Senior team goalkeepers Nasir Ahmed, Imran Shah and Imran Butt also joined in the practice session that included speed training, footwork, shadow training, stretching exercises, etc.
“If I can do it, so can you,” yelled Nasir Ahmed at the others while vigourously jogging on the spot in his complete kit.
“The camp is designed for four age groups — U-14, U-16, U-18 and U-22. There will be four boys representing each age category as it will be more mangeable for us, too, to train a batch of around 16 at a time,” said the chief goalkeeping coach Shahid Ali Khan, who took on this new responsibility offered to him by the federation after his year-long stint as chief coach with the national team.
“We are starting out with fewer boys, excluding the seniors, right now as three from the selected lot are currently busy at the junior team camp in Islamabad, one is sick and another, Yasir, a promising new talent from Bannu, got injured when the ball struck his collarbone during the trials in Lahore,” he informed.
About the practice session, Shahid said “Besides the basics focusing on movement, the programme also includes lectures, knowledge of equipment and kits, video analysis sessions, etc.”
The HCP ground boasted of five goal posts. Shahid said that they serve as the different training stations. “One station is for stopping short corners, one will be fitted with a bowling machine for different blocking drills, while another will handle speedy ground shots and so on and so forth,” Shahid explained.
Shahid is also accompanied by a panel of expert former goalkeepers, namely, Ahmad Alam; Abdul Ghafoor of the Lahore hockey academy; Samsam Qadir, who hails from Customs; Arshad Hussain of NBP and Mohammad Sabir from the hockey academy in Sialkot.
Meanwhile, Samsam Qadir, one of the coaches on the panel, who has been working on designing a timetable for the boys said “Technical and physical training alone is not enough. Some of the boys here hail from faraway stations, where there is also a dearth of quality school education. We are also going to teach them how to behave in public, etiquette and how to groom themselves.
“For those who are still students,” he added, “we have also made sure that the training sessions don't disturb their studies in any way.”
The camp will carry on for some 10 days with two or three week intervals. “This way we will be able to provide ongoing training to our senior team, junior team and Pakistan Whites goalies, as well,” Shahid pointed out.
“Ideally there should be at least six to eight goalkeepers ready and in form for each team at a time. Had any of the previous PHF managements thought about starting such an academy 10 years ago, we wouldn't have been facing a drought in the goalkeeping department as we are today,” he concluded.
The camp concludes on the 20th before resuming after a gap of around two or three weeks.
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