"Beautiful Girls"- Coaching Stint In Myanmar Part 2 (Final)

With the girls showing good progress in their basics skills, it was time for them to learn to use these basic skills under pressure; mini-games were introduced to them and gradually we moved to games using the full pitch.


Hardly three months learning the game Myanmar Hockey Federation had decided to send the women team for training and compete in the Asian Challenge Cup 1 in Bangkok.


Thailand Hockey Federation took care of our food, accommodation, and transport during our 40 days training and playing in the Asian Challenge Cup.


It was a wonderful 40 days stay in the Institute Of Physical Education in Bangkok. The facilities there were excellent. We train indoor hockey in the morning, video sessions and outdoor hockey in the evening. The institute also has an international standard running track for our physical workout.


What I enjoyed most was the ride on the truck that is similar to an army truck where you can sit on the long seat at the back, I will join the team singing the Myanmar songs during our 40 minutes ride to the hockey stadium.


As expected the girls were hammered by all teams in the Asian Challenge Cup  except Cambodia, Thailand hit 7, Singapore scored 5, Pakistan managed to get 4 goals, Sri Lanka got 5 goals, and our only victory was against the wonderful girls from Cambodia, we won 8-0.(wonderful girls not because we won 8-0.The Cambodian team and the Myanmar girls became close friends during our stay in Bangkok)


It was a challenging time motivating the girls after every game, in the process I learned how important it is for a foreign coach to learn the local language because emotions of a coach cannot be translated.


Upon returning to Myanmar, with three months to the SEA Games, I implemented my 12 weeks fitness program, set plays and every week we play one game with the men army teams available there.


Every week we spend five hours watching world-class hockey matches and beautiful Myanmar songs during breaks which I downloaded from YouTube.


Realizing that the team will be facing many Penalty Corner Attacks (PCA) during the SEA Games, the trained their Penalty Corner Defense (PCD) against the Myanmar national men team. Thanks to their Pakistani coach Muhammad Akhlaq


The team's PCD in the SEA games was exceptionally great. The team faced nearly 45 PCA's, and the only team that managed to score, was Malaysia; 5 goals in their 6- 0 victory against us.


With nobody pinning any hope on the team to win a medal was one way or another good for the team as the pressure of winning was not there.


Keeping up to our manifesto "The beautiful Journey To The Sea Games" we had a learning journey in the preliminary round losing to Malaysia 0-6, Singapore 1-2, drew with Thailand 0-0, beat Indonesia 1-0, and Cambodia 7-0.


During the team meeting before the bronze medal game, the girls were all fired up and confident of beating Singapore.


With the home crowd support, the girls went on to beat Singapore 1-0 to win the bronze medal. The crowd broke loose and ran into the pitch, celebrating the team victory. 


As usual, I will put my chair away, and casually walkout from the pitch. 
When the girls came to me and requested that I come along with them to thank the crowd, I agreed. We received a standing ovation from the crowd.


I have promised the girls when they win the bronze medal, I will be there to witness the memorable event, the medal ceremony. I changed my departure date and stayed back for the ceremony.


In between my speech to the girls before the medal ceremony, the tears of joy just waiting to burst out from my misty-eyed. I stood there witnessing the medal ceremony with the tears of joy getting its wish to flow out freely.


After the ceremony, my support coaches organized a farewell dinner for me.
Great Night, and the next day I took my flight home with great memories from Myanmar.


With a local coach guiding the team, these beautiful girls went on to Participate in the World Hockey League Round 1 in Singapore and gave a good performance.


Thank You "Beautiful Girls". You have enlightened me on what is "self-respect" and "The Beauty Of Life " during my time with you.



Thank You

"Beautiful Girls"-Coaching Stint In Myanmar Part 1

I was astonished when I received an offer via email to coach the Myanmar women team for the 27th SEA Games in Yangon, Myanmar. As from my previous experience coaching in Myanmar, there were no women hockey players in Myanmar. 

I replied to the email: do you have any women players and immediately I received a reply that there are many girls in the training camp eager to learn hockey".

Coaching a women's team was new to me and I felt uncomfortable taking up the job. With the encouragement and guidance from my friend, I flew to Yangon with an intention to learn to coach a women team.

Upon arrival, I was taken to my apartment which is near the Stadium. And with my eagerness to know the quality of players, I got ready and went straight to the ground to coach the girls.


My heart shattered seeing the speed of the players with and without the ball.
Since time is an essence I concentrated on three core basic skills, hitting, slap hit and push. For our aerobic fitness, every Saturday we do our runs around the beautiful lake Kandawgyi.


With the morning sun smiling at them, they just look great. Fortnightly we have breakfast together and occasionally apart from hockey training the team will enjoy some mini-games on the pitch. Whether you win or lose, everyone including the coaches enjoys ice creams with the vision of the sun setting.

I arrived in May, and have seven months to prepare the team for the SEA Games. Since time was an essence with the Sea games scheduled to start in December I start planning to have a team that can enjoy the game in the Sea Games.

Theinbyu hockey pitch the training ground for the team is located in the heart of Yangon city and sited along the Royal Lake(Kandawgyi Lake), Kandawgyi Natural Park, and walking distance to the magnificent Shwedagon Pagoda.

Since the sunrise at five in the morning, I will start my one hour walk then I will set the cones for all our training drills. Around  6.30am the players will be walking into the pitch with a stick and shoe in each hand which they took from the store.

I took the time to learn a few Myanmar words like "How Are You", "Thank You " and "Welcome" etc.

With my translator, I personally met each player to know their background and why they took up hockey.

Most of the girls are from a farming backgrounds. On why they took up hockey "they just want to be part of the SEA Games as this is a historical event for Myanmar, (first time hosting under the name Myanmar).

With this answer, How am I going to make them learn hockey when it's just participation for the girls?

After knowing them, and since beauty is associated with women, I drew a training program that I named "A beautiful Journey To The 27th SEA Games.

The word I commonly use to encourage the players in training was: beautiful shot, a beautiful pass, etc.

It's a joy seeing them enjoying hockey. In between training, I will put fun games to make every day a beautiful one.

Whenever there is time available the girls will do self-training to improve their basic skills.

In three months, I saw a vast improvement in their basic skills and speed with and without the ball.


to be continued in Part 2