England Hockey is delighted to welcome Mark Hickman as National Goalkeeping Coach Lead for Great Britain and England Hockey.
Mark is hugely experienced in the sport as both a player and coach and is currently working with the Australian senior teams. During his time there, Australia have won Commonwealth gold and World Cup silver medals, with their goalkeeper Rachael Lynch named player of the tournament in the 2014 World Cup and also nominated for world goalkeeper of the year. Earlier in his career he coached at Club de Campo Villa de Madrid in Spain for three years.
As an athlete he kept goal for Australia for almost a decade, winning Olympic gold in Athens in 2004, World Cup silver in 2002 and two Commonwealth golds.
Educated as both a Master of High Performance Sport and Master of Business Administration, he will bring great skills both on and off the pitch. His is a newly-created role designed to target and accelerate the development of world-class senior goalkeepers, develop an over-supply of world-class goalkeepers within the Great Britain Elite Development Programme and set in place a strategic direction for goalkeeper coaching across the nation.
Performance Director Ed Barney commented, “We are absolutely delighted that Mark is joining England and Great Britain Hockey. Strategic leadership and impact in performance goalkeeping is critical to our short- and long-term international success.
“It has been a delight to engage with Mark through the recruitment process. He will be a huge asset to England and Great Britain Hockey. He is well known around the international circuit and is exceptionally well regarded in every sense. Mark will bring a sound, robust and impactful coaching pedagogy, combined with great technical skills and knowledge and real leadership to these areas.
“Having a national goalkeeping lead for the first time in England and Great Britain is a hugely exciting and we look forward to working with and supporting Mark and our goalkeeping ambitions over the coming years. It will be an exciting time as Mark works with the senior goalkeepers, EDP and develops resources, content and a network of coaches across the UK.
“It is important to take the time to offer a huge thank you to John Hurst, Tom Millington and Chris Hibbert. They have all done a great job and committed a huge amount of time, expertise and resource to the development of our goalkeepers over the past 18 months (and a little bit longer for John Hurst!). This has been hugely valued and a critical aspect of the programme since the Rio Olympics and over previous cycles.”
Men’s Head Coach Danny Kerry said, “I’m delighted we have managed to secure Mark to this role. In the years of coming across Mark in his roles for Australia I have always been struck by how smart, thoughtful, humble and approachable he has been. Mark is the right person as we build an excellent support team around our athletes and I’m looking forward to working with him.”
New women’s Head Coach Mark Hager said, “Having seen how Mark has developed goalkeepers into world class athletes, he will be a huge asset to the program and I am very excited that he is coming in. He is a person with a very high work ethic and drive to develop the goalkeepers on and off the field. Mark brings a wealth of knowledge with him, not only from a specialist coach role but he will also strengthen the program from a tactical point of view. I am very much looking forward to working with Mark on the journey to Tokyo and beyond.”
Courtesy of Great Britain Hockey
