Seeing And Taking Action In Development Part 1

Because there is so much to discuss when it comes to player development, I will be breaking up the information into three sections.

Looking back at the past results, especially in the Olympics and World Cup Qualifiers, we have consistently lost concentration in the last ten minutes of the game e.g.

• 2010, World  Cup Qualifier in Invercargill(New Zealand 2 Malaysia 1).Malaysia was leading from Amin Rahim's goal until Hayward scored in the 57' and 60' minute for NZ to take the one spot available for the 2010, World Cup.
• 2012 Olympic Qualifier in Ireland(South Korea 3 vs Malaysia 2).It was 2-2 till Jung Hyun scored the winner in the 67' minute that put Malaysia in a difficult position against Ireland)
• 2016, Olympic Qualifier in Antwerp, Belgium(Malaysia 2 India 3).India scored the winning goal in the last 5 minutes)

From the above results, we can see that two areas of concern are physiology and psychology.

Whatever weakness we see at the senior level must be due to our development program whereby improvisation must be put in place.

Excellence must be embodied in the development stage in producing quality players.

There is a Malay proverb " Nak Lenturkan Buluh,Biar dari Rebung" in English: "If you want to bend the bamboo, do it when it's young. 

During my tenure in coaching the age group teams, I saw that coaches and parents are obsessed with winning without realizing the psychological damage they are doing to the child.

"Excellence in development must give room for failure as a stepping stone to learning. While the obsession with winning does not.  

Above is a video where Coach Stan Van Gaudy, former head coach of the Miami Heat(NBA)  depicts the problem in developing quality youth basketball players at the development level in America. We in Malaysia are also facing the same scenario.

The issue of thinking players was brought up by some hockey officials during the Junior Asia Cup in Kuantan,Pahang.

The question to ask is how we trained our youth hockey players from the development level. Did we coach them on "what to think" or "how to think" to make the difference?

If it's what to think then we have created robotic players who have lost the ability to think to make a decision when faced with situations new to them.

"To create thinking players, we need thinking coaches".

Before I pen off, I will share with you the key to my successful penalty corner conversion rate in 1991, Olympic Qualifier in Auckland, New Zealand.

Till today I can vividly remember that after our Saturday training session, our national coach Terry Walsh would encourage us to take a book from the coffee table. There were many books written on how athletes and business personalities achieved success in their respective fields.

Guess what, I took a book on how America going to regain the prestigious "America Cup" from New Zealand that was written by Dennis Conner.

Dennis Conner shares in his book that even the smallest details are important to regain the America Cup.

Dennis Conner achieved his dream of regaining the prestigious America Cup. And Malaysia too qualified in style for the 1992 Barcelona Olympics.

"Psychological aspect distinguishes between elite and sub-elite"

Thank You 

P/S To continue on this topic in my next posting