Thursday, October 18, 2012

Dear Friends

2012 World Girls' Ice Hockey Weekend
(13 – 14 October)


Wrap Up on the 1st day of the WGIHW (by Chee Ee Laine)

On a rainy Saturday afternoon, more than 30 girls were comfortably on ice at the Sunway Pyramid Ice, taking part in the 2012 IIHF World Girls' Ice Hockey Weekend (WGIHW).

The event, hosted by the Malaysia Ice Hockey Federation (MIHF), saw players from Malaysia's only women's team, the KL Slayers, taking the ice together with the participants. The purpose of taking part in the WGIHW was to introduce the sport of ice hockey to girls and also recruit new members for the Slayers team.

The newcomers, from age 4 to 18, were provided helmet, elbow pads, shin guards, sticks and skates. Prior to going on ice, parents and participants were introduced to the coaching team and a short briefing on safety was held. The Slayers, under the supervision of their coach Andy Chang, taught the girls simple skating drills and later played some on-ice games. Scores of helpful hockey players volunteered their time and made the event possible.

After the end of the event, a few parents indicated that their daughters were interested to continue the skating lessons. Some of the coaches then explained hockey school to them and invited them to join the Friday night program.


Wrap Up on the 2nd day of the WGIHW (by Peter Yip)

On the 2nd day of WGIHW, it was a beautiful morning and we had an overwhelming response of more than 30 girls registering for Inline hockey at the PJ Arena Centre including spectators who walked in to enquire about the event.







The parents were also excited as there were so many kids of this age group turning up for Inline hockey. Also supporting the event was YB Hannah Yeoh who graced the event & cheered on the little kids.

As we had more space and time at the roller rink, our coaches managed to introduce more fun filled activities for the kids like warming up exercises and stretching, jogging around the cones and later stick handling without the skates on. Even some of the kids did not want any water break as they were eager to put on their skates.

When it was finally time to put on the skates one hour later, all the coaches and senior players helped the kids to put them on together with their shin and elbow pads. They were all excited and eager to skate.

It was a surprise that some of the kids had natural talent for skating and were at ease almost immediately whereas some others require some help on basic balancing skills. Parents themselves also assisted in helping their kids to skate in the sun!

The kids had a good one hour on inline skates going through simple skating drills with the cones before they actually played hockey. You should have seen the anxiety of these kids once they were on skates and under the hot sun…….

We had to call it a day at 12.00 noon as it was getting too hot for the kids but nevertheless, most of them have promised to take up hockey during the school holidays in two weeks’ time.


Promotion and Media

Radio Interview
On 10 October, two players from KL Slayers, Chee Ee Laine and Nurul Ain Khadijah went on Capital FM 88.9’s Talk of the Town. They were interviewed by Xandria Ooi and Joanne Kam for an hour  to promote the event.

UNDERDOGS FACEBOOK

MIHT FACEBOOK


IIHF

Switchup.tv

The StarMetro

NHL.com

Event Photo


Many thanks to the organizing committee, the organizing partners, Kelab Sukan Hoki Inline and Team Underdogs.  We are grateful also to Sunway Pyramid Ice and PJ Arena Centre for graciously allowing us to hold the events at their facilities. We look forward to a bigger event next year.

 

No comments:

Post a Comment