National hockey coach notes great resurgence of interest

Press, Volume CXII, Issue 32966, 12 July 1972, Page 14

National hockey coach notes great resurgence of interest

(By

K. R. TUTTY)

Hockey is at last gaining an image comparable with those of other major winter sports in New Zealand, the Rothman’s national hockey coach (Mr E, Barnes) believes. At the end of July .Mr Barnes will complete his first year as national coach, but already he has noted a tremendous resurgence of interest in the sport in ail areas he has covered, which excludes only Otago. In the initial year he has concentrated on bringing uniformity into hockey coaching but has found a surprising lack of knowledge of basic skills among many coaches. Mr Barnes has made remarkable progress. He has held coaching classes in many parts of the country. Of particular value he feels, has been his instruction in teachers’ colleges. There, he said, a great deal of good could be done for the sport by imparting his knowledge to prospective teachers. During the year he has produced a coaching manual setting out the fundamentals of hockey. It has been well received in many areas, and his policy is to revise it regularly. He said coaches and players were not as informed as they should be on fundamentals, and when coaching a player, every detail of basic skill had to be viewed, and corrected if necessary.

If his contract is renewed for a further term, as it almost certainly will be. Mr Barnes intends to aim his coaching mainly at teachers and other coaches. When working with coaches and teachers, flexibility was necessary to allow individuals to express their own ideas, particularly in the coaching of hockey tactics, he said. Basics never changed and in the past they had been given only "lip-service” by coaches. Getting coaching on an even keel by concentrating on more heavily populated areas such as Auckland, and in new training colleges at Hamilton and Palmerston North will be one of Mr Barnes’s aims in his next term. In Christchurch he has already made several visits to the secondary division at Ham and an extensive programme is planned for the primary division at which he has not yet taught. Women’s hockey was also deriving benefit from his visits to training colleges, said Mr Barnes. Half to twothirds of the students were young women. The amount of interest shown in minor associations was especially pleasing. Mr Barnes said this was probably because what he was offering was new. In many minor areas boys’ and girls’ teams played each other at primary schools, but once these players went to secondary

school many of them were lost to the sport, mainly because of a lack of coaches. Although there was a coaching certificate examination at present, Mr Barnes wants to introduce intermediate, senior and advanced certificates. This would combat the lack of coaches and at the same time build a network around the country. Those who obtained the advanced certificates would be able to examine and issue the minor certificates themselves, and to give the advanced coaches some incentive they could be paid

for their services, he said. The establishment and organisation of coaching committees at major, minor and sub-association levels would be coupled with the issue of certificates and the committees would follow up the initial work and keep coaching of skills, tactics and patterns of play under review, Mr Barnes said. Previously, interest was chiefly on top players, but primary and secondary schools’ and colts’ players and those in minor areas needed more encouragement so everyone was given a chance to reach maximum potential.

Stimulation for the game was needed and to this end Mr Barnes has been striving for the instigation of a national club competition on a knock-out basis. He has formed the mechanics of the competition and all that is needed is the finance — almost certainly sponsorship — to get the competition on its feet. Mr Barnes feels the New Zealand colts’ side which is chosen each year after the national tournament should compete in the senior tournament. He is also advocate ing more prestige be given to the secondary schools’ tournaments held each year — at present at six or more different venues and involving 70 to 80 teams. Mr Barnes wants one major secondary school tournament with other

teams competing for the right to play at the main venue. He feels insufficient publicity is given to hockey nationally, although he admits he has been well received by the radio and press wherever he has been. He is aiso concerned about the lack of coaching material, but knows this is limited by finance. He is hoping the national association will obtain films of matches in Munich which he can use for coaching. He acknowledges the support the national association’s coaching committee has given him in his first year and is confident it will continue in the same vein if his contract is renewed.