By FIH
To date, K. Dharmaraj's top coaching moments have been
with the Malaysian National Junior Men's team, when he was in charge of
the team that won the 2012 Junior Asia Cup to become Asian Junior
champions.
This is only time to date that a Malaysian team has been
Asian champions. Dharma went on to become national coach for the senior
Malaysian national men's team but, after leaving that post last year,
Dharma is looking to take the national junior team one step further in
2020, by becoming Junior World Cup winners.
Since he finished his coaching contract with the men's senior squad,
Dharmaj has been working as a youth development officer, working with
grassroots level hockey players and potential internationals across
Malaysia.
While much of his work is general hockey coaching with
youngsters, Dharma also heads a project, Target2020, which has a very
clear target - preparing the national junior team in readiness for the
2020 Junior World Cup.
Dharma enhances his own coaching ability and experience by bringing
in former and current internationals to help run coaching clinics across
the country. Explaining his role, Dharma says: "With my prior
experience in coaching grassroots and children of different age groups, I
am able to recognise the requirements needed to develop and promote
hockey in my country. To date, I have conducted 18 clinics throughout
the different states of Malaysia. In each clinic, there are
approximately 200 players, both girls and boys, ranging in age from
eight to 16-years-old."
During the course of a coaching clinic, Dharma involves
teachers and local coaches in the programme so that they can update and
improve their coaching skills. In this way the local teachers and
coaches are empowered to continue to develop hockey in the area.
While the coaching clinics introduce and promote hockey to hundreds
of young Malaysians, the Target2020 programme has a far more specific
ambition. While the programme is still in its early stages, Dharma says
that his team of coaches and selectors will be looking to form pools of
about 30 players for each age category. The over-riding qualities the
players must demonstrate are "dynamism and an openness to
competitiveness and progress."
Players who will be invited to attend the Target2020
training camps are talent-spotted through local and area competitions
and other tournaments. Dharma says that he is hopeful of producing a
high quality team for 2020 where the bulk of the players will be
21-years-old.
"Our target, via this programme, is for both the national junior
men's and women's teams to win a medal at the Junior World Cup," says
the energetic coach.
Many of the coaching clinics run by Dharma and his team
are free for attendees, while others are funded through the National
Sports Council as part of its development programme. Target2020 is an
initiative funded completely by the National Sports Council.
