Jaap Stockmann was crowned the FIH Goalkeeper of the Year 2014, after a year in which he showed time and again why he has been the first choice keeper for the Netherlands for the past six years.
Last year began well for Jaap: he won the ‘Most Valuable Player’ at the Hockey India League in January, playing for the second-placed team Jaypee Punjab Warriors. He was then an integral part of the team who won the 2014 Hockey World League final and finished runner’s up at the 2014 Hockey World Cup.
The Goalkeeper of the Year award was fiercely contested with five very talented goalkeepers shortlisted, all of whom have had an excellent year between the sticks. England’s George Pinner, Australia’s Andrew Charter, India’s Parattu Raveendran Sreejesh and Argentina’s Juan Vivaldi would all have been equally worthy winners, but it was the big man from Bloemendaal who walked away with the title.
Talking just hours after he won the award, Jaap said: “It is an extremely big honour to be chosen best goalkeeper of the year. This is particularly special as it was chosen by hockey fans and players. I thank my teammates and all who voted for me.”
The 31-year-old ‘keeper, who first picked up a stick when he was six years old says that he has not particularly changed his training this year, but he feels that goalkeepers do hit their prime later in their hockey career than field players. “I have been pretty happy with my overall performances in the tournaments I've played. I just keep on working hard at training and it is paying off. Let's hope it’s true what people say about goalkeepers – the older you get, the better you become.”
Jaap is certainly not planning to rest on his laurels. He says that he will continue to work hard with his hockey coaches, but he also wants to learn some skills from other sports, all of which will add to his goalkeeping repertoire. “I already do judo training with a Dutch Olympic athlete to train falling and rolling skills and I did goalkeeper training with a Dutch premier league football club AZ to improve my stretch coverage. A football goal is at least twice the size of a hockey goal, so that was a challenge.”
When it comes to his own performances, Jaap says his two biggest strengths are his reflexes and his flexibility. As his opponents at club and international level know all too well, the closer they get to Jaap’s goal, the smaller he manages to make it look, “the longer you can stay between ball and goal, the better. I wait as long as possible and rely on my reaction.”
For the next few weeks, Jaap will be using those reflexes to help the Jaypee Punjab Warriors in their attempt to win the Hockey India League, however, with Rio 2016 looming on the horizon, all thoughts this summer will be on success at the World Hockey League Semi-Final in June and the European Cup in August. The main goal for Jaap and his teammates is qualification for the Olympics in 2016.
