FIH Coach conducts hockey clinic in Guyana

Jun 21, 2017 Sports, http://www.kaieteurnewsonline....ey-clinic-in-guyana/

-says there is much natural talent

FIH hockey Coach Shiv Jagday, who was in Guyana to conduct two weeks of training for coaches, senior nationals and junior players, wrapped up his visit yesterday.

Jagday, who is originally from India, a powerhouse in the sport from the inception of international competition, has been mostly residing in Canada for the past 40 years.
Fifty boys and girls between the ages of 13 and 19 years attended the junior sessions, while thirty five coaches attended the coaching sessions.
Among the topics covered during his stay were core basic skills like Stance, Footwork and First touch in addition to Passing and Receiving, Running with the ball, Triangle play, Team concepts and using mini hockey as a tool to develop the game in segments.
Upon completion of his two-week training clinic, Jagday commented that, “There is so much natural talent waiting to be groomed in the correct way. As I said since my first visit, there is great athleticism, intelligence and adaptability among the Guyanese athletes. They just need more discipline, structure in sport and in life and to develop a routine where training is concerned. The attitude cannot just be to train whenever the mood suits.”
After a successful stint in the 1980s as the Canadian men’s national team coach where he led Canada to its most successful international period of two Olympic appearances, two World Cups and two Pan American gold medals, Jagday branched out into developmental coaching worldwide.
His first such assignment was to Guyana in 1988 at the invitation of then President of the Guyana Hockey Board of Control, Chris Fernandes.
Coach Shiv, as he is affectionately called by everyone, has since visited Guyana five more times to conduct Olympic solidarity courses which have impacted on many of the country’s national players of the recent past.
President of the GHB, Philip Fernandes was high in praise of the training programme run by Shiv and considers it of great value to Guyana’s hockey. When Jagday first came to Guyana, Fernandes was the junior national hockey captain and considered Jagday’s teachings to be invaluable.
Fernandes indicated that the GHB is in discussions with Jagday about making his visits an annual feature on the hockey calendar with a long term plan for developing even stronger junior and senior teams in four years’ time.
Jagday undertook the responsibility of the USA junior national programme from 1998 to 2005, before developing two training academies for hockey in California and Vancouver. He also spends his time in Melbourne, Australia and Punjab India where he has helped to establish a regional training institute that has seen 9 players from Punjab selected for the current Indian national team.
With Jagday now being semi-retired, he made contact with the Guyana Hockey Board (GHB) to offer his services for free in an effort to give back to the sport.
According to Fernandes, the offer was one that the GHB could not refuse since it is difficult to secure the expertise of a top quality coach in this part of the world without a substantial cost.
He indicated that he enjoys Guyana every time he visits and mentioned the beautiful climate and hospitable people as being two of the main reasons he has chosen to return to Guyana.