Former United States and Canadian National FIH Hockey Coach, Shiv Jagday continued to share his knowledge with local hockey players during a video analysis session at the Georgetown Cricket Club (GCC) pavilion on Tuesday evening.
Jagday is currently in Guyana conducting a two-week coaching clinic with both the senior and junior players, which wraps up later in the week.
Jagday, a coach with Olympic experience, is also assisting with the preparation of Guyana’s Central and American Games (CAC) bound male and female hockey teams.
Tuesday evening, however, he sought to galvanise the interest of the locals to use technology, more particularly, video clippings to take their game to the next level.
“The main focus is how to circulate the ball in the back… showing how the top teams do it. For example, we have clips of how England, Spain, Germany and Netherlands does it,” the Coach explained.
Another component of the Tuesday evening’s session includes how ball control contributes to dominant performance and why it is the critical focus of some of the top team’s arsenal.
Assessing his stint so far, the coach noted that his time has been rewarding.
A clear mandate of what the needs are and where the team wants to go was transmitted to him by President of the Guyana Hockey Board, Phillip Fernandes with the input of Robert Fernandes and Damon Woodroffe who are the national male and female coaches, respectively.
That, according to Jagday, made his work easier as he eagerly moved to add the technical and tactical layers to the already existing ‘natural talent’ that Guyana has.
“I am very pleased with what has happened over the last nine days. I’m optimistic,” the development coach said.
In recommending a blueprint to take the sport to new heights, he added: “Guyana has always had a lot of talent, natural talent.”
“The only thing was a matter of putting it together in a strategic way where they can be effective because if talent works on its own, it cannot be effective. If it works together, then it’s effective.”
Jagday also praised the current national coaches, Fernandes and Woodroffe whom he believes keeps the sports going in Guyana.
