Category: Pakistan Hockey

Asian Hockey, Field Hockey, Fitness, Pakistan Hockey, Strength and Conditioning

A Bitter Critic Is The Sweetest Corrector

I honour all the Olympians who served in Pakistan, but when anything comes up like this is heartbreaking and disappointing, and I reckon these matter should be addressed.

I’m not blaming to PHF, but they have to produce some guidelines for their officials, our national game is already struggling we need to be very careful.

My actions are not personal at all. I’m merely giving an awareness to the authorities to bring things in a line for the betterment of our national game.

I have been working professionally in the fitness industries since 2010, and nowadays I’m enlisted in one more specialisation in the UK and also busy in my research work, you guys can go to my Linkedin profile.

Please Watch the video before continuing reading

I genuinely respect Mr Khawaja Junaid he used to be my coach in Jr World Cup 2004, but I have a right to disagree with him on the basis of facts.

“Choose criticism wisely, it might help you improve some elements of what you do.”

As my understanding as per Mr. Junaid’s statement is that his fitness team Allience Member of ACSM (American College of Sports Medicine) and NSCA (National Strength and Conditioning Association) Instead of Certified S&C Coach or Human Performance Enhancement specialist etc


What is the Alliance Member?

Please go to the given link, and you can find everything regarding alliance member and also you can become an ACSM and NSCA Alliance member today. Still, you are not certified to create any program even you become a Level 2 certified Fitness Instructor or you have done any online fitness course.


https://www.nsca.com/membership/membership-overview/
https://www.acsm.org/acsm-membership/membership/join/alliance-of-health-fitness-membership


After seeing this clip I have seen this so-called program and I was shocked that they don’t even know the difference between a program and a sample workout.


I loved the confidence of Mr Khawaja Junaid when he presented his theory

“when muscle gets weak then its converts into fat“

Well, there is no process in the human body or there is no energy system which does this miracle. Protein is the main component of muscle, the human body no matter how awesome it can be at times cannot magically turn one tissue into another.

Which nutrint convert into fat?

When carbohydrates are needed by the body the energy is created by the breakdown of plasma glucose and/or glycogen stored in the liver or muscles.
However, if an excessive amount of carbohydrates is consumed, they will be converted into fat and stored in adipose tissue in a process called lipogenesis.

In uncomplicated words, we eat carbs, which causes blood sugar to rise, which causes insulin to rise, which causes glucose to go into fat cells, which turns into fat, and recently national team doctor suggested to have more carbs but unfortunately he forgets to mention which carbs “Refine Carbs or Unrefine Carbs”   


I hope it will help.

Ramzan Guidelines:
There are no Ramadan Guidelines in their plan, Players can “reset” their body to use fat for fuel by incorporating certain methods and maintain the muscle mass during Ramadan and in this pandemic situation.


Also, his words are not meditating on their Sample Workout, and he said they are following NSCA guidelines, please have a look at the link below and go to page number four where you can find “Training Saftey Risk Factors.” then you will get a better picture.
By the way they have sent a HIIT training undefined Sample workout.

Click to access nsca-covid-19-rtt.pdf

Player’s training videos exposing the entire program where each player following different methods and exercises. I’m glad players have some knowledge. Still, unfortunately, these players can’t raise these questions due to fear.

Assessments: 
There are no assessments has been taken yet which is the key component of creating or building up a plan or program next important step is a tracking system to see your plan is working or not If you have no data etc then how are you going to put progression and which parameters identify the hurdles and how players will overcome their weak areas.

Regrettably, there are no macrocycle and motorcycle which proving that there is no program running so there will be no follow up of any program that’s why they are given a generalized so-called program.


Realistic Goal:
Four weeks can be one block of training which can be applied as an adaptive phase if you are not running any program this is the right time to start, but unfortunately, Head coach said they are focusing Cardio Vascular endurance and Muscular Strength but when you see their sample HIIT workout is not reflecting that they are following as he’s been told.
Let me remind you we are talking about top professional athletes here 😦

I don’t want to divvy up this sample workout here because it will be very embarrassing, but I’ll tell you one thing no one can defend this program wholly.

“Players is canvas and coaches are the artists, it doesn’t matter how much colour and brushes you have, you can make a beautiful sketch with the help of a normal pencil”

I intend to say that there is always a process and there are some principles which need to be followed, you can do wonders in a limited recourses, if you keep playing a blame game and invest your energy and time to proving yourself right with the wrong bases then result will speak themselves.

We can progress when we listen identify our mistake and adapt the right approach.


PHF should take this matter seriously and build some system of accountabilty in the betterment of our loving national game.

Thanks

Asian Hockey, Field Hockey, FIH Hockey, Fitness, Global development, Pakistan Hockey, Sports, Sports Nutritionist, Strength and Conditioning

Little Things Make a Massive Difference

5:30 am alarm buzzing; I got up quickly and was looking forward to the Fitness Test in the National junior hockey training camp Lahore, we had no idea which test is coming up, well after the warmup, we divided into groups where we were going to complete twelve rounds of a hockey pitch in 12 mins which will decide our overall fitness, anyways my test went well, and it could be better if I know about the basics of S&C (Strength and Conditioning) and sports nutrition.

In the entire training camp what we do in the morning session is distance running and running 40 laps of the hockey pitch with the pace and every day one lap increase. The training load is increasing not the rest time or calories intake the same general food we use to have at home, no pre-post training meal or any supplements. 

Well, the camp is finished, and luckily I have been selected to represent Pak Jr Team for the first time and you know what we have won this five-match series against England with my goal in the final game.

In my Int-playing career, I have been coached by so many coaches, but unfortunately, I never got a chance to be coached by S&C or any other fitness professional who could educate me, identify my weak areas, help me to improve my athletic abilities and allow me to understand my potential. 

Well, I have played a few years for my country and in those years what I have seen is every coach have a different hockey philosophy which I found very interesting. Still, the funny thing was their fitness philosophy which always made me confuse. 

A lot of people know my story about how I was dropped from the system. I can’t tell you how depressing it was when you are giving your best in everything. You have shown your improvement through your performance and how I become a victim of the bogus system where no one helps you to bring out your best, I have been in the system for 7 years and I have seen what this bogus and fake system does with the senior players and I was pretty convinced that I’m not going to try again in this slavery system. and I want to enjoy my hockey and I want to become a sports professional and that was the one reason I put my self in coaching and fitness studies.

I’m not the only one who has gone through this terrible phase there is a long list including Sohail Abbas, Salman Akber, Shakeel Abbasi, Kashif Jawad, Zeeshan Ashraf etc when I see these names then I feel my pain is nothing as compared to theirs, how sad is that after playing more the 100-300 games for your country these player’s career ended with disrespect. 

Unfortunately, from that time onwards we had no S&C (Strength and Conditioning) specialists who could give us basic knowledge and educate us on how to identify our weak areas and how to improve our TOTAL FITNESS which will help to bring the best out of us and prolong our playing career.

Experience in any sport counts a lot, Roger Federer, Glenn McGrath, Teun de Nooijer, Delmee, Brent Livermore, Jami Dwyer, Barry Middleton etc. Are having a successful and long career. Oh, how I forgot the wall of ARG man’s Hockey team Juan Manuel Vivaldi, he is 40 years of age and still representing his country since 2001 he is fit and still maintaining his total fitness with the help of their S&C professionals.  

