Saturday, June 27, 2009

Poorly Attended World Class Clinic

A year ago we had the first No. 1 world ranked floorball player from Finland. His name, Jani Kukola, in Penang helping us run a clinic. This year yet again we had the opportunity to host not just one but two great players, one of them being the No. 1 world ranked floorball goalkeeper also from Finland. For those of you who missed out on being at our clinic with Jani and Jukka, all I can say is what an unfortunate loss it is for you.

Words escape me when we have such great world class players flying in to little ol’ Penang where we’re trying to (“desperately” so it seems but I guess NOT) grow floorball; and we only draw a crowd of a handful of people. The minimal charge of RM20 (the equivalent of 4 Euros)for the clinic was just too much to pay for this (which by the way was in the end waived) star-studded clinic. This shows me how small our minds are and also why our level of sports and floorball is where it’s at.

Yes, it was sort of “last minute” that we got word of their coming here to run a clinic……2 weeks notice. Yes, it was to be mainly for goalkeepers with Jani being the main attraction. Yes, Jukka was sort of an unknown to us other than the fact that he ONLY plays in Finlands Div 1.

What an embarrassing turn out with only 3 goalkeepers and 10 other people showing up to what should’ve been a no brainer to show up to. The questions that run constantly thru my mind…..are we really committed, are we really serious, are we driven by peoples hearsay….the list continues.

But for those who had a chance to be there, to take part in the clinic, their praise and gratitude unending. The wealth of information that was poured out in just the 3 hours from the years of experience, unparalleled. Could you get this type of information from going to club training…yes, to a fraction of a degree of our finite knowledge of floorball. The best 3 hours of floorball that we’ve had in a long time.

Hopefully……….next year will be different and will have more of a showing.

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