As a club, we are keen to support our members in their development as Club Umpires, or higher. This not only helps our members to strengthen their knowledge of the rules and become more confident umpires but also helps to improve the level of umpiring in the local leagues.

More importantly, it helps us to facilitate umpires for all of our Home matches, which often is not an easy feat!

Umpire Development

Umpire Discounts

Courses are paid for by the club in exchange for matches umpired for the club. We want to encourage and facilitate as many of our members to be at least L1 qualified as possible!

Umpire Courses

L1 Courses are regularly hosted by our neighbouring London Hockey Clubs, together with England Hockey, over the course of the season and our club members are strongly encouraged to join.

The course typically involves a classroom session, plus a practical session, taking about 5 hours in total. This is either split across two evenings or held on a Sunday. Attendees will receive a free whistle, cards and umpire notepad.

Keep an eye out in the THD Weekly email for the latest dates or contact the THD Umpire Coordinator to register your interest.

Otherwise, courses are arranged nationally and advertised on the England Hockey website. If you wish to attend one of these courses directly, you can find a course and register.

Coaching and Practice

If you are looking to gain some practice with umpiring, especially after doing the L1 course, we will keep you updated on available opportunities. This is either via our junior club section, who regularly play matches on Sundays, as well as friendlies, summer league matches and certain lower club fixtures. All are great ways to build your experience and confidence.

For more formal coaching on your umpiring, we can arrange for one of our qualified umpires/coaches to come to a fixture and provide you with constructive feedback and tips. Please be aware, this is all done on a volunteer basis, so is availability dependent.

Otherwise if you register for a free account with the England Hockey Hub here, there are lots of useful online resources available, such as the “Know the Rules” and “You’re the Umpire” with videos to practice your umpiring decision-making.  

L1 Assessment

Once you have successfully completed the L1 Course, and feel you are ready for L1 Assessment, let us know and we can help to arrange for a suitable fixture for you to undertake this. 

Useful Links

London Hockey Umpiring Page
England Hockey Umpiring Page >
Hockey Hub >
FIH Rules >