Surrey DC (Development Centre)

The DC is not for beginners, it is an opportunity for talented and enthusiastic players to further develop their skills. The training environment will be fast-paced and rigorous and is likely to discourage a player who is not already at a certain standard and ability. We have asked clubs and schools to only nominate players who they feel are ready.

For the same reasons, players can only participate in their respective age groups.

Players currently in the Talent Academy can't be nominated for the DC

For the 2026 DC, the age groups are as follows:

U13 - born on or between 01 Sep 2013 - 31 August 2015 (Y7* & 8)

U14 - born on or between 01 Sep 2012 - 31 August 2013 (Y9)

U15 - born on or between 01 Sep 2011 - 31 August 2012 (Y10)

U16 - born on or between 01 Sep 2010 - 31 August 2011 (Y11)

U17&u18 - born on or between 01 Sep 2008 - 31 August 2010 (Y12)

* We will take 1 year young players for U13 (Year 7) but may contact the club/school to have a discussion. Unfortunately, there have been too many instances in the past where players a year too young were put forward for DC, but were not ready for it. This isn't good for the player or the centre, so please only nominate year-young players as an exception.

After the DC, the coaches will nominate players for the Academy Centre (AC or County) assessments. This doesn't mean the player has been selected for the AC, but that he/she has been invited to the AC assessments. The best players from all the DC centres will come together and the AC coaches will select a squad of 22-24 field players and 2-3 GKs for each AC age group.

To be nominated for the AC assessments a player MUST attend the DC first. 

The AC dates can be found on our AC Pages.

All players will need to return to the DC if they want to be considered for the next AC cycle.

No exception can be made for current AC players who can't do the following year's DC as a result of other commitments. 

Exceptions can be made for players dropped from the TA or players returning from injuriy.

These exceptions are at the discretion of the Player Pathway committee.

TBC

No, although each session will cover certain specific things which will be missed in the event of non-attendance.

Mostly the question we are asked is: "If any sessions are missed, will that affect our chance for being selected for the AC?"

The answer to that is 'maybe'. The coaches do not penalise players who have to miss a session due to other sporting activity or family commitments. However, they can only make a determination about a player based on what they can see at the sessions. If in doubt, a player will generally be invited to the AC assessments to make sure we do not accidently miss out on a talented player.

For more information , please read our Player Attendance Policy.

All emails are sent using our bespoke Online Player Registration system. A copy of every email is saved on your personal profile. 

For a guide on how to make sure emails are not routed to your spam or junk folder, and how to access the emails stored on your profile, visit our Emails to Parents page.

The process is as follows:

• You apply
• We assign a centre and send an invitation
• You accept the invitation
• You make a bank transfer
• The treasurer checks the bank and updates the payments.

As soon as you accept the invitation, the system flags your son or daughter as 'NOT PAID'. This will disappear once the treasurer updates the payments. This can take anything from a few days to a couple of weeks so please don't worry about it. The administrator will always ask the treasurer to update the system before reminders are sent. If you get a reminder and believe a mistake has been made, just reply to the email with details of the payment so that we can check what went wrong.

The Consent Form, also sometimes referred to as the Registration Form, can be downloaded from the player panel once you're logged into your profile on the Surrey Player Registration System. 

More details.

The cost of the Surrey Hockey DC is £120.00  per player. Details on how to make payment will be in the invitation email you get once you have been placed in a centre, and can also be found here.