Lee blames clubs for GB performances

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[gk09]

Did anyone see in the Telegraph sports section today the article about Jason Lee blaming the club structure in England/GB for the performance during the Olympics.  Wondered what everyone thought about this and what could realistically be changed to improve the national team.


http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/othersports/olympics/2586457/Great-Britain-men-deny-hockey-champions-but-club-system-under-fire-after-Beijing-failure---Olympics.html

[philthy]

doesn't really say anything to be honest!

[Snoody]

Very shouty headline and standfirst... then nothing of any substance in the body copy. 

[philthy]

that's the tory-graph for you!

I expect the Daily Mail is outraged... 

[Grumpy]

Most internationals i know really enjoy playing for their country but their true love is playing for their clubs. Normally its what they really want to do so critising the clubs and the league structure probably will not help in trying to make things bette at international standard. As the clubs are likely to say that you have had them for long periods and we have had to do without.
Its a difficult one for a national coaches but putting some of the blame on the clubs and the league in the news papers probably will not do him any good.
Some things should be expressed in private and in debriefs only.
Only my opinion.

[Feral]

  Guys, I don't see a lot wrong with the article. Plus I don't see it as Lee and Faulkner blaming the clubs. I see it as a comment on the development and structure of hockey in GB.

While the home nations wish to maintain their national player stance (which I fully understand but don't particulalry agree with) for all comps other than the Olympics. Then we will never have a GB development structure that works.

[Snoody]

Guys, I don't see a lot wrong with the article. Plus I don't see it as Lee and Faulkner blaming the clubs.

But that is exactly what's wrong with the article.

The headline says: Great Britain men deny hockey champions, but club system under fire after Beijing failure
However there's little of any substance to back that up in the body:
"It's disgraceful what goes on with the clubs," he said. "There are huge challenges domestically and it's the same old issues."
Despite the morale-boosting 3-3 thriller against Athens champions Australia, both Faulkner and men's coach Jason Lee alluded to the poor technique of players who are coming through the club system.

My response when reading those words is: Okay, what exactly is so disgraceful? What are the domestic challenges? What are the same old issues? What did Jason Lee say?
None of that is explained. It's not a very good piece of journalism.

[Harris]

If he's blaming the players for being "poor" then maybe he should have picked different players. Im sure he could pick a squad of players from the whole of GB that dont have poor technique.

[John]

Valid points made by people on the forum, however I do think that Jason Lee has a point.  In my opinion, the standard of hockey played now is not as high as it was ten to fifteen years ago.  In this instance I am comparing games played in the east league.

However I think that this is not a function of coaching or the consious commitment of players but simply that less people are playing club hockey. 

There are a few examples of clubs which have grown in the last few years but there have sadly been a relatively high number of clubs which have folded in that time.

I'm playing for what I would describe as a mid size club at the moment (six mens saturday XIs) and will be surprised if this season we manage to commit to all of our sixth XI fixtures.  Also most weeks teams are only taking eleven players sometimes twelve.  We have certainly been lucky enough to absorb players from local clubs who have folded yet even as recently as five years ago were putting out seven mens elevens with an occasional eight on Saturday.

So put simply this all leads to less competition for places which in turn leads to complacency whether deliberate or not.  If the player I'm facing isn't as good as the players a few years ago I have to do less to go past them or tackle them etc.  This leads to a degredation in skills both for players on the way up in their careers and those like me on the way back down.

anyway, I'll get off my soapbox.  If we look at things in a bigger picture we've performed two places above our world ranking with excellent performances against the better teams which has to be considered promising.

[SavageFH]

I think David Faulkner's gripe with the GB club structure is the lack of time spent training compared to Holland, Germany etc, etc. And this i got direct from him when he first took up the job.

He wants the emphasis of GB clubs to train more often, and work on stick skills and the fundamentals. I'm sure even some of the top GB teams only train 2 times a week and then play on the weekend. Will be interesting to see if he manages to change this is the UK

[John]

Big ask of some players.  Most National League clubs will be looking to have some of their 1st XI bench players play 2nd XI hockey.  So thats all weekend and at least two nights per week out. I can understand why some people are loath to commit to that. 

[philthy]

Indeed - the majority of national league players have full time careers and family commitments. It's a lot to ask of the players who are playing national league 1st XI with no prospect of ever being an international to commit more time to training to benefit the minority who might be called up.

[John]

Still, if thats what we need.....  I had an interesting conversation with a friend the other day who was saying that the numbers of players at Universities had fallen dramatically although he couldn't say why this was the case.  Perhaps that would be a decent starting place.

[controller]

The problem in the UK or GB area is that it is the costs of getting coaches to teach the way forward.

The costs of hiring the pitches and coaches is put back on to the clubs, then the players.

In the long run, grass roots hockey are playing out a lot for their own sports but they do not get anything back of the Governing body.

We need a body that will help clubs get the extra grants from Sports council in their local areas, get money from the Lottery without filling in 100+ pages, we need to get in updated and online to make things easier for everyone.

I have been trying to arrange a coaching course in the Northwest for late October 2008 for Goalkeepers, but I can not get anyone from EH to answer emails or from the County to give me the names of coaches who specifically train goalkeepers, also I am trying to get the GB goalkeepers involved and that would get them more involved at grass roots level and help us move our skills forward, but for this to happen I need to work out the course with in the National league Fixture list and so on.

We do not work with the National Body and they cant work with us because we are too far behind in communication locally  as well nationally to get this kind of things of the floor to make it work for all.

[UKSS]

The fact that at least an other 4 GB players are moving to Holland or germany after the Olympics may have something to add to this?

From people who mix in these circles I've spoken to this week though, they do feel a lot of the blame must still be shouldered by the coach and there are other players out there who may of stepped up to the mark when it mattered.

Short corners have been a big let down for both the male and female sides in he games so far!

Lessons must be learned but as we met the target of finishing in the top 8 will anything change?