Sunday 29 October 2017

Lets pledge to do better be better Sports Coaches

For a sustained period of time now, I have noticed that the standards of Sports Coaches and the way in which Sports Coaches engage there players/athletes and others in the game is slipping. I have seen a growing trend particularly within the Junior Sport's Coaching ranks where it's become more about winning and less about what it should be about which I believe is about giving everyone young person not matter their skill all ability the opportunity to succeed and have fun. I have also noticed that there appears to be a disconnect and that Sport's Coaches are struggling to engage with their player/athletes in particular in the area of mental health and well-being.

Now on the second point this I believe requires a change to how we train Sport's Coaches to many sporting bodies simple teach through accreditation and there courses, how to play the sport, they don't teach coaches how to engage, and also how to act and conduct themselves as coaches. This short fall must and need to be addressed and addressed quickly. So where do we start, well I believe it starts with us as Coaches we must pledge to do better and bet better as Coaches, we must raise the bar and demand higher standards.

Today I am launching a campaign calling on all Sports Coaches out there in Australia and across the world to join me in taking the #SportsCoachesPledge .

Step 1: Download the jpeg of the #SportsCoachesPledge below-

Step 2: Post the Pledge to your facebook, twitter, instagram or combinations of all these, with this post-

I've taken the #SportsCoachesPledge to do better and be better in my coaching, and I call on my friends in the sports coaching community to join me, <tag five sports coaching friends names here>

Step 3: Post to your facebook, twitter, instagram or combinations of all these, this poster-




Thats it a very simple campaign to do better and be better as Sports Coaches.

I also want this Pledge to become something the grows and evolves over time and gets added to by other Sports Coaches, therefore I welcome you to add your own commitments to the Pledge as it goes world-wide.

So lets together pledge to do better, bet better as Sports Coaches.

Monday 23 October 2017

Prescription for World Field Hockey

Recently I was reading a post on Facebook which was about the fact that Zambia have been unable to raise enough funds to compete at this years African Cup of Nations in Egypt, and also we have seen what I guess you could only describe as a one-sided Oceania Cup completed in Sydney where it was always going to be a Gold Medal final played out between the two power-houses of this federation Australia and New Zealand. Well all this got me thinking that perhaps something needs to change, and that perhaps the time has come for a more equal approach to the future of the game world-wide.

Now when the Hockey Pro League was first proposed I was a strong advocate for this, but I have since started to wonder if this is indeed a good think, because what it I think is actually doing is making sure that the powerful get more powerful, while, the weaker get weaker. I am starting to think the Pro League has been designed to make sure that the strong countries remain strong and keep all the power and control in the sport. Our sport should be aiming for it to be possible for every single country who plays the game to win the World Cup and Olympics and not just a select few which seems to current be the norm.

Therefore after some further thinking, I have come up with the following prescription for the future of World Field Hockey going forward-

- Scrap the Hockey Pro League, as this has clearly divided World Hockey with some people being for it while the majority are against it.

- Keep the World League but change the structure to the following-

Round 1: Regional/Zone Qualifiers

  1. Pan America: 2 x Regional Zone Groups
    1. North/Central America/Carribean Group
    2. South America Group
  2. Africa: 2 x Regional Zone Groups
    1. Northern Africa Group
    2. Southern Africa Group
  3. Europe: 2 x European Zone Groups
    1. Western European Group
    2. Eastern European Group
  4. Asia/Oceania: 2 x Regional Zone Groups
    1. Northern Asia/Oceania Group
    2. Southern Asia/Oceania Group
Round 2: Continental Federation Qualifiers/World Cup/Olympic Qualifer
  1. Pan America Cup
  2. African Cup of Nations
  3. Asian/Oceania Cup
  4. European Championships
Round 3: World Group Phase 1- Quarter Finals
  1. World Group Q1
  2. World Group Q2
  3. World Group Q3
  4. World Group Q4
Round 4: World Group Phase 2- Semi Finals
  1. World Group S1
  2. World Group S2
World League Final

- Every country would compete right from the start of the competition no matter what there ranking is
- In terms of the number of teams per group and how many go through to the next stage, I have not worked this out, right now this is just the bare bones.
- This competition would run over a 18 month cycle roughly
- The continental federation qualifiers would also be the world cup/olympic qualifiers and 4 spots would be given to each and this is the only way to make the Olympics or World Cup.

