By Y.P. SIVAM

THE National Sports Council has called on the participants of a hockey coaching course to be active in grooming players at grassroots.

The NSC roving coach R. Vivekanandan made the call to the 50-odd participants during the three-day course initiated by the Tamil Foundation Malaysia with the support from the Selangor Hockey Association, Selangor Indian Sports Council and NSC.

“It is no point attending the course to collect certificates. But practise what you preach on the field and groom young boys and girls in hockey.

Listen up: Utayasoorian (right) giving a pep talk to the participants of the coaching course.

“It is your responsibility as teachers to be role models to the younger generation,” said Vivekanandan.

“A lot of people tend to criticise but they don’t do anything for the promotion and development of hockey. If each of you can groom 10 players, then we will have 500 young boys and girls playing hockey.

“The organisers have taken the initiative to organise the coaching course. They certainly would be happy to see the participants get active in coaching,’’ said Vivekanandan.

Tamil Foundation Malaysia president K. Utayasoorian said the coaching programme was their first sporting activity.

“Our aim is to create opportunities for primary school children to be involved in sports, and in this case hockey. We expect the participants to be active as coaches,’’ said Utayasoo-rian.

SHA president Datuk Salamon Selamat said they welcomed the foundation’s efforts in the development of hockey.

“We are willing to assist them in every way. We want to see more young children playing hockey in Selangor.

“In the long run, the SHA will be able to accept the youngsters into their development programmes,’’ said Salamon.

The topics covered during the course were rules of the game, goalkeeper skills, sports science, hockey drills, mini hockey, set play, defence and attack and video sessions.

Vivekanandan said the participants showed a lot of enthusiasm and were willing to learn.

“For the participants, the battle begins after the course. The organisers should have a meeting with the participants in two months for their feedback,’’ said Vivekanandan.

SHA chief coach Paul Rajasegaran said they would be inviting the participants for another session in December.

“We will also be organising a mini hockey competition in January. We hope to see each participant lead a team for the competition,’’ added Rajasegaran.