Unfortunately, in Pakistan when players become experienced, and they have got a better understanding of the game then our selection committee starts raising  questions on senior player’s fitness and compare them with 18-24 years old players, I mean how they can do that when they never brought any system or a basic understanding of human performance how sad is that when player ready to serve and utilise their experience and exposure, this system chucks them out. I have witnessed how they disrespect the senior players in the front of their juniors and the worst part is this system even don’t bother to say goodbye with respect and appreciate their services. 

This is one of the reasons behind Pakistan hockey’s downfall. 

A lot of people will not agree with me that Pakistan Hockey federation focused a lot on modern or FIH high-performance hockey system which is good. Still, they have failed to create a right balance between High-performance hockey and human performance. I’m not going to open the overall development programme because we never had any as our Ex Olympians and few politicians think they can bring Pakistani hockey back with their so-called talent hunt schemes etc. and one sector believes we should bring the League model, I’m not against these suggestions but my mind is not buying these ideas at all because, in the end, we need a system, we need a structure, we need those professionals who have an understanding of talent identification and can develop this talent in the right way but what we do with these 1000 of talented players? would you like to hear the bitter truth? We do nothing we set high hopes with them and start expecting too much from them, resulting in significant pressure on players which killed their talent.  

“Talent win games but not championships.”  

If you see some stats of Pakistan hockey team, then you will see foreign coaches made a massive difference in the team performance in a short period of time. If you collect some data from their tenure, you will realise that they have focused on Team and individual’s TOTAL FITNESS including physical assessments, tracking their fitness and performance, feedback system, remodelling eating habits, giving knowledge of sports nutrition providing an awareness of mental fitness, the utilisation of team and group video sessions (Visual Teaching Methods), creating a learning environment where players asking questions without any fear or hesitation because players know they are accountable for their given jobs, and make a balanced relationship between the coaching staff and players, creating a trustworthy environment which allows players to learn and play without fear of mistake and start enjoying when I say enjoying it means they are improving their performance and TOTAL fitness the most important they give respect, When we assemble all these little pieces and go to the books, then we will find the fundamentals of training principle, of team sports and Coaching. #Professionalism 

I know I just knocked on the door of a massive debate; Pakistan has a couple of highly qualified, experienced and well-reputed coaches but they are working with other national or domestic teams how sad is that I have already explained this matter in my previous blog, there is no room for professionals in Pakistan hockey because of Olympian mafia. 

Let’s get back to the topic if we see our neighbour India, they are doing well in the region at the moment their men’s team in the top 5s, they have won the recent Junior World Cup and their Women’s team qualified for the Olympics. So, I was looking at their overall structure and system I was amazed I didn’t find any Ex Olympians/Politician or selection committee drama in the current system, they are following the philosophy of “Team Behind The Team” professional setup and which linked to each other following the long term approach, I’m not going in the debate of local coaches vs foreign coaches this is another topic. 

If we go back in 2008-9 Hockey India appointed Spanish Coach Mr Jose Barca what he did, he spent months on their basics only (including dribbling), he changed Indian dribbling into rolling the ball, and guess who is in the camp? Sardar Singh, SV Sunil etc. imagine how frustrating for players like Sardara, meanwhile, Mr Barca brings Jesus Garcia Pallares the Spanish human performance analyst, who is helping and educating players, he spent hours and hours to work on the techniques and training systems, since then hockey India appointed so many foreign coaches and each coach bring one fitness experts but I found very interesting the appointment of Mr Robin Arkell the Head Strength and Conditioning coach of Sr. Men Hockey India, and the second appointment was Wayne Lombard Scientific Coach (FAP) who is working with their Women’s team, I admire both of them especially Robin who has been working with the rugby team earlier before taking the charge, he adjusts himself in a new culture quite well and utilising his top rugby experience in their system, he is the man who created a right balance I mean he transformed the players fitness which makes a huge difference and makes hockey coach’s life easier, I think he got the one advantage the players have a solid base of S&C understanding because they have been working and learning from different fitness experts which really helps him to take this group to the next level.

The second thing I would say is PHL and HIL where top players around the world were mixing up in the different teams and playing with the Indian players which allow Indian players to take their hesitation out and bring their confidence up while playing in the same team and against, also make a great relationship with them. Where they can enjoy hockey and discuss and share their hockey culture, this environment gives a boost of the confidence and players start believing in themselves.

In the same time, Indian media playing their role too I mean they making players bigger they bringing players in a lime lite and if I compare Pak sports media is working hard to get a tour from PHF and there are some decent sports journalist who still trying to play their role but this olympian mafia is quite strong that’s why Olympion mafia always in a lime lite rather then-current players.

When I present this Indian model then the argument came “Hockey India has huge funds” then I say what about Japanese Hockey Success? They are the real dark horse in the region they are Continent Champions and they have qualified for the Olympics on their performance which shows there is some system is running successfully. 

I agree finance is an essential aspect, but what happened to the Malaysian side then? they spent huge funds recently. 

Oh! Quick reminder Iran men’s indoor hockey team won the bronze medal in the recent indoor World Cup, and what about Southafrican Hockey team where players use their own funds when they travel with the national side, common please look at the Ireland Women’s hockey team’s journey of recent World Cup.

In short, I think, we need to be very honest with our national game, tell the truth and accept the reality, there is no other way to bring Pakistan Hockey back on track until we start telling the truth to this nation, we should get rid of all those fake and unprofessionals people from the system who are continuously misguiding the authorities with the help of their political or other influences. 

“Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different result” Albert Einstein

I firmly believe if we start from scratch and develop a robust structure with low funds with long-term approach than we can get there where we want to be, this isn’t rocket science at all.

In my next blog, I’ll explain the advantages of the physical and skills assessment and Identification of talent, where I’ll share my personal experience and give you some suggestions and ideas how we can start building a solid base at a grassroots level. 

Thanks  

Field Hockey, Pakistan Hockey

What is Incompetency and how Incompetent people Destroying Our National Game – Part 1

PHF BLOG

According to the dictionary, incompetence is the inability to do something successfully. In my opinion, it is more than that. It is the habit of accepting failure or botched work and making excuses for it.

Failure and mediocrity are incredible. You fail at something or do a poor job and the consequences are not good but not so bad. You lost something, but you did not lose much. You were told off, you came up with an excuse or you apologized, but nothing changed

Guess what will happen next time?

You will fail and be mediocre again and again. And of course, always have a perfect excuse to justify everything.

Do incompetent people know they’re incompetent?
No, of course not; otherwise they wouldn’t be incompetent.
Incompetent people do not understand how incompetent they are because the factors that make them incompetent to make them unable to understand their shortcomings. Psychologists call this the Arrogance of Ignorance.

So what is incompetence?

It is an inability or lack of skill to perform adequately. So, incompetence is measured by results or performance not intelligently. Incompetent people can be quite charming and intelligent, but their perceptions can be out of kilter and how they perform can be disastrous. Incompetence can result from lack of organizational abilities, Ego, self-centered, lack of self-awareness; they may have book learning, but no practical experience, they may be in the wrong line of work, numerous other reasons or any combination of these, for example, if you have a great playing experience and you are a Big wig so it’s not compulsory you will be a good coach or a pilot etc. You have to work harder to be a successful coach or a manager etc.

