Param: Don't blame the players

03/03/2001

THE national hockey trainees need a long break to recuperate, mentally and
physically, if not they might as well stop preparing for the Junior World
Cup in Hobart as well as the 2002 World Cup.
Bank Simpanan Nasional head coach C. Paramalingam, a respected figure in
the hockey circle for his brilliant management of teams, feels the reason
why the national players are jaded and lack fitness is because they have
hardly had any rest since the Sydney 2000 Olympics.
And this could spell trouble in the long run.
"They trained hard for the Olympics and after a gruelling time in
Sydney, they immediately started playing in the Malaysia Hockey League.
Some of the players were carrying injuries, such as hamstring, shoulder
and knee problems after the Olympics and did not have enough time to
recuperate.
"The first half of the MHL was not so interesting as most of the players
limped around and were not interested in chasing for balls. But the break
during the fasting month did the trick and so, the second half was much
more interesting and the quality of play was better."
On Friday, national coach Stephen van Huizen had said his charges are
physically not ready to face the challenges and requirements of
international hockey.
He lamented that even though most of the players have just come out of
the MHL, they are finding the twice-a-day routine punishing and this does
not speak well for the standard and quality of the League.
Van Huizen questioned: "Maybe the League is not serving its purpose."
Paramalingam begs to differ.
"Why blame clubs in matters pertaining to fitness? It is a well known
fact that clubs are not solely responsible for fitness as individual
national players have been given their training programmes and are
supposed to follow them.
"At club level, corporations like BSN, Tenaga Nasional and Sapura are
more interested with results. Which is only fair because they are pumping
in the money for the League."
Paramalingam said the root of the problem is neither clubs nor the
players. He blames it on the tight schedule and lack of recuperating time.
"In Europe and even in Korea, the players get long breaks, some for
three months, after the League ends and they are given training programmes
to follow. This way, they are treated as adults and the responsibility of
keeping fit solely lies with them.
"If after the break, they check into camp unfit to last 70 minutes of
hockey, then they deserve the boot.
"Our players are also too much into hockey. During the break maybe they
should take up alternative sports like tennis, golf and cricket to build
their reflexes and keep fit.
"This way, they will not be jaded and lack motivation when they check
into training camps. They will also have ample time to recover from
injuries."
Paramalingam is no stranger to hockey and many a time has made judgments
which produced results like when he snatched the overall title from Tenaga
Nasional to deny them the MHL double.
Maybe van Huizen should give his boys a break from hockey by breaking
camp and regroup for training in a month's time.
Then, the onus will be solely on the players to follow the training
programme religiously and report fit for training.
But then, some may stray to Hard Rock Cafe, like the infamous soccer
trio, innocently thinking that `The Harder The Better' refers to partying
and not training.
(END)