Ex-Malaysia goalie shares tips with Johor's hockey talents
TWENTY pupils from Tamil schools around Johor have been given the rare opportunity to train with former national hockey goalkeeper S. Kumar, in a special initiative.
Johor Impact Hockey Club secretary R. Pravin said the initiative, dubbed 'A Legend with a Mission', aimed to provide a platform for young hockey talents to sharpen their goalkeeping skills.
'We want to inspire and nurture young talents to become future national hockey goalkeepers, a position that is very important in the sport.
'Kumar was the perfect fit for the initiative as he is not only a national hockey coach now but also a legend who has played in major international tournaments and earned global recognition for his talents,' he said.
Pravin said the youngsters aged nine to 12, from 15 Tamil schools statewide, took part in the first goalkeeping clinic held at SMK Bentara in Batu Pahat.
'We chose to start with Batu Pahat partly because it is centrally located, making it easily accessible from both northern and southern districts of Johor.
'The host school also has its own turf and is one of the few non-sports schools that have consistently produced national and junior athletes every year.'
To ensure the students continued honing the skills they learned during the three-hour clinic, teachers and coaches also received training to help sustain the effort, Pravin added.
'We had about 35 teachers and coaches with various levels of expertise taking part in another session after the goalkeeping clinic.
'This allowed them to sharpen their skills, enabling them to continue the lessons and training with pupils once they return to their respective schools.'
Pravin said that while the current round only involved Tamil schools, there were plans to expand the initiative to national schools.
'We typically focus on Tamil schools, but we want to go beyond that.
'Our long-term goal is to train more goalkeepers who can one day represent Malaysia at the Olympics.
'As such, we plan to open up future goalkeeping clinics to all schools.
'If we manage to produce one national hockey goalkeeper through this initiative, it will be enough for us to be proud.'
Pravin said the club planned to hold the next clinic towards year-end, with a target of some 50 participants.
'We plan to have two sessions in the next clinic, one in the morning and another in the evening on the same day.
'We will keep each session to a small group of 20 to 25 pupils, as per Kumar's request, as he wants to ensure he can give his best and focus on each child,' Pravin added.
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