MARCH 2015

 

ONE-TWO HOCKEY VIEWPOINT BY - STEVE JASPAN

 

“ESTABLISHING THE BASE FOR ENDURING QUALITY”

 

 

The Cricket World Cup is presently underway in Australia and New Zealand.  The Rugby World Cup will take place in England later this year.

Like so many other sports the drive to create more cricketing and rugby nations has resulted in World Cups with too many teams and too many games which lack interest and spectacle

Engineering competitions and especially a sport’s World Level Events of the highest quality with ongoing excitement is a challenge that has faced the FIH for many years.  This has to, of necessity, be balanced with incentives for emerging nations to not only aspire to such competitions but also have a realistic chance of qualifying.  This is especially important for nations who have made rapid strides in recent years to ‘close the gap’ and mount a meaningful challenge to the sport’s historical giants.

However, this pragmatic balance must be mirrored at Continental and National Levels.  Continental Federations and National Associations – which are often under resourced- need to address the structure and accessibility of their competitions and devise strategies to close the gap.

These strategies must involve high performance programmes which dovetail with comprehensive development strategies and challenging competition.  Of course, a basic requisite is a development continuum of mini and youth hockey (whether based on school or club structures or preferably both)  backed by an academy system underpinned by a rational and practical High Performance Programme.

This must be co-ordinated by a High Performance Manager or Director of Coaching. National Associations without this structure will find it very difficult to ‘close the gap’ and sustain quality performance.