FIH High Performance Coaching Course

Scotland’s Keith Joss assesses the FIH High Performance Coaching Course in Rotterdam

Thanks to support from the Scottish Hockey Union and SportScotland, I was fortunate to attend the FIH High Performance Coaching Course held in conjunction with the men’s Junior World Cup in Rotterdam in early July. 

The course was a wonderful learning experience, not only from course conductors Tayyab Ikram, Maurits Hendriks and Rondolfo Mendoza, but also from each of the 31 participants who came from all continents and backgrounds. 

Knowing that I will be in charge of Scotland at the women’s BDO Hockey Junior World Cup in Chile later this year, I was keen to feel the atmosphere of the tournament, and learn something of the possible playing styles that our team may face. 

Whenever you bring together a new group of people, it takes a little time for the discussion to get going, but thankfully we had a common interest and soon developed the terminology that allowed communication to be understood and developed.

This was certainly aided by the passionate way that Maurits delivered his presentations - sometimes putting people on the spot but always helping them to outline their own particular philosophies.  

Sessions on the pitch allowed us to further develop some of the themes we explored. For me this was particularly useful at the start of the course as it allowed everyone to contribute fully.

It's said that ‘a picture paints a thousand words’ and the group interaction was excellent as we all rolled up our sleeves and demonstrated some of the skills, techniques and tactical aspects that we perhaps did not have the words for, but now understood. 

Early in the course it was outlined that the purpose was to share information that can be passed on by the participants to others within their country. This is the strength of the concept of coaching that we hold in hockey. 

Sharing knowledge allows the game to develop and grow continually, pushing back the boundaries of the game and always providing a new challenge for all participants. The extent of this sharing of information was possibly most evident on what was termed ‘Golden Thursday’ as the course enjoyed presentations from some of the foremost names in the game. 

Barry Dancer, Roelant Oltmans, Bernhard Peters and Paul Lissek all gave their valuable time to present lectures to the course. Each session over-ran the allotted time as we delved deeper and deeper into their knowledge in search of more and more information. 

Interaction with the other participants was the most valuable aspect of the course, and within the week some solid friendships developed. 

Match analysis allowed us not only the opportunity to see the Junior World Cup, but also the chance to discuss particular important aspects of the game in our small groups. The tournament was wonderfully organised by the KNHB and we were fortunate to be given full access to the arena.