Floris Jan Bovelander sharing his knowledge

Uthra Ganesan

In his playing days, Floris Jan Bovelander was the unfailing scorer who helped the Netherlands win gold at the Olympics and World Cup. At a time when penalty corners were only beginning to gain importance, ‘Booem Booem’ Bovelander was the expert who flicked and hit with lethal precision.

On Tuesday, the 47-year old shared his knowledge and experience with youngsters who were not born when he plied his trade. At an interaction with students of One Thousand Hockey Legs – an NGO working to promote and popularise hockey across the country – Bovelander tried to break down the intricacies of playing top-level hockey into simple facts.

“Hockey is more than just sport. Playing together in a team, bonding with each other, learning to celebrate wins and coping with defeats and the self-belief that comes on field – these are things you learn when you play a team game. It gives you an identity and helps you work your way up in life,” Bovelander said.

The kids, government school students belonging to underprivileged families, did not know Bovelander or understand English but were able to follow the import of his words. The Dutch great, who organises hockey clinics and coaching camps back home, said he was keen to do the same in India.

“We bring in Dutch stars to promote hockey and interact with kids and we can do it here also by getting Indian hockey stars to meet these kids occasionally. We organise clinics, arrange camps, have coaches training courses and like. We are looking at the structure of hockey in India. We have met Roelant Oltmans and we may have an official interaction with Hockey India in future,” Bovelander said.

Skills present

Even while speaking on the sidelines, Bovelander kept an eye on the youngsters. “That kid there, he is so skillful even on an uneven ground like this. Most of the stuff can be learnt but the kind of things he is doing, you can’t; either you are born with it or not. And India is so full of this kind of skill,” he said.

Bovelander is here representing a turf company on the invitation of the Dutch consulate. “We can exchange a lot of knowledge – structural stuff that you don’t have here and skill sets we lack. We are also here to see the future of Indian hockey, the kind of things that organisations like OTHL do. May be we can arrange coaching camps in association with them, tie up with a business partner to supply kits and turfs. I would love to come back for the same,” he said. Asked about the Indian team, Bovelander said the biggest problem for the team was lack of early training on the turf. “Even at the World Cup, India finished seventh, which is not that bad in international sports but they are capable of doing much better.

“The problem is that Indians switch to artificial turf quite late. You have to do it by the time you are 11-12 to get used to it. Else it is very difficult to catch up with teams where kids start out on turfs at 4-5 years, like in Holland, Germany or Australia,” he said.

However, he doesn’t agree with people who insist on setting high targets to succeed. “If you start playing with the sole hope of becoming an Olympic champion, you will never reach there. On the other hand, if you enjoy what you are doing and keep trying to get better at it, you will invariably succeed. Targets don’t motivate you, the desire to improve does,” he signed off as the kids surrounded him for group photographs.