Asian Foundations

Hockey in Asia has traditionally been dominated by a handful of countries but the popularity and development of the sport continues to gather momentum.

The turnout at a recent workshop in Macau helped lay the foundations for future growth as Dreamy Yao, secretary for promotion and development for the Hong Kong Hockey Association explains.

Last month representatives from the National Hockey Associations of 21 Asian countries gathered in Macau for a three-day workshop. The workshop was arranged by FIH and the Asian Hockey Federation and focused on Club and Association Development.

Officially opened by Mr. Fumio Ogura, FIH DCC member for Asia, an introduction was given by one of the workshop facilitators, FIH Coaching Manager Tayyab Ikram. He emphasised that clubs and associations are the core of hockey development and that effective management could provide tremendous support to regional and global expansion.

The FIH Development Manager Ms. Gabrielle van Doorn was another important facilitator at the event. She explained why FIH and the Continental Federations focus on Club and Association Development and shared with the group a DVD from FIH, specially produced with the theme “Hockey – A Sport for Everybody”.

This DVD is a very useful tool for presentations to the National Sports Federations, NOCs, governments, potential players, parents and sponsors. With this tool, officers no longer have to worry about the suitable materials and topics to explain hockey.

The message for Club and Association Development is there: be creative in adjusting and modifying the sport to make it most accessible, maximise possibilities of including all the “groups” according to ages, social divisions, genders, occupations, physical and mental abilities, skills or performance levels.

With a crossover of power point presentations, good practices presented by participants, and group discussions, a wide range of crucial issues linked to the overall theme of the workshop had been well-covered. The topics that were discussed are as follows:

• Creating a Club/Association and its planning process (the limitations and opportunities)
• Recruiting and retaining players and staff (expertise and pathways)
• Partnerships and Links (networking)
• Club/Association Management – The Board: structure; roles and responsibilities; meetings; (subgroups activity with feedbacks from the hosts)
• Fundraising and PR (win-win situation)
• Facilities (maximising venue functions and possibilities)
• Urgent Club and Association Development issues or problems (individual to regional concerns and obstacles, sharing solutions)
• Parents orientation sessions (parents’ decisive role in picking sports for the children – counter measures)
• Junior Recruitment (attracting youth)
• Mini Hockey (ideal starting age: 6; ideal learning age: 8-12; “Funkey” hockey in Singapore)
• Recruitment and training of young staff (paid-staff and volunteers, how to provide professional training and guidance with decent management and coordination, role of National Youth Panels)
• Support from FIH (Coaching and Umpiring development, NA Fund, youth projects, equipment, advise and consultancy, promotional materials)
• Delivering the knowledge and skills on club and association development back home (organising seminars/forum for ideas sharing; propelling mini hockey & youth hockey; enhancing communications with schools/parents; establishing on-site technical club development support, advice and consultancy)

The last (but not least) point was and is the main task for the participants: to adapt the ideas from the workshop and samples from other countries to their clubs and associations at home, making the knowledge applicable to regional situations.