LAHORE: In order to adapt to modern requirements of the game and arrest the fast decline of Pakistan hockey, a uniform coaching curriculum will be prepared and introduced soon, president of the Pakistan Hockey Federation (PHF) retired Brig Khalid Sajjad Khokhar said on Wednesday.

“Coaches in Pakistan are using various methodologies, a scenario which is resulting in development of incompatible mindsets among hockey-playing youngsters at grassroots level. Now when these players [after becoming accustomed to the playing style they learn from their respective coaches] appear to attend a national camp it is very difficult to make them switch to a [specific] coaching method suitable for them,” Brig Khokhar said during his interview to APP here on Wednesday.

“Current top hockey-playing nations have one particular coaching method which they employ right from junior to the highest level,” the PHF chief underlined.

“The biggest problem we face is that our coaches are using various modes for training their players. When these young campaigners with different training techniques assemble in a national camp it becomes difficult for us to bring them all on one page. As a result, the process to teach them hockey methods required at the highest level takes a lot of time,” Brig Khokhar elaborated.

“Besides causing confusion in Pakistan hockey, these divergent coaching techniques are also responsible for the decline of our game,” he lamented.

Efforts on to organise long-planned PHL

To address this issue, the PHF president added, a committee was being formed which would prepare a uniform coaching curriculum for grassroots level hockey.

“This curriculum, to be put into practice within a month’s time, is aimed at developing a hockey coaching culture which is free from confusion and focusing on training young players according to the requirements of modern-day hockey — instead of banking on orthodox and obsolete coaching methods,” the PHF chief explained.

“Though this task is not easy but we are determined to do it in the larger interest of Pakistan hockey. This approach will also create uniformity in hockey coaching methods across the country,” he said.

To a question, Brig Khokhar said the PHF had not dropped the idea of staging its long-planned league, named Pakistan Hockey League (PHL), adding efforts were being made to organise it after getting NOC from the Punjab government.

“We had an option to organise our league abroad but such a venture will not serve any purpose; we want to stage it in Pakistan to revive the game and bring back international hockey to the country,” he stated.

Responding to a query, he said the PHF had approached Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif for organising the league and expressed optimism that the CM who himself was a diehard supporter of hockey would extend his all-out support in this regard.

The PHF president insisted that the planned league would be a step forward in giving new life to hockey in Pakistan as local players would be exposed to the highest level of competitive hockey in the presence of foreign players.

Brig Khalid expressed his gratitude to the federal government for providing funds to the revive the game of hockey.

Answering a question, the PHF president claimed Pakistan hockey had been put on the road to recovery.

“The senior team is being rebuilt by infusing [talented] youngsters who justified their inclusion during the recent back-to-back tours to New Zealand and Australia.

“Our junior team, which is in good shape and also our future, is being sent to Australia to learn finer points of the game,” Brig Khokhar concluded.

Published in Dawn, April 6th, 2017