One of the most powerful ways of spreading hockey knowledge at grass roots level is to upskill physical education teachers in the delivery of the basic skills. And that is exactly what one man did when he organised a coaching course for 25 teachers and coaches in southern Tanzania.
Frank Lusawa is a trainee physical education teacher at Lindi Secondary School in the east African country. He is studying PE and Sports Science at the University of Dar es Salaam - in the capital city of Tanzania. Last year, while at the university Frank played his first game of hockey and was so enraptured by the sport that he decided to throw himself into raising its profile and teaching in Lindi and the surrounding area.
Frank’s first steps into hockey involved introducing it to the students he was teaching as part of his university course. The University of Dar es Salaam provided sticks and within just a few months, Frank was running a school team, comprising 16 students from the Lindi Secondary School.
However, it was what Frank did next that is set to make a real difference to hockey development in the area. In February and March of this year, he organised a training workshop for primary and secondary school teachers in the Lindi district. All the people attending the course were physical education (PE) teachers or people with an interest in delivering PE to school children. In total 25 people representing six different schools took part.
The hockey coaching workshop was divided into three sections: one was theoretical, introducing hockey, its background and some videos demonstrating basic techniques; the other two sessions were practical, pitch-based sessions.
Frank’s inspiration for setting up and running such a course was based on his own experiences. In January this year, Frank has attended a hockey coaching course, which introduced would-be coaches to the basics of the game. The course, which took place during the First International Volunteer Camp, was run by Flavio Gallo and Francesco Richichi from Italy and Nick Isbouts from Holland. All three are top level hockey coaches, and they were helped by local coaches.
Seeing how structured the sessions were and realising the great value that such a course would offer physical education teachers, Frank approached two coaches– the Tanzania women’s coach Valentina Quaranta and Mnonda Magan –coach of the men’s team in Dar es Salaam –about the possibility of running a similar course in Lindi. Specialised training courses would give the PE teachers both a basic knowledge of the techniques and skills of hockey as well as the confidence to deliver the sport and develop it within their own schools.
“There really was no idea about hockey in the region before we ran the courses, but now it has become very popular among the students and people in the area,”says Frank. “By July, I expect to have more than 100 children playing the sport. I want to run primary school teams and secondary school teams and attract children to training.
Valentina Quaranta works for the government organisation CO.PE, which aims to educate and empower women. She has been the driving force behind hockey development in Tanzania, particularly among girls and women. She said: “I was so pleased to support the project. The aim of this seminar was to introduce to local P.E. teachers the basics of hockey: giving them the basic knowledge of skills and techniques so they can start to teach hockey in schools to children and teenagers. Doing so, the results will be that many students will start to play hockey in this district, which is a step forward for the development of hockey in Tanzania.”
