Somewhere in a classroom in Singapore, there are a number of young children who will one day wear the national hockey shirt with pride. These are the stars of the future that the Singapore Hockey Federation is hoping to discover through its primary schools initiative.
The Hockey World League (HWL) Round One has started its new season in Singapore, with nine men’s teams and seven women’s teams looking to progress to Round Two and beyond.
Excitement surrounding the sport is high in the south-Asian city state and the Singapore Hockey Federation (SHF) has recognised that this is a great time to promote hockey across the nation.
Both the men's and women's national teams are doing their bit to inspire hockey players in Singapore by putting on great performances at the Sengkang Stadium this week during the Hockey World League.
And earlier in the year, SHF hosted the world’s top women teams in the form of a tri-nations tournament between World and Olympic champions Netherlands, world number three ranked Australia and the world number eight, Germany.
Now the Hockey Federation is gearing up to take hockey to the youngest generation by introducing the sport onto the school curriculum.
The SHF believes that this is the most effective way of producing good hockey players and, to that end, is introducing a pilot programme in five primary schools.
Named the PE Programme, SHF says that it is “determined to be all geared up to produce the best hockey players in the world. Every country's hockey federation aspires to get good hockey players but few actually implement effective methods to make that happen. SHF is one of such few federations. This latest initiative is mind blowing.”
The PE programme launched last month, on 19 March. Hockey will now be played regularly as a time-tabled activity, giving it as much spotlight as other team sports popular in Singapore, such as basketball and football. The dual aim of the programme is to raise awareness of hockey throughout the school population and also to spot talent at an early age.
With Singapore ranked as the most influential Asian country and fourth in the world by American business magazine Forbes, then this initiative may well spread across the south Asian area and beyond.
The SHF has recognised that, while it is great to introduce initiatives, the success of such projects is dependent upon good management. This is the only way to achieve sustainability in the future.
For this reason the SHF is continuing to support the schools through their early stages of implementation. It is providing schools with the necessary equipment, as well as providing them with professional hockey coaches, who will train the school’s teachers to deliver great hockey sessions. The first teacher training workshop has already been held by coaches from the SHF at the CHIJ St Nicholas Girls School.
With its national federation already a buzzing and vibrant presence on social media and showing a commitment to spreading high quality hockey coaching among its young people, Singapore hockey is heading in the right direction to become a major force on the international hockey stage.
Its plans for growth and expansion are directly aligned to the goals of the FIH Hockey Revolution – building a recognised, powerful image and generating many more followers, as well as increasing the degree of professionalism in the sport. For more information about the Hockey Revolution, click here.
For more information about Singapore Hockey, click here.
To keep up to date with the Hockey World League, click here.
