Holland’s men’s and women’s national teams will be allowed to resume training from Friday – albeit with a limited group and with a 1.5 metre safe distance ruling in place – two days after Dutch children were allowed to resume playing sports together.
National coaches Max Caldas and Alyson Annan will take charge of sessions at the Wagener Stadium in Amsterdam, with the clubhouse shut and players arriving changed for the first time since lockdown.
Last week, the Dutch government said children up to aged 18 may return to the hockey fields, to train only.
While children under 13 can engage in close proximity, the 13-18 age bracket must not be within 1.5m, while a raft of other rules have been put in place at clubs, including washing hands before training and only touching the ball with the stick.
Players may only touch their own equipment, no training vests will be allowed and spitting is completely banned.
Each club has assigned a corona representative, who will make sure that parents don’t enter each venue and that they arrive with children no earlier than 10 minutes before the start of training.
Children must leave the sports complex immediately after the training, while some clubs have placed route markers where they allowed to walk.
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