Hockey: Black Stick chips away

Kayla Whitelock presents a winner's ribbon at Frimley Park, Hastings, yesterday. Photo / Duncan Brown

Motherhood, Kayla Whitelock suspects, has made her stronger but if there's one thing she's dead certain of it's the significance of finding traction on her home turf.

"I think it's really important to have a prestigious tournament in New Zealand, let alone in Hastings, so we're pretty lucky with the support we get here from the community but to just have that good competition is amazing," Whitelock said yesterday in Hastings while joining Cameron Brown as ambassadors of the annual Sanitarium Weet-Bix Kids TRYathlon at Frimley Park.

The 30-year-old from Palmerston North is on a comeback mission to regain her berth in the Mark Hager-coached women's Black Sticks equation.

Hager's squad of 25 depart for Argentina this Sunday for six games over 10 days before he trims it back to 16 in June for the all-important Rio Olympics as the national women's hockey team chase that elusive podium placing.

"It's great. It'll be a full-on tour so it'll be good to see where I'm at, really," said Whitelock, whose last appearance as former Sticks captain was at the Glasgow Commonwealth Games in 2014.

"It'll be interesting. Hopefully I won't be too out of my depth so I'm just looking forward to the challenge."

It helps that she hasn't picked up any injuries during that window post-maternity leave and a robust pre-season workout has added value.

"I don't want to come back too early and blow out and be out for too long so, hopefully, I'm on track."

Diving into the deep end of motherhood posed its challenges but with it came rewards, based on how she's feeling much fitter and the endorsement from her "testing results".
"I guess you don't really know until you get out to play a game to know where your match fitness is."

For that reason Whitelock welcomes the smorgasbord of games leading up to crucial junctions such as the Olympic Games selection.

She got on the bike within two months of giving birth to her 9-month-old daughter, Addison, just to tick things over and put a check on a knee injury.

"I then had my first run and then the first hockey session at the end of June, which is very simple, but then that's where I start building up from."

She played in the National Hockey League last September to gauge her progress and her self-assessment is brutally honest.

"It was pretty quick and I definitely wasn't fit enough so over this period it's been good to focus on that."

Whitelock played in the inaugural Festival of Hockey in 2014, captaining the Black Sticks during the Hawke's Bay Cup which is the international segment of the only annual women's international invitational tournament in the country.

"Hopefully I can make the team and come to that event," she said with a smile, revealing she was "heavily pregnant" at last year's tourney at the HB Regional Sports Park.

The pressure of winning at home isn't lost on her. She's mindful "the girls came pretty close last year" when they lost 3-2 to Australia in the final.