The BAC Junior Hockey Program is designed to reinvigorate hockey in the Matabeleland province. Reinvigorate because the province has lost momentum and also a lot of know-how. During rounds of watching and listening to what goes on at the schools, it's obvious that coaching technique and quality of coaching is sadly lacking. In saying that there are still some very capable coaches but far to few of
them. The game at the junior level is played in a very old fashioned manner. My idea was to get some international games back at the stadium to give players and coaches a reference point on the modern game. These are the kind of events we took for granted when the stadium was first built. During the early days of the stadium Zim played a number of internationals on a fairly regular basis. These days it's few and far between that we see high level games with plenty of action and of course the new skill sets being used in match situations. I have a very good relationship with the men and women who run South African hockey and they have shown interest in helping Zimbabwe hockey develop once again. However due to a few stumbling blocks on the Zim side, we weren't able to make this happen early in the year. The idea was to fill the stadium and get the hockey fraternity involved at every level. The South African coaches were going to also run coaching clinics during these games, which would have been a huge bonus for our people, as we all know the South Africans play plenty of international hockey at the very highest level. We would have been gaining invaluable knowledge. This idea is going to happen but only later in the year now perhaps towards the end of the schools hockey season. This is why I have now decided to start this Junior Program to get the children on to the turf and fix technique and allow them to practice and master the skill sets required to play the modern game. We have national players both men and ladies who are very capable of assisting in this area of expertise. Of course the spin off of using the national players is that they will also mature taking these sessions and this will benefit their personal game. I will be designing the program after the first few weeks of assessing just where these little players are in terms of skill. To hone these skills it will take a lot of repetition as this is where the 500 balls come in, I don't want players chasing after a few balls, the drills will be carried out at high tempo and I will ask quality of the players. This, I am sure will be the foundation of how they play the game later in life and how they to rub off on their peers. Running the program I want to start right at the very grass root level, everyone will know a player first needs to know how to hit and stop a ball and then slowly move forward to dribble and so on, until we get to coaching the tactical game. And this is what I intend to do even with these very young people. In watching games last year I was displeased with the negative and conservative manner that the game was played. Again I think this is so only because coaches and young players are out of touch where the game really is in terms of skill and athleticism. Myself and the coaches will be methodically going through all this and hope to bring out a very positive and motivated little hockey player on the other side.
