Hockey India holds coaching pathway session for journalists

Hockey India's High Performance Director David John helmed Coaching Education Pathway for 11 journalists on Saturday.

Prerequisites of a good coach, basic and advanced hockey skills and modern hockey terminologies were explained to journalists by David John.

After domestic coaches, current and former players, Hockey India extended the scope of its Coaching Education Pathway by holding an extensive online session for journalists on Saturday.

The exclusive four-hour long session, helmed by High Performance Director David John, saw 11 journalists attending the event – equivalent of Level 0 for the coaches -- to get an idea about the behind-the-scenes working of the coaching staff with the national team and how the federation was engaging to develop a common coaching system in tune with modern hockey.

Besides the coaching methodology and assessment modules for players at the highest level, the session also saw David explaining the challenges of balancing on and off-field training of Indian coaches to ensure the right message passes down to the grassroots. Prerequisites of a good coach, basic and advanced hockey skills and modern hockey terminologies were explained.

Emphasising that making coaching a two-way interaction between the coach and players was essential, David also insisted that the best players did not always become best coaches because they could not verbalise their training process for others.

“Best teams in the world have the most transparent strategy but the best execution,” he summarised.

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The major rule changes in hockey, challenges and characteristics of a good coach and, most importantly, some of the reasons behind the absence of qualified Indian coaches in the sport were all discussed in detail. “It was great to know how journalists look at the game from the outside. It was interesting to face certain questions from them that reflected their passion. I hope the journalists were able to understand what we at Hockey India wish to achieve through these courses for the Indian coaches,” David said.

The Hockey India Coaching Education Pathway was launched in March last year with over 600 Indian coaches having been part of the course and 250 of them clearing the Level 1 certification. The courses move from Level 0 through two followed by the FIH Academy Levels one to three with the FIH High Performance Coach being the pinnacle.