The Press Conference by President Hage Geingob brings no relief for Namibian Hockey.
Yesterday afternoons Press Conference to Update the status of Namibia's Lockdown showed progress but brought no relief to Namibian Hockey as the sport must wait another month in the hope that it can salvage some form of normality again. Going against the last months Stage criteria it was announced that Namibia would go into Stage 3 with the exception of the so called Contact Sports of which Hockey has surprisingly been categorised in?
Having already stomached the News last month that going into Stage 2, Hockey would not be able to resume in any form or manner, the devastating News was again received with much disappointment by the Hockey community hearing the news that they still cannot start up. The frustration and confusion with this News is justified by the following points.
How can it be that Cricket was allowed to resume in Stage 2 already and not Hockey? This is so called justified by the fact that Cricket has been categorised as a Non-Contact sport while Hockey has been categorised as a Contact Sport? Since when is Hockey a Contact sport? It clearly states in the FIH Hockey rules that should contact be made at any stages in the game this would be considered as a serious foul and guilty parties would be penalised accordingly. I find it very hard to believe that you can practise Cricket without a Cricket Ball? This means that even though you bypass the well known habits of shining the Ball by spitting on it before rubbing it up and down your groin area, the Ball must still be passed from Player to Player, whether it be fellow fielders or the Batsman. I also cannot believe that you would have to sanitise and/or take the temperature of the Ball before you play with it?
If you think Cricket has an argument then what about Karate? As far as I know this sport is well reputed as being a Full Contact sport, but then to justify that it be classified in Stage 2 already as a non-contact sport, I hear that the rationale was that they would just practice their Kata's? Well done then to Karate to pull wool over the eyes of whoever makes these decisions in Goverment, to allow them to continue, but it does ask the question then why did the so called decision makers not at least ask the so called Contact sports if there may be any way they could do the sports without making contact?
If one searches Google and asks the question "Is Field Hockey considered a Contact Sport?" you will get the following answer "In the U.S.,field hockey is mostly a women's game, but both men and women enjoy the sport worldwide. Most field hockey injuries result from being hit with a ball or stick. ...Field hockey is not considered a contact sport, but contact does occur—and contact can result in bruises, fractures, and even concussions.
The Dictionary definition of Contact Sport is as follows: noun - Any sport in which physical contact between players is an accepted part of play, as football, boxing, or hockey.
With this in mind we must realise that this mainly refers to Ice Hockey which is well know for its Player contact as an accepted part of play. In Field & Indoor hockey physical contact between players is definitely NOT an accepted part of play and players will be severely penalised if this happens.
Well, if taking heed to the question above, if the questions had been posed in an attempt to give our sport the benefit of the doubt I can say, talking from many years of Coaching Hockey, that in most practice sessions Hockey drills exclude any form of Contact especially so when it comes to Hockey development at a very young age. Hockey Coaches would quite easily be able to Coach and set up Drills that would in no way allow any form of Contact between players. In Europe the Hub of hockey, most Clubs have resumed their training programs and have initiated models whereby Social Distancing and precautions to minimise Health risks have been introduced on the playing field.
Putting aside the frustration of making sense of the above, It would be comforting to know that the Governing Body for Hockey is looking after the interest of our sport? At this stage Council Members were only forwarded a mail mid April confirming the status of the lockdown in the early stages of the Pandemic. Other than that we have heard nothing from those who are in charge of looking after hockey.
A thought must also go to our National Hockey Teams especially the Indoor Ladies and Men who now with yesterdays news will only have around 2 1/2 months preparation before they take part in the Africa leg of the World Cup Indoor Qualifiers starting from a zero based Training program. I am aware that our Club Members that are in the National Squads are busy with Lockdown Training Programs in order to keep/stay as conditioned as possible.
In conclusion, although we could debate this subject all day, I am afraid that we are most likely flogging a dead horse, so lets pray and hope that we can all resume in July and get the sport we all love back on track.
Opmerkingen