For the last 3 months MHF has been extremely busy starting with the Sultan Azlan Shah Trophy, then the Asia Cup and lately the Junior World Cup (JWC). In between they had the Division 1 & 2 of the Malaysian Hockey League (MHL).
The officials must be exhausted and in many ways they must be commended for their organisational skills. While there would be some shortcomings but I believe that they were not "fatalistic" in outlook to dent Malaysia's hospitality. The scenario is best summed up by the President of FIH, when he stated that there were only a few glitches in the co hosting of the JWC. MHF and SHF must be praised for their efforts in doing a good job.
While in organisational skills for tournaments we may have top marks but the same cannot be stated for the performance in the game, generally by Asian countries and in particular by Malaysia. Asian hockey must have got to a deplorable stage as not even one Asian country was in the semi-finals. Like in the FIH Committees and Executive Board, it was about European and Oceanic countries, sharing the "spoils" equally. Why not? They deserve it as they played hard and intelligently to ensure the investments in resources for the JWC paid off.
The Europeans and the Oceanic countries are great advocates of self regulation which starts all the way from the very bottom. They do not spent long periods in centralised training and on fitness but rather adopt a scientific methodology in their training and tactical outlooks with the latest innovations in bio-medicine and sports science. They utilise the latest state of the art technology in information technology to measure the various inputs and outputs, so as to understand each player and how best to strategically adopt them into the game plans. In all these they have a clear cut objective and that is when to get the team to "peak", so as the optimum performance is best seen in tournaments that make a difference in the overall world rankings.
To do all these the fundamental aspect is the mental strength of the players. This is something the players would have cultivated themselves through the self regulating process and gradually fine tuned by their coaches. The fact the players are fully occupied, keeps their minds "sharp" as oppose to the laziness that creeps in when players have nothing to do in their non training time under long centralised periods. The unproductive nature of the mind ie being idle in such situations, only encourages players to become feeble under stress as they cannot find the mental strength to cope. This is because their minds do not have the training to appreciate and minimise the pressure.
It is probably the Koreans who are best prepared to cope with modern hockey in Asia. The rest of Asia are faltering and more so Malaysia as we "throw" good money for bad causes. If we take the cost involved in preparing the Junior team for the last 4 years consisting of 25 players, 2 coaches and a manager, with an average of 2 tours or overseas tournaments per year and incorporating accommodation plus food during centralised training, it comes to an average around RM 1.1 million a year. A staggering RM 4.4 million must have been spent in preparing this Junior team and to achieve 12th position on home ground. What a WASTE and this without taking account of the various other specialise people involved from ISN and NSC.
Time and time again we have gone down this track of putting good money for bad use. Hobart 2001 - 12th, Rotterdam 2005 - 10th and Johor Baru 2009 - 12th, does not give a good reading. Yet NSC just continues pouring the money and sadly it is just WASTED. Who is ever going to do a cost benefit exercise to see the TRUTH.
It is inevitable, the change has to take place. Too many people and thoughts have become "fixtures and fittings", which have to be moved to the museum. The TM had the opportunity and it is still not too late but the revamp must be done. This CRY was there last year this time and the CRY still continues. Why not TM act upon the CRY? Things are getting worse and unless the rot is stopped or not hockey cannot be saved.
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5 comments:
Dear ghandi what is there to cry can't you see thru these guys who set up the 102 signatures.The only thing i can make of it is it looked like a scam.
In Malaysia all you need is a smoke screen and wala even a guy who played for the green school team in school can end up as a dept. president.You must understand that most of these guys ended up with a degree that could not get them a decent job hence the only place to plunder would be thru hockey i.e mhf.We can carry on denying things but sadly this is the kind of world we live in,every man for himself and to hell with this sport.
Dear Observer,
Yet again we are engaged in a disagreement.
I believe that the 102 Group was a good thing for hockey.The sad aspect is that neither NSC nor MHF took it any further, at least seeing it from outside.
As to your statement of plundering, i believe you have made an unjustifiable comment.
Please support your statement if you think you have the evidence.Otherwise it is not proper in making a sweeping statement.
Once again thank you for taking an interest in the blog.
Everyone got his/her 2 cents on whats good for hockey.
We are so far down the drain we refuse to acknowledge that we have failed! Why not? When there is failure we are full of ready made excuses or quiet away.
One spark of a good result everyone suddenly has an opinion.
Any sport there is success and failure, put your hands up and say, yeah we got this wrong!!
I know I would
Secondly, make small changes, make small difference in your won school, district, state bring improvements, have activities show you can do something, I know i am doing it
Ghandi,
Its time for change. Otherwise we sports will be going around in circle, orchestrated by people who should not be there in the first place. Good article.
Dear ghandi watch for appointments that are going to be made to mhf and then you will understand it all.
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