Why Delhi Women Hockey is in Pathetic Condition?

Abstract

Even though many ancient civilization played hockey in different variations, the modern game of field Hockey evolved in the British in the Ninth Century. Hockey was introduced in India by British Army regiments and the game soon found favor among native Indians. The first hockey club in India came up in Calcutta in 1885-86 and soon Bombay and Punjab followed suit. Making its Olympic debut at the 1928 Amsterdam Games, Indian Hockey team cruised home to its first Olympic gold without conceding a single goal. The hallmark of this ruthless domination was the wizardry of Indian Hockey legend Dhyan Chand who mesmerized the Amsterdam crowd with his dazzling skills. Viewing on the status of women in sports historical evidences proves that women have been involved in sports since fourth century B.C. The fight for Women Hockey players to earn respect and acceptance have been hard fought over the past one hundred years. The road of women Hockey has had many ups and down’s but has preserved to the present day and is stronger than it has ever been.  The future of women hockey is bright thanks to diligence and hard work of those who kept it all going. Women in India have also been taken up Hockey along men. Though the women Hockey in India are coming up from all parts of country but it is lacking in northern region of the country especially in Delhi. Delhi’s poor performance at National level from last ten years is a cause of serious concern for all of us. Therefore, this study has attempted to find out the various reasons and remedies for the poor performance of the Delhi Women Hockey at various levels (Inter-University, Nationals etc). For the purpose of the study 80 Hockey players those who have played for Delhi at various levels were selected as the subjects. The age of the subjects was from 17 years and above. An opinionnair was constructed for the selected Delhi Women Hockey Players and a structured interview was administered on 10% of the total population of administration and coaches from the Delhi Women Hockey Association. The responses were collected and data was analyzed by computing through percentage method and item analysis.  It was found that 91.4% of the colleges have specialized hockey players and only 53.75% of the colleges have more than fifteen specialized players who practice regularly as a team. Further it was analyzed that 98.72% of the respondents feel that role of the coach is important to determine the performance and 50% of the respondents feel that coaches are not giving sufficient time to develop physical parameter and psychological preparation which are prerequisite for good performance. Using facilities to its optimum level may be difficult for players as 40% of the respondents say that stadium is more than 15 km away from their residence also it lacks in providing well qualified coaches for women team. The training camps for high level competitions are not of sufficient duration and lacks in psychological training program. Dissatisfaction among players was reported towards sufficient government support. After the analysis and discussion of findings, it was suggested to provide sufficient facilities like Astroturf, proper diet and nutrition, other type of motivation and incentives to develop and improve the performance of Delhi Women Hockey players.