Below does incompetent people use some of the coping strategies. If you see people doing these things, it’s not guaranteed that they’re incompetent, but you should be wary and very careful with these people until you know for sure because their lack of competence could hurt the system

Nice and Praising people – incompetent people sometimes use ‘nice’ as a coping strategy. They think that if they really, really, really nice and praising then the teacher will be more likely to forgive them or the boss will be reluctant to fire them.

This is a dangerously effective coping strategy because most of us like nice and praising people and we would rather deal with nice people than cranky ones.

In fact, we are more likely to forgive really, really, really nicer people for their incompetence than we are to forgive cranky people. After all, this is why incompetent people adopt ‘nice’ as a strategy; it works. At least, it works for a while and then after a time we get fed up with their constant screw-ups and even their ‘niceness’ is no longer enough to compensate for their perpetual incompetence.

Hiding their selves  – incompetent people sometimes try to make themselves invisible. They sit at the back of the class or the back of the meeting room, hoping they are didn’t noticing and called upon. Also, they keep quiet and don’t raise their hands or volunteer anything because when they do their incompetence becomes evident for all to see.

One more example lot of Ex Olympians and internationals never take a part in any FIH or other coaching certifications, also most of them don’t want to work on a grass root level I mean coaching and management, these kind of people living in a fear of exposing their selves, because they were a brilliant player of their era, but coaching and management are the different fields it doesn’t matter how good and intelligent player you are actually you have a playing experience ONLY.

Invisibility is also a dangerously effective coping strategy because we cannot see them. Since they’re invisible, they’re difficult to identify. They identify when they got some responsible position in federation or in any other organization where they have to work on different sector, like banking, airlines etc, of course they couldn’t fly a plane or run a Bank until they got the right education and a license to fly etc. A funny thing is these people relying on their playing career not on their education and certifications etc.

 

Never wrong- Beware of people who always make excuses and never accept responsibility for their mistakes. These people show that they are doing a hell of work and going to make a massive change in the system, but in reality they are making things worse because of their incompetence and lying habits. Someone writes “Incompetents will do and say anything to defend themselves … including disassembling, obfuscating, lying and blaming others … they misrepresent, they use decoy arguments and make ad hominem attacks.”

 

I am following Pak hockey for decades and also worked for a while with them and I have never seen anyone once admitted to making a mistake. They had endless excuses and it was always someone else’s fault. Fortunately, it didn’t take me long to realize they are a bunch of incompetents. They are always right, teaching and applying 80s and 90s formulas won’t work in this modernized sports world, I don’t know how long we will take to realize that and change this incompetence system.

 

Always right – this is the flip side of ‘Never Wrong’ above. One characteristic of people who think they’re always right is their inability to listen and learn. They’re like super heroes, they show they knew about everything, and they even cannot able to teach a right basic skills, or organize/manage anything. If you aren’t an Olympic medalist then you have no right to say a single word against their artificial and failed logics.

If you try to guide them in a professional and a smart way then you committed a crime because they are always right.

 

Back Biting and Negative People– Some people, in order to compensate for their incompetence, try to drag other people down with constant negative comments so they look better in comparison. No matter what you tell this type of person, no matter how positive it is, they’ll bend and twist it out of shape. You can see them in sports TV talk shows; They could make Pastola (Ball Boy) look like Cristina Ronaldo, because they know Pastola never going to say anything except YES sir NO sir. These people always want to be in a lime light and if they see some young one who is well spoken and rising slowly and they are recognizing in the Sports sector, then they start taking them as a threat, and start spreading negativity about his game and his/her character also they can give you a unfit certificate after playing 100 international games, they can make your legs uneven or suddenly they become an astrologer to predict how long you can play and perform, beware if a person does that, they are also likely to do it to you behind your back. Everything you say WILL be used against you.

These people are constantly searching for the negative and take great delight in finding it in others.

Poking into everyone else’s business – Some incompetent people, unable to do their own jobs compensate by telling other people how to do their jobs and enter fairing in their jobs. They try to make themselves look good by appearing to be busy ‘improving things’ and thus avoid revealing their inability doing their own jobs. For example, if they are a team manager then they will also take a part in everything, coaching, strength and conditioning, etc, even they start substitute players without asking from coaching team, once team lost the game then they put all the garbage on players and a coaching team.

 

Overconfidence – although this is not a coping strategy, it may be a sign of someone who believes they’re better than they really are. We live in a rapidly changing world that requires constantly upgrading our skills. Overconfident people may be loath to improve because they think too highly of themselves.

As well, overconfident people may think they don’t need anyone else’s input so they try to do things themselves rather than ask for the opinions from the professionals. Never underestimate the value of teamwork. Two heads are better than one and three better than two. It takes bravery to admit you don’t know everything. Learning is a long journey and this journey will stop when you feel YOU ARE THE BEST.

Hypocrisy– is an Incompetence people’s weapon, from this weapon you can destroy any sports or any system, these are the most dangerous people in sports, these people are always with the federation for the sake of their positions and keep surviving in every federation with the help of same slogan “Rival of Hockey” this federation is doing superb this and this blah blah blah huh…….. These kind of people keeps their position secure and keep the musical chair game on

Hazrat Ali (A.S) said “Always be open to new ideas”

Always try to gain more knowledge. Refrain from being narrow-minded and ignorant. Stick to your own principles but keep yourself open to improvement and constant development. That being said; don’t get yourself into matters which don’t concern you… “He who involves himself in matters without considering the consequences exposes himself to troubles.

 

Thanks guys for reading this and I think this is very important to know the meaning of INCOMPETENCE before reading my upcoming blog, in the next blog, I will explain how the Federation’s incompetency damages our dying national sport.

Thanks

 

 

 

 

 

 

Field Hockey, Pakistan Hockey

Why Always PHF Is To Blame For Pak Hockey’s Sad State of Affairs and The Importance of National Hockey Events

The National senior championship event that has been recently established as a means to promote Pakistan’s national sport across the country. Dubbed as the hockey carnival of the nation, this is an event where teams of various departments and provinces compete with one another showcasing their most talented players, providing ample opportunities for top talent recruitment for the national team. Because of this, the hockey league is immensely competitive and all departments and regional teams select their best players in this well sponsored and funded event.

Playing professional hockey has always been my dream. I first found my passion for the national sport while I was at school, after which I dreamt of participating at the national level. My first breakthrough came when I got accepted into the NBP junior team in the National Junior Championship event in 2000 after my schooling years.

When I stepped my foot into professional hockey, my eyes were set at joining the NBP senior team, which I thought was going to be difficult. Fortunately, my dream came true when some of my batch mates and I were selected for the 1 month bank camp in Gojra and Lahore in 2001

There we were blessed to be around the company of some of the greatest hockey players of Pakistan, including Tahir Zaman, Rana Mujahid, Khawar Javed, Ahmed Khan, and Nadeem ND. My friends and I were simply trying to secure a place in the team as 17th and 18th player positions. This was so that we would get a chance to improve and cultivate our skills by being in constant supervision and guidance of senior and more experienced players.

