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.
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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.
