Archie Phillips making his England Hockey debut

Archie Phillips joined the Physiofit Athlete team this year and is literally going from strength to strength. The transition to senior men's National league hockey is never easy but when you are growing it is even harder. Archie suffered a major setback in November last year sustaining an injury to the growth plate where his hamstring attaches. These take weeks to heal and he showed his true dedication and spirit to get stronger and return to play quicker than we predicted. A combination of our Physiofit screening programme helped to identify where he needed to focus his conditioning work and the expertise of Liam Colbon from Athlete1st has helped Archie not only regain his position in the Bowdon Mens' 1st team but gain selection to the u16 England team.

Archie has shared a few of the experiences he has gained this summer whilst playing for England u16's

"We had 2 friendlies abroad, the first in Germany and the second in Belgium. Germany was more enjoyable than Belgium due to the travel as we flew to Germany and drove and ferried to Belgium. Playing in Germany was good but the last 2 days was a bit wet but manageable. We felt confident especially after the first day realising we could beat them we just needed to reassure ourselves, we drew the first day 1-1, then drew the second game 3-3 even though we had a 3-1 lead going into the last quarter, some peoples tired legs let us down. The final game was tough, everyone mentally tired and a just not in the mood for hockey so we lost 4-0. We drove to Belgium a long journey, but the weather was nice and we got training straight away. We lost both games, the first game 3-5, and the second game, 6-2 despite again having a 2-1 lead going into the last quarter. We moved onto The 6 Nations, in Nottingham, where we all played well. My personal game was very good especially against Spain and Belgium where I scored 2 goals against Spain. We beat Germany and Ireland in the 6 nations and drew to Spain. The whole experience was very good and I felt very comfortable with the international standards, and I really enjoyed it.

The fact that I got selected and managed all the training for the last few months has been largely down to Angie for treating my various aches and pains and Liam for helping me with my strength and conditioning, you have both been fantastic at encouraging and motivating me and I can’t thank you both enough."

We have been delighted to support Archie and are pleased he has accepted our support for the 2017/18 season.

Our thanks to www.hockeytoday.co.uk for the photos of Archie