- I would merge Asia and Oceania together.

- Introduce a rolling four year International Hockey Calender like that which other sports have produced, this will include all International games, along with windows for the Domestic league etc, so that the best players are going back and playing in the domestic competition and for there clubs etc.

- Introduce an World equalisation fund, now this will be un-popular for some but anyway to bad it has to happen. The stronger Nations would contribute to this fund so much per year. Now how this fund works etc would need to be thrashed out.

Now I am sure this will get people going and get debate happen, I hope it does.



Tuesday 17 October 2017

Two New Game Skills Practices for Training

Here are a couple of new Game Skills Practices I have roughly designed for training, these are based on similar drills out there I have tweaked and changed them a little bit. The first is-

PINWHEEL


The purpose of the pinwheel game skills practice is to work on the players hitting and trapping on the move. The players set up in two circles in alternative lines to each other and the inside circle rotates/runs in a clockwise direction while the outside circle rotates/runs in a anti-clockwise direction. Like I say the object here is to trap the ball in the run then pass to another who is also on the run in the other circle. If the GSP is working well then know one should run into each other.

The second GSP is more of a entire training one called

Building Attack/Countering with Defence

The purpose here is to give the attackers the ability to be creative and figure out how to score and create goals, and also to help the entire team to learn how to develop strong defence and counter attacking structure and measures.

Its done in two stages-

Stage 1- The Grid Games (Players Self Umpire & Self Coach)
Stage 2- Half Court Hockey Attack v Defence Alternate



The key points here are that this is also designed for the players to become self aware, because in both stages they will self umpire and self coach, with the coach only coming in and asking questions where needed.

Also in stage 2 the games work at 10 minutes hard followed by 5 minutes rest this is designed to also work on fitness and capacity to run out games.

Enjoy

Sunday 8 October 2017

Power shift in Australian Hockey is now complete

Today saw the completion of the Australian Hockey League for 2017 in Perth Western Australia, with the two Gold Medal Finals in both the men's and women's played between the states of Victoria and Queensland with Victoria winning both. This result today also signals that the power shift in Australian hockey is now complete, with the states of Victoria and Queensland along with New South Wales in Third now officially becoming the powerful hockey states of Australia and the engine room driving the future of the game of hockey in Australia.

Now this hasn't just happened overnight it has been on a slow burn for sometime, because its these three states along with the ACT that are working the hardest in the areas of-

- Development
- Promotion & Marketing of the Sport
- Innovation

It is these three states that have embraced the new more professional direction that is occurring in  the game in Australia the most, its is also these states and the clubs in these states that are doing the most to develop the game and grow the game through new innovations such as J-Ball, Kookaburra 8's and Hockey 5's. Victoria, Queensland and New South Wales have also put in place some of the best high performance/development programs in place anywhere in the country, with players have access to the best coaching and diversity of coaching from a very early age.

These three states, have also led the way in promotion of the game, with there top leagues being either live streamed or put on TV in some form. You now can pretty much see the Victorian Premier League and Vic League 1 game of the week streamed live each week, and this is pretty well the same in Queensland & New South Wales. Now don't get me wrong other states such as South Australia and Tasmania have followed suit in this, but its really been Victoria, Queensland and New South Wales leading the charge.

Queensland, Victoria and New South Wales now have the three largest numbers of registered hockey players in the country, they are also the three states where the greatest growth in occurring again in terms of young kids playing the game. Put all this together and this is why I am saying now that the power shift which has been happening for sometime in Australian hockey is now complete.

On the flip side of that the once great powerhouse of Australian hockey, Western Australia looks to by all the key indicators to be in the decline that I have been for telling for sometime. There was once a time when WA could boast against all those key indicators that they were the powerhouse and engine room state of the game. Well its safe to say no longer.

Can this be reversed, off course it can, but it now requires massive, sweeping, radical change to every aspect of the way the game is being run in Western Australia. All the dead wood and the baggage that the game is carrying in WA must be swept away, the time has come for new faces, radical thinkers and people that are prepared to accept and embrace that the game has changed and that the things done in the past are no longer working and its time to do new things.

But that is a post for another day, I will finish off by saying this.

The King is dead, long live the new King.