After a while I finally got properly accepted into the team and played proper professional hockey. Playing alongside some of the most experienced and skilled hockey players was a golden opportunity. They not only supported me, but also gave me the confidence to play up to my potential that helped push my hockey career forward.

Perhaps, the most important aspect of playing professional hockey was discipline. All hockey activities from trainings and rest periods for meetings and social events took place between morning and evening that provided the right atmosphere for building focus and training.

By spending a little over 6 weeks, I began to witness a significant improvement in myself. I, along with others, got a good daily allowance, stayed in 4-star hotels, and benefitted from various other benefits that helped me relax mentally and pursue my career in hockey with greater commitment. Lately, I received positive feedback for my performances in championship events and also got selected for the national camp, followed by the Pakistani Jr. Hockey team, after which my career reached greater heights.

My positive career in hockey is relevant for highlighting the importance of the National Senior Hockey Championship event for new players. If any federation failed to organize a hockey event properly, then they will fail to develop hockey talent that can be the drivers of our national sport in the future. Nowadays, the National Senior Hockey Championship event has more or less become a ‘khana-poori’ event in the calendar of Pakistan Hockey Federation (PHF).

The event’s new federation has played such a crucial and positive role in changing the unprofessional system and structure of Pakistan Hockey to produce real talent for the future. One of their main contributions was introducing a quality and advanced coaching program that will ensure hockey training is executed and conducted only by qualified hockey coaches to meet high and professional game standards, and also brings the qualified GK Coach Salman Akber for the Goal keeper’s development program, and after a few months he quietly resigned due to PHF unprofessional attitude.

Although the idea was well-thought out, it wasn’t implemented properly and ended up becoming another slogan. In the Azlan Shah Hockey Cup, the federation takes a large number of people for coaching and umpiring courses that do not add up to anything beneficial.

I’m utterly disappointed with this non-serious management and cannot understand why this takes place. This is one of the reasons why the national sport of Hockey is losing interest among the younger generation day by day, causing many departments to disband their hockey teams, ending the careers of highly talented hockey players.

In this opportune time for developing future talent, the federation acted very irresponsibly and set a very bad precedent for professional hockey in our country. They organized a National Championship event that failed to fulfill any real objectives. In this event, many departments had set up their training camps for players to participate in the event and had also spent a large sum of money. However, due to poor event management, each team only played 2 games and any team that failed to qualify was asked to pack their bags and go back home.

The question is how else will upcoming players be attracted and motivated to make a career in hockey if such antics occur? Honestly, is there a point in spending a substantial amount of money if players per team only get to play only 2 games? Most important of all, how can the federation expect team sponsors to recruit players if the event is not made competitive enough to encourage talent recruitment for successive games?

There is no doubt that we are wasting good Hockey talent for our future and instead of taking serious measures to correct the problem, we are playing blame games.

Professionalism

One of the most unprofessional decisions taken by the federation was that they changed the draws that were not balanced. Also, they made a few changes to the event to accommodate a hockey player’s wedding reception. Furthermore, members of the federation along with other team participants travelled to other cities that were far from Lahore and got back just in time to play the match/team training the following day. Is this the example we are setting for upcoming players and officials in the professional hockey?

Discipline is the cornerstone of professionalism, but where does that leave us? The second major blunder committed by the federation was regarding the Malaysian Hockey League. PHF changed the draws in order to make the championship event shorter since a lot of players were participating in the tournament. This only showed that the federation does not have any serious concern about sustaining interest in the game of hockey or for nurturing talent for the future.

Video referral

Video referrals failed to bring about any viable outcome in the recent championship event. Video referrals took more than 3 minutes for each appeal and failed to make a good decision. This not only showed the extent of our unprofessionalism towards the sport, but also slowed down the momentum of the match that only made the match unexciting and boring to watch for spectators.

Winning Prize

The entry fee for each team was 1.5 Lac rupees that was embarrassingly low considering that the PHF did not give out any medal or trophies for the team winning 3rd Position. There is only a trophy for the Champions and the runners up but no other prize or medals for anyone else.

FIH Champions Trophy 2016

Pakistan got out from the recent World Cup and Olympics that led to a dramatic fall in their international ranking also in part due to the lack of participation in FIH events. The PHF, unfortunately, does not have any well thought-out plans to close this gap and increase the competitiveness of our national team.

Fortunately, Pakistan was invited to participate in the last champions trophy, which was a great opportunity to score around 150 participation points. This could have been a excellent for helping the team reverse their poor international ranking and along with giving the players tremendous exposure and confidence in being able to play against top teams. Had Pakistan participated in the event, it could have easily secured the top 3rd Position, to say the least.

Why? Because due to Olympic Champions Trophy wasn’t in the program of so many teams, and because of that these teams do not take this event as seriously and simply show up to London without any proper preparation and after seeing few games of champions trophy is quite obvious Pakistan can finish in top position and can improve their ranking, as Pakistan Team always play to win events we never participate for experiments and development procedures.

 

The PHF could have used this opportunity to try new players or experiment with different match tactics to gauge how well the team performs under different settings. However, the PHF declined the invitation by the FIH and decided not to participate in the 2016 event in order to save themselves the scrutiny of the team’s poor performance.

Ranking and team development aside, Pakistan should have participated in the Champions Trophy seeing that the country is one of the founders of the event. There is no question that the PHF was afraid of facing another major defeat, despite the fact that the team had lost in two major hockey tournaments in quick succession; as such, there was nothing to be afraid of losing.

But, in lieu of the unprofessional system of the PHF, the officials became concerned at the thought of people raising questions about the national team’s performance and blame being casted onto them. Since they could not handle such accountability, they decided not to induct Pakistani team in the event.

Junior World Cup 2016

There was little doubt about how well the Pakistani Junior hockey team had been practicing for the past 12 months, in addition to giving an excellent performance in multiple tournaments prior to the Junior World Cup. Under the supervision and guidance of Head Coach Mr. Tahir Zaman, the team had been doing surprisingly well within a short space of time. During these past few months, the players developed a strong team spirit and bonding and despite not reaching the top standard, they still exhibited a substantial improvement as hockey players.

All they were in need of was some international exposure to polish their skills and discover other areas of improvement. The PHF had a plan to organize a European tour that would give the national team to play against European teams and spend between 2 and 3 weeks in camp training. Despite the good intentions of the federation, the plan never came to fruition, as it was not executed properly.

Changes to the plan were made, owing to a scheduling conflict as a result of a Chief of Army Staff hockey tournament. Due to this, the PHF lost sight of their priorities and emphasized the importance of a local event at the expense of an international tour.

A short while after this, the Pakistani Junior Team was not able to participate in the Junior World Cup due to the refusal of the Indian government to issue visas to Pakistani hockey team players. But, instead of admitting their mistakes, the officials of the federation took advantage of the situation by putting all the blame on the Indian government for their Junior team’s lack of international exposure.

And since Indo-Pak ties often get sensationalized by our media, it was not difficult for the federation to cast blame on anyone but themselves for their poor decision making and lack of serious attitude. I guess we all owe the federation officials a big debt of gratitude and salute for bashing the Indians on television and scoring political points. The fact of the matter is that the federation was able to cover the root causes of the junior hockey team’s lack of international exposure – their own unprofessional attitude towards the game.

Honestly, is this the state of our national sports federation where it is better to waste our energy and time impressing our bosses in order to secure our jobs, but not executing future plans to develop our hockey team players?

