Yes, we love field hockey! It’s a lovely sport to follow on television and to watch from the side line. However, field hockey or how we call it in the Netherlands ‘hockey’ has also other unique selling points why we love hockey.
First of all, hockey dares to renew their playing rules, this means the sport gets faster and more attractive for the fans. Secondly, hockey tries to experiment with new technologies because it takes a lot of uncertainty away and the sport becomes more fair. Thirdly, the KNHB (Royal Dutch Hockey association) anticipated with sportsmanship & respect campaigns especially for parents on the side of the hockey field (in the image down below you can see an example but do note that it’s in Dutch).
First of all, hockey dares to renew their playing rules, this means the sport gets faster and more attractive for the fans. Secondly, hockey tries to experiment with new technologies because it takes a lot of uncertainty away and the sport becomes more fair. Thirdly, the KNHB (Royal Dutch Hockey association) anticipated with sportsmanship & respect campaigns especially for parents on the side of the hockey field (in the image down below you can see an example but do note that it’s in Dutch).
Fourthly, the KNHB set up different kind of pilots with other sport associations because one of the goals of the Olympic Plan 2028* is to reach a higher sport participation in the Netherlands. Therefore, there was a partnership with the NTTB (Dutch Table Tennis Association) last year and this year there is a pilot with the KNWU (Royal Dutch Cycling Union).
We don’t understand why other sports don’t take an example of hockey. For example soccer has been struggling for years now about goal line technology. This is illustrated in the fact that The Premier League (England) will probably introduce goal line technology next season whereas hockey introduced electronic support 5,5 years ago already.
Another example is golf. This is a sport in the Netherlands that has an image problem because a large amount of people think that the sport is only for the wealthy people like hockey was decades ago. However, there is a plan to introduce a National Golf Passport as a replacement of the Handicap Index (GVB in Dutch). With this change the association tries to change the public opinion on the sport instead of only focusing on increasing the amount of golf players. (Hockey has tried to do the same a couple of years ago and changes in the ‘hockey population’ have been noticeable ever since).
We think more sport associations need to take a look at hockey because this sport dares to be a leader in innovation. Therefore, follow the leader!
* The Netherlands try to have the Olympic Games of 2028 and made a plan how to make the Netherlands more sport friendly and to reach a higher sport level.
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