Robert Bailey, Gleaner Writer

In an effort to improve the standard of coaching hockey, the Jamaica Hockey Federation (JHF) has brought in former Argentina World Championship assistant women's coach, Professor Guillermo Fonseca, to conduct a three-week coaching seminar and lecture series across the island.

Fonseca was also head coach of Argentina's Under-21 team, which won the silver medal at the World Youth Championships in the United States in 2009.

"His visit is to improve the quality and to lift the standard of our coaching and to suggest means and ways how we can improve the sport here," said Victor Tomlinson, president of the JHF, in an interview with The Gleaner.

"I think if we have better coaches, we will have better players and so our thrust is to improve our coaching standard so that our coaches will be better able to deliver the techniques and skills of the sport," Tomlinson explained.

Lecture

He added: "He will also interface with every coach in every school that plays hockey in this country."

Apart from the programmes he will conduct at high schools, Fonseca will also spend a week at the G.C. Foster College of Physical Education where he will lecture first- and second-year students.

Jamaica, whose females are ranked seventh in the Pan American region, missed out on qualifying for this year Pan American Games Championships, after they were beaten by Cuba in the play-offs on home soil last October.

"I think that our technical knowledge of the sport fell below what the Cubans had because when the field was wet our players didn't adjust their game accordingly, but when the field was semi-dry we looked competitive," Tomlinson observed.

"This is an indication to us that we need to lift our technical standard and this is one of the steps that we are taking to make this happen," Tomlinson reasoned about Fonseca's involvement in the local programme.

"This coach arriving here will try to correct those things that we know exist in our hockey. We want to come out of it with a lot of positive results, and the coaches will recognise the needs as to how to teach skills and techniques of the game."

The Jamaicans, whose male team is ranked 15th in the region, are to host the Pan American Games' Club Hockey Championships in November.