The federation should have anticipated this and taken out the time to submit an appeal and do all the paperwork necessary to strengthen their case. However, PHF neglected three FIH warnings and did not submit the required papers. During this time, the FIH asked the Malaysian Federation and those of other countries to fulfill the replacement. In contrast, the Malaysian Federation took advantage of this by submitting the required paper within 48 hours and obtained the visas for their hockey players to participate in the World Cup.

After this blander PFH said we will take this matter very seriously and they will bring this matter to the court, after so called consulting they decided to be quiet………………………..

Coaching System

When the Legends in charge of the federation first took their jobs, they used many slogans and promises to bring change to uplift the national sport from unprofessionalism. However, all ended up in vain and we are still in the same situation without any optimism for true change or progress.

The coaching system is one example where PHF failed to live up to its promises. For example, apart from the fact that Khwaja Junaid was appointed as head coach, the federation, brought a retired army serviceman, Lt. Co. Mohsin Ali, as assistant coach or manager, Mr. Hanif Khan as camp commandant plus manager, and Ahmed Alam as GK coach.

I still do not understand why you need different levels of coaches or what these different coach titles are supposed to mean for the management. The interesting thing is that the PHF boss did not buy the idea of having a strength and conditioning coach as he instructed the players, during the Asian Champions Trophy, that all players need to work hard on their like how they used to in their time.

What really perplexes me is why retired army servicemen are being hired to do the job of a professional hockey manager or coach. I guess this only shows how our hockey federation is riddled with favoritism, something that resonates with our country’s political system.

The people who are aware of the federation can easily spot the problems in the management. How can you expect hockey players to take an interest in the game or for the team to have a consistent skills development and training system when the head coach instructs one player to be substituted for another, the Chief coach says to replace everyone except that player, or when the goal keeper is neglected by the coach because he has been coached by someone else in the past or when the new captain is forced to sit on the bench because he is not a favorite of another coach.

The fact of the matter is that there are many coaches with their different approach, each of whom have considerable authority to dictate and decide who should substitute and who should not. The worst part, of course, is that each coach has their favorite and any selection and induction of players happens through tribal customs.

This only creates a stress environment of players and makes them lose confidence and hope for seeing themselves grow in the sport and take the national sport to international level. It is no surprise then that Mr. Khawaja struggled to manage his own team.

We all need to reflect on our own problems and take steps to promote transparency and team spirit of the game. If the players cannot bond well and fail to perform as part of a team, then what does this say about the management’s responsibility to provide a strong playing atmosphere and core value system? The reality is that we are too busy casting blame on one another and fail to acknowledge our own mistakes.

I always say ‘attitude is everything’ and if this is the attitude of the people in charge, then there is no doubt that we haven’t learnt anything from our mistakes. Should this continue, we will never be able to progress in our own national sport.

Another point to reflect about is that foreign coaches will always bring their own team, such as video analyst professional, GK coach, physiotherapist, and so on. Have you wondered why this is the case? I will leave you to think about it. But you should know that that the national senior team has no physiotherapist no strength and conditioning coach and team is participating in the international events with someone’s friend Oh I mean DOCTOR (I already explained doctor role in Pak hockey in my pervious Blog).

Freedom of Speech

Our federation also has issues with people who voice their opinions for accountability. Recently, the former hockey player and legend Waseem Ahmed raised some questions during a national championship event highlighting the problems of favoritism in PHF. Soon after, he received a notice and got banned to sit on the team bench of his departmental team during the championship event and had to take permission from PHF to allow him to serve as coach for a foreign country hockey Club.

Now that was harsh! Waseem Ahmed recently became a FIH high performance coach and also got recommended for the next stage of FIH high performance coaching, along with serving as a coach for the Australian hockey club.

My complaint is why did the federation behave in such manner? This is not the first time it has happened with a high-ranking former hockey player. On the contrary, we have seen this happen with various other players and former players. The PHF, instead of being open to criticism, acts in a dictatorial fashion by shutting any mention of public scrutiny. PHF, in the past, have sent notices to various department officials to set an example for others never to open their mouths against them.

Unfortunately, this method is working on keeping the sport of hockey infested with favoritism and unprofessionalism. This is why in lieu of these systemic problems, I can only appeal to the government of Pakistan to introduce institutional level changes to rid the federation of incompetence and make hockey a pride of our nation.

 

Pakistan Hockey, Sports

Karachi Hockey On Ventilator

 

Karachi has always remained the factory of manufacturing national heroes and has blessed the hockey world and Pakistan with some world class hockey players. Whenever we talk  about Karachi and hockey, our minds, our automatically hit with huge names like the legend Mr. Hassan Sardar, Mr. Hanif Khan, Mr. Issalhuddin, Akhterul Islam, Shahid Ali Khan Mansoor Ahmed, Ahmed Aalm, Waseem Feroz, Qamar Ibrahim, Kamran Ashraf, Sohail Abbas and many others.

School Sports: Role played by Habib Public School in keeping hockey alive:

Those who are related to sports and Hockey will definitely agree that Habib Public School has played the played the crucial and vital role in promoting this particular sport along with the others and has acted as the main Karachi hockey academy for generating national and international hockey players. HPS has been the only school in Pakistan that took our national game seriously, encouraged youngsters to pursue it and provided quality sports education under great leadership to all the young players. History has witnessed HPS’s contribution to Hockey. Incredible players including,Hassan Sardar, AayazMehmood, Safdar Abbas, Qamar Ibrahim, Kamaran Ashraf, HaiderhussainSohail Abbas, Asif Ahmed Khan, IjazKhoker, FarazHaider, Shabbir, Ahmed Khan, Abbas Haider, SibtainRaza and a lot of others who have not only represented Pakistan in Junior sides, but most of them who have played at higher and senior levels in Pakistan, all are the product this prestigious institute.

The most respectable and legendary coach Late Mr. Waheed Ahmed Saab was the name behind the HPS hockey success. He had a hawk’s sight when it came to finding the talent during inter house hockey tournament and polished them into diamonds in a very short period of time. He very well knew his role and job and was an extremely hard working person

Not many hockey lovers are aware of this interesting fact, but Pakistan’s Hockey team has always been incomplete without a Habibian. I am myself a Habib Public alumni and Ex-international hockey player and I am very proud of being a Habibian.

Club Hockey:

YMCA Hockey Club, Customs Hockey Club, and Al Saghir Hockey Club have also played a very important role in the development of young and adult players and has also produced several Olympians and international hockey players.

I must appreciate the efforts of Mr. Shahbi Abbas and his efforts. He justified himself as the successful Director of sports in HPS and Director of YMCA hockey club where Mr. IrshadHaider, Mazhar Mohammad, and some other dedicated coaches also performed their duties very well, and took this Club to different a level. This club produces the best Goal keepers for the Pakistani National Teams like our legend

MrShahid Ali Khan, Mansoor Ahmed, Ahmed Aalam and Aijaz Khoker. All these names became a wall for Pakistan’s Hockey team defense.

I also appreciate the hard work of Mr. Saghir Ahmed, the founder of Al Sagheer Hockey Club, who put his best in bringing this club at the top level and produced several International players and Olympians in Pakistan that include players like Sameer Hussain, Aijaz Rasool, Mubashir Mukhtar, Asad Quraishi and many others.

