Double Olympian Mel Clewlow says she has been using her experience to prepare some of her younger Canterbury team-mates for the prospect of featuring in London 2012.

The Dover-born defender, who turns 36 in May, made her England debut in 1996 against Ireland in Dublin and went on to win more than 100 caps for her country and more than 60 for Great Britain.

She won bronze medals at the European Championships in 1999 and 2007 and silver at the Commonwealth Games in Malaysia in 1998, with a bronze at the 2006 Commonwealth Games in Melbourne, and said: "You go to the Olympics as one of the best in the world in your sport."

Canterbury have a host of international talent with Nat Seymour, Abi Walker, Susie Rowe, Susannah Townsend and youngsters Dilly Newton and Charlotte Craddock all pushing for places in the GB squad this summer.

Clewlow (pictured) has already spoken to her team-mates about her Olympic experiences in a bid to prepare them for what might await.

She said: "I'd say it's very different the first time from the second time. The first time you don't know what to expect so you get caught up in the excitement and don't focus so much. So the second time it was very much about focusing on the hockey and taking everything in your stride."

She likened the experience of being in the Olympic Village at the Games to that of being in TV's Big Brother.

She said: "I can only imagine London will be like the Commonwealth Games in Manchester - very centrified and focused. It's an unbelievable place, you've got 5,000 of the best in the world in one place.

"In Beijing I almost felt like it was the Big Brother house. You get on with what you're doing and medals are being won all around you, but you have no idea what that is doing to the outside world until you come home and you see the reaction and realise the impact you've made.

"When you see the parade through London and things like that, it doesn't get better than that."

She also explained how athletes like to let off steam once their events are over, revealing: "In Beijing the British Olympic Association brought in something like 5,000 cans of beer and 400 bottles of wine and all the furniture in the apartment came outside for a party. It was brilliant."

Clewlow admitted she would have loved the opportunity to complete a hat-trick of Olympic appearances on home soil. She said: "I am very jealous of the girls. It wasn't my choice, the coach retired me.

"I'd love to be out there, but I wasn't prepared to live my life at Bisham Abbey for three years and endure the strict regimes the girls are having to.

"If they go out and win a medal I will be absolutely gutted, but at the same time I'm lucky, I've had 13 years."