch and they made the drills fun.

‘The children were taught modern techniques for the modern game, such as reverse stick shooting.’

A total of 10 Guernsey juniors have also been selected for county regional trials.