I very much admire our Legend Mr. Hanif Khan. You would witness him every single day at the hockey pitch. Numbers never mattered to him. He was always busy in working on maturing the players. One thing that was really famous of his club was that you could learn hockey under his coaching and some other big names like Farhat khan, Mohammad Ali, Haider Hussain, Waseem Feroz, Kashif Jawad and others. One felt lucky to play with these legends for 5 minutes. Playing with them gave youngsters a chance to boost up their confidence. Their tips took players to a different level altogether.

This club’s role was to work on the mature players and it also worked on Pakistan’s young talent like Olympian Haseem Khan, Int- Asim Khan, Owais Khan and many more.

Crises:

At the moment, these clubs are almost finished and they are fighting for their survival. There are so many things behind these crises, especially the behavior of PHF. They have totally neglected Karachi hockey. They should ask this question from KHA but unfortunately PHF needs some regional votes. After PHF elections, they leave and isolate the KHA.

KHA Performance:

It really hurts when you see no representation of Karachi in national, juniors and senior teams. In some age group like Pak U-16 there is not a single player from Karachi in the entire camp. I’m not blaming PHF for not selecting players in camps or in the teams, I’m just saying that I don’t understand that why PHF is not taking KHA seriously. It was quite oblivious that KHA has totally failed to raise the standard of Karachi hockey and failed to improve and modify the structure, what worries me is the fact that why is PHF appointing the same people again and again?

Jan 2015 to August 2016 KHA didn’t organize an inter-club competition, after 2014 club championship there has been no activity in the club hockey at all. Senior and junior championship performances are not satisfactory at all. There is no camping, etc for the event; actually Karachi’s team has participated in these events for just the heck of it. They have set no targets. Why are they spending money on these tours when they have no courage to take a stand for the deserving players. Since ages Karachi players have been struggling to get a chance in the Camps.

 

And the worst happened when the PHF organized a camp for the Youth Olympic Games in Lahore and due to short notice, the camp was announced without any trials. Here the KHA could have suggested a few upcoming players to the PHF, but unfortunately they suggested a coach rather than any players and the young Karachi players missed the opportunity to learn and improve themselves in the camp. This did not happen only in this age group, even in juniors and seniors too, where the chief selectors, Senior team coach, junior team head coach are from Karachi, even they didn’t find a single player who could represent the national team in future ‘What a Joke!’

When young players don’t get a chance to participate in these kind of camps, then how are they ever going to improve and get more involved in hockey. At this point and time what players need is a little appreciation which they are obviously not getting at all.

This is the main reason why Karachi youngsters are not preferred to come at the ground. They need some assistance, some help to become better, to improve themselves and keep them motivated. We are now losing a lot of young, talented players. It has been ages to when some faces were discovered from KHA. It shows that something is going wrong. Not only PHF knows that, but due to some political reasons, there is no check and balance they just need some regional votes.

Players attitude:

Attitude is everything and in this decade KHI player’s attitude has been changed drastically. They are assuming that they are the victims of ‘Racism‘ and PHF is biased in selections and they only select players who are from Punjab but in real they not realizing that how much hockey is being played in Karachi! How many Ex Olympians and Internationals are working at grass root level! How many local tournaments are organized by KHA.

Players are so disheartened and demotivated at the moment. They don’t belong to rich families. They also have some responsibilities and pressures from their families. Every parent has concerns regarding their children’s future, when they see there is no progress in their Hockey career then they start forcing their kids to concentrate on their studies or to pursue something else in their career, and to be honest they are right!

Olympians & International Role:

Apart from the KHA performance, there is no one who can take a responsibility to work on the grass root level. This is so unfortunate that there is not a proper academy in Karachi or a proper hockey club, even KHI has 2 blue pitches and 3 Green pitches, but there is no one who can utilize these facilities properly. There’s only one so called evening academy is running, but they are using Mr. Sagheer Ahmed, the founder of AlSagheer Hockey club members. Actually, Mr. Sagheer has no choice, he needs a ground to run his club after UBL sports complex taken over by Mr Jan Muhammad, so he has sacrificed his club name and has brought his setup to this pitch. The worst thing is that you are not allowed to train on this pitch until you fully become a member of this club. So a lot of players who want to do some extra training, they get deprived of the chance to use these facilities. Let me clear one thing, this pitch belongs to Pakistan Government and it does not belong to an any individual and no one has the rights to become the owner of this pitch, but unfortunately, no one raises the voice against this crime because these people are a permanent member of PHF club. Yes, I call this a crime. Pakistan’s hockey is dying and youngsters are not interested in playing hockey at all when these kind of selfish people with their ego are not allowing youth to train themselves. This is a crime. Actually, these are people are the responsible for the downfall of Pakistan hockey.

There has been a lot of conflicts within the KHA itself. As previous secretaries where there only to boost their names rather than boosting the game of Hockey, previous elections, which were held in the month of November at that moment too many clubs were formed anonymously just for the sake of votes and immediately without any planning a tournament was scheduled. At that moment any Hockey lover could realize that the level of players and hockey was not upto the mark. Secondly, the level of umpiring in these tournaments seemed to be pathetic as those umpires doesn’t know the latest rules that have been implemented in international hockey.

I see lots of Hockey legends only in the newspapers and on TV shows, where they are bashing the current Federation or busy in blaming previous Federation all the time and after a few weeks and months they become selectors, coaches and gain some other positions in PHF, and when you ask them why you are not selecting Karachi players in the camps/teams then they reply that there is not a single player who deserve to attend the camp. Wow. BRILLIANT! Who is going to work with these players then? They have always pretended that they are working very hard to bring Pakistan hockey on the right track and to bring some young talent in the industry. So now where is all your hard work? Don’t you think we need to be a little sincere to our national game?

Umpiring:

Karachi Umpires are also struggling to make a place in the mainstream. Mr. Shahid is the only one who is doing his hardest to get to the International standard, and there is no improvement and working in this section at all. Young umpires are feeling neglected; there are not much hockey events in Karachi where Umpires can improve their standards. It’s all about the KHA structure and a system where there is no vision and plans for the young umpire’s development, and the PHF is not taking Karachi hockey seriously to be honest!

Women Hockey:

Karachi women’s hockey has disappeared somewhere; recently they didn’t participate in the women’s indoor hockey tournament in Islamabad either.

Women’s hockey is struggling In Pakistan, but Karachi women’s hockey is dying  due to politics. I am saying this because women hockey players aren’t allowed to train at different pitches due to some KHA Politics… what a shame! The Sports world is moving too fast and we are still busy in tug of war of positions.

Sports Media Silence:

There was a time when Karachi media were proactive and neutral for Karachi hockey, but unfortunately there are only a few media personalities left, previously they are providing a platform for the so called hockey professionals, and these people are blackmailing PHF to get some positions in the federation and it wouldn’t be wrong to say that they have been successful in doing so.

I didn’t mean that all media persons are doing this, but we have a right to question when our media is quite on so many things, including the isolation of KHI players and its system by PHF. Their biased TV shows and reporting are hiding the truth.

Punjab Hockey:

While Karachi hockey players are complaining, I must appreciate the hard work of Punjab’s Ex Olympians & Internationals. Most of the ex players are running clubs and academies voluntarily. Even though they don’t have any water base pitches around, but they run morning and evening sessions and play more local tournaments, which improve their players’ fitness and confidence. This is the main reason why Punjab players are not only improving, they are building a strong desi basics and players are getting competitive environment. This happens when PHF takes something seriously.

PHF Coaching Clinics:

PHF has taken a good step to educate local coaches and it has started a Level 1 hockey coaching certification in a desi style during the senior championship in Karachi, Dec 2016 where coaches can learn modern coaching skills and improve their coaching ability. I was invited by PHF as a Strength and Conditioning coach to give some basic knowledge of the training system and sports nutrition, it went well during the championship and coaching course, I realized that 90% of the coaches don’t know about the warming up and warming down exercises. They are still doing 1960’s style warming up in 2016 National Championship, where all the best players and coaches are participating. The most disappointing thing was the very low participation of Karachi coaches in this coaching clinic, it was a very good opportunity for all local coaches to learn from FIH high performance coaches. The turnout was not bad, but, only 3 coaches from Karachi participated in this course and the rest of them were from Baluchistan and Interionor Sindh. This attitude shows that we think we knows everything we really don’t want to learn anything, we need to realize that coaching is that not easy as we think, the world is progressing so fast and due to this attitude we are going down.

New KHA Appointments:

Recently PHF appointed a new and young Ex International Haider Hussain as a secretary of KHA, and we all are having a high hopes from him, I hope he will keep out his self from the dirty politics and bring back Karachi Hockey on track.

I request to PHF please inquire about the Govt new blue pitches and allow everyone to use them rather than two personalities, and also please form a KHA academy in the supervision of HOCKEY PROFESSIONAL.

‘Nothing is Impossible’

 

Field Hockey, Pakistan Hockey, Sports, Uncategorized

Me and Pakistan Hockey 1994-2015

Cuddled up to my pillow in my blanket on a chilly winter morning, I was half awake and half asleep waiting for my mom to wake me up for school and just like any other kid on a cold morning, I also wanted to skip school that day. I was busy thinking of reasons and suddenly the alarm struck, it was 6:30 AM and mom showed up to my room, “Hurry up, AD! Wake up son, I need to go to work early today. Come on, wake up or else I’ll be late!” I got up half-heartedly and showed up to the breakfast table quickly after dressing up. While putting Jam on my toast I realized that my dad wasn’t ready for his office. I asked him the reason of his delay and he said he wasn’t going. I was a little surprised because he seldom took off from work, so obviously I asked him why he wasn’t going and that’s when he told me that it our national television will be telecasting the Hockey World Cup Final and the match was between Pakistan and Netherlands.

I got a reason for an off too, and with dad’s help we convinced my mom and it was finally a day off from school.

As the match began, my father started to tell me the rules and knowhow of the game. The final one was a dream and the decider came through penalties. In the end Monsoor Ahmed GK of Pakistan saved the last penalty flick of Delmie and Pakistan made history on 4 of December 1994 by showing up as Hockey World Champions! Woo!! What a game it was, I still remember the moment we won; the excitement, the adrenaline rush that I felt in my body. Everyone in my building started to celebrate the win and dad and I both joined the celebrations too.

As I took to bed that night at 10:00 pm a few names remained stuck to my mind. Mr. Shahbaz Senior, Tahir Zaman, Kamran Ashraf, Qammar Ibrahim, Khwaja Junaid, Mansoor Ahmed, Delmie and Stephen Veen. It was that day when I decided that I wanted to be a professional hockey player and that historical day changed my entire life. My passion and hobby turned into my profession and now I have been working as a professional hockey Coach/Player for almost 15 years. This final game of the hockey world cup, gave me an Identity, wearing a green shirt and representing Pakistan in different FIH tournaments was more than stuff of any dreams.

In my short career, I saw many ups and down, but I must say the tenure of PHF president Mr. Gen Aziz and Sectary PHF Mr. Brigadier Mussurt Ullah was the best of times. I found myself very lucky to be a part of Pak Jr. and the senior squad in this tenure. They modernized Pakistan Hockey and worked in a professional way. At that time all the senior and junior coaches were FIH’s high performance coaches. For eg: Tahir Zaman, Asif Bajwa, Khwaja Junaid Qammar Ibrahim, Mr Ronald Oltamans and others. Also, in their tenure, the Pakistan hockey federation for the first time organized an FIH course for the local and professional coaches to give a chance to improve their coaching skills and implement modern hockey at grass root level.

During this tenure, Pakistan hockey was not only successful on the field, but also in the marketing department. We got Mr, Sardar Naveed Haider, who did a marvelous job and brought huge sponsors. The result of his hard work was that Pakistan became a host of FIH Champions Trophy and played many home series against different countries. PHF also organized a Super Hockey League for the first time in the history of Pakistan hockey. A lot of foreign players participated in this league and live coverage on TV made this event successful. Medals came in huge numbers during this time and a lot of youngsters also made their name. This PHF management gave us a boost and people all over started to recognize us.

Unfortunately, politics has always been a part of PHF. When this management started to work well, our Ex Olympians started to feel neglected and they began a huge campaign against the federation. In Pakistan, only if you are against the federation, the country’s media will highlight you. The media didn’t bother who spoke what till they had masala for the shows.

The worst part was most of these guests did not have basic qualifications required to be a coach. But in Pakistan if you are an Olympian or an international player that is enough for coaching, managing and trainer. When they become a coach they have nothing to teach. The only thing they do is wearing a green tracksuit, drink tea, eat Samosa on the side and watch players sweat it out. They have no training regimen for players; they have no clue of what players should eat and give them fatty goods and no supplements. They completely lack vision and there is no development program. Their behavior with players is appalling to say the least. They assume of themselves, as kings while the players are slaves of some sort.

This result in stressed players who never enjoy the game. The facilities are poor, which adds to the misery and this means there is no drive from the player’s side to improve him via competition, both domestic and international. This results in very few victories. These kind of coaches are insanely proud of their achievements of the 1960-1994 and don’t want to see beyond them. While we all respect that and we also are proud of them and acknowledge the fact that they are living legends, but as a coach/manager/trainer, etc when I see them, I know not much is coming out as a dividend.

Coaching:

The world of sports has transformed and sports’ coaching has become a subject. A number of nations spend a huge amount of money in the development of their coaches. Belgium is one of the prime examples. Seven years ago when the Belgium, hockey team was struggling to qualify for the European Championship, they spend the right amount of their funds in the development of coaches and systems. They brought in number of foreigner professional coaches who have not played internationals but have also worked on the grass roots levels. These coaches helped them build great processes and the result is for everyone to see. Belgium today is one of the top 5 sides of the world.

Doctors:

Pakistan is the only team in the world who takes a doctor along with the team for the past 15 years. If you have a chance to look at FIH match sheets, then you will find sports physiotherapist and trainers have replaced doctors. England is the only team that also has a Sports Scientist with the team.

Hockey is a pro-active game that requires top fitness and good health and only fit and healthy players are selected in national squads. Hence, what is the need of a doctor? What we are showing to the world? Pro Athletes get muscular and joint injuries, which can be only looked after by sports physiotherapists and trainers.

Disadvantage of an unprofessional Doctor:

I played in The Pakistan Junior Team in 2003, we had a doctor. I observed him quite closely and if there was one thing all players would unanimously to be that he was USELESS. He had no clue regarding physiotherapy but would pretend he knows everything and would always bring his portable massager that was useless. I have known him since then, he is not a qualified trainer, but he runs physical training sessions without any program/plan/targets etc. He is not a sports nutritionist, but he pretends that he is the best one. The worst is that he injects steroids to injured players to make them play in injury and unfortunately a few players finished their careers because of his stupidity. Now the question is why he is around? Maybe because he is a very good entertainer and keeps the management happy and he knows how to play with medical terms. Hats off to PHF officials who come under his influence.

Have you noticed Jamie Dwyer is still playing? Why is that globally top players keep playing even after crossing mid-thirties while Pakistan hockey players mostly struggle after they touch 30. That is because of the fitness issues. This is happening because the players’ fitness if not based on a solid foundation. Hockey is becoming a very high physical demanding game that requires top fitness. You are living in dreams if you think these kind of stupid fake doctors can take these players’ fitness to the international standards.

Tactical and Technical Coaching:

Pakistan has golden memories in hockey. I proudly have said before that we have won several top Gold medals at World Cups and Olympics but have struggled since 1994. Europe and others started research on hockey around that time. They started changing the game’s rules and introduced modern technology and brought fitness professionals to cope up with the game. Pakistan hockey, though kept basking in their glory and never tried coping up. The fact that they never wanted to come out of their successful era and still feel that their old style is good enough is where they fool themselves.

Pakistan should consider itself fortunate that they find so much talent. Unfortunately, talent can win games, but not championships. The players work so hard, but without a set regimen which is of global standards, not much can be achieved. The kind of people running the administration is unqualified professional and are in the majority. They are busy in playing musical chair like in the case of Pakistani politics (Aaj Saadi Vari kal Tuadi Vari).

There is no doubt in my mind when it comes to capabilities. We are fully capable to bounce back, but for that we need to appoint the right people for the right jobs. If the federation keeps appointing their friends who can’t even organize a senior and junior championship and can never be the coach of a local side, the results will be of the standards that we are seeing now.

Video Sessions:

Video analyzing plays a very important role in this modern era sport. But in Pakistan it’s become a joke where the laptop is an entertaining machine for the officials. I think it’s enough to say this here. We haven’t had any organized online library or any player database system where coaches and players can analyze their performance.

GK trainer:

Goal keeping is a totally different department of coaching and unfortunately no one is keen to work in this department. This definitely needs a specialized coach who knows his job rather than someone who rolls 1000 balls on GK pads every day. I think this is the more ignored department in the Pakistan set-up and also unfortunately there is also not a single qualified GK trainer. If you see current international matches, you can find Pakistan goalie dive on his both knees and do some very basic errors that shouldn’t be done at this level. I think Salman Akbar got lucky to have Shahid Ali Khan and Dutch GK coach Ronald Jenson, who polished Salman in a solid defensive wall of Pakistani defense. Unfortunately, due to federation behavior and pathetic policies he didn’t continue his services for his beloved country and moved to Netherland. Pakistan’s most talent GK is running his academy there and playing for a national league club.

Umpiring:

Pakistan used to produce quality Grad 1 FIH umpires like Rashid Ali Khan, Faiz Muhammad etc. But currently we have very low representation in FIH. The reason is no development program for umpires and no one wants to be an umpire simply because the federation failed in this department as well. A sad part of the story is no one respects umpires in Pakistan domestic hockey. PHF needs to bring educated players in this department and launch a development program for young umpires for the betterment of hockey in Pakistan.

Structure:

To be honest, there is no structure in Pakistan Hockey. Where are the academies and where are the academy coaches? Where are the grass root hockey projects? Where is club hockey, where is age hockey? Where is single hockey system?

Sorry to say there is nothing at all and even the so called legends don’t bother to visit a local ground, though they want to become the Head Coach of a National team. In this crappy system, there is no sign of any qualification for any Job. Being an Olympian or an international player qualifies you to be a head coach, which is ridiculous to say the least. It doesn’t matter whether you have played 5 minutes or 5 Olympics; these players sit on TV shows and pretend that they are the best coaches of the world without qualification.

The funny thing is that there is no post of Director of development and Director of coaching, which means there is no check and balance on coach’s performances. These coaches have a free hand and it is this system from which we expect a miracle.

Media:

PHF website is down and this highlights the progress of this department (Pun intended).

What we need to do:

We need to introduce a single hockey system ASAP. And also forget international hockey for few years and start working on the grass root level. We need to introduce a basic educational program for sportsmen and women. Start a development program for coaches and umpires, hire professional Trainers/S&C coaches, bring sports professionals on board to build a basic structure. We need honest and sincere people, especially those who really want to do something about this game rather than posting their picture on FB and Tweeter.

Make a criterion for each post, train coaches before they are coaching youngsters, and make sports lessons compulsory in schools. We need Sardar Naveed Haider Khan’s services in the marketing department as I think he is the only person who can help PHF at the moment in the marketing department. We need Waseem Ahmed,Zeshan Ashraf, Salman Akbar, Muddasir Ali Khan, Sohail Abbas, Mohammad Saqlain, Rehan Butt, and others seniors players in the coaching field. These players have played in the modern era and have a good understanding of FIH high performance hockey. Bring Mohammad Faiz in Umpiring department as Umpiring development officer. And in the end bring Mr. Tahir Zaman as director of Coaching with full authority and give him 5 years to build a solid structure.

Players Respect:

In Pakistan, there is no sign of a decent way of players retiring. PHF always treats big players like a tissue paper. Then being called in a training camp and didn’t pick them is a recent example of indecency that the recently did with Sohail Abbas, Kashif Jawad, Salman Akber, Rehan Butt, Mohammad Shabbir, Muhammad Sarwar, M. Saqlain, Mohammad Imran and others as well.

Though there are some players who use their brains. For example, I knew the monopoly and the politics of these coaches as I knew them very well. Like me who knows them very well and didn’t take any chance to make get their selves embrace and take an initiative and say bye to PHF with their heavy hearts, I never understand that why PHF invest in players? They select them in a team, give them an exposure and when they become mature and experienced players they kick them out without any sensible grounds. Also, PHF is the only federation who makes the debut of players in the World biggest events like the Olympics.

This is so strange but you can recognize that there is no vision no planning no system. Different nations planned for long times to participate in the Olympics. They designed their programs, select the best available players and started working on them. But In Pakistan there is no security of a player’s career, PHF has always given a shock to their players. This act makes players so stressed during the training camps and even during the competition and if a player is playing in stress, it means he is not going to give his best.

Due to this weird system of no proper Goodbyes, fans are left hurt to see their Super stars being treated like this, for example, if Sohail Abbas took a stand on this then I am sure it would not fall out with Salman Akber and Mohammad Imran and others. That’s all what I can articulate. This is so insulting to our players that we can’t even say proper goodbyes and appreciate our superstars for their services.

Unfortunately, we didn’t learn anything from the past and we are still blaming the players for the recent defeat and made Mohammad Imran and others to resign.

A part of this crap sportive system we still love our national game and we are hoping one day someone changes the disable system and take our national game to the top again.

Ameen