Asian Champions Trophy: Dutch hockey coach Eric Wonink and his special connection with India
The Hindu
Dutch Eric Wonink has been coaching since he was 17 years of age. His work has taken him to Germany, Croatia, Belgium and India. However, it was during his term in India as the National junior women’s team coach (2017-23) that Eric found his calling. India is even more special as his wife Neha, also a hockey coach, is from this part of the world. Eric has hit the ground running after being appointed by the Sports Development Authority of Tamil Nadu as High-Performance Coach for Hockey on a year’s contract in June. He has started training SDAT coaches, conducted workshops and implored them to watch the Asian Champions Trophy hockey tournament here. “There is no better coaching available than watching top teams and top players play here. Coaches learn a lot by analysing the games and that’s how learning is done. The Mayor Radhakrishnan Stadium is wonderful. SDAT and Hockey Unit of Tamil Nadu have done an amazing job,” Eric told The Hindu
Dutch Eric Wonink has been coaching since he was 17 years of age. His work has taken him to Germany, Croatia, Belgium and India.
However, it was during his term in India as the National junior women’s team coach (2017-23) that Eric found his calling. India is even more special as his wife Neha, also a hockey coach, is from this part of the world.
Eric has hit the ground running after being appointed by the Sports Development Authority of Tamil Nadu as High-Performance Coach for Hockey on a year’s contract in June. He has started training SDAT coaches, conducted workshops and implored them to watch the Asian Champions Trophy hockey tournament here.
“There is no better coaching available than watching top teams and top players play here. Coaches learn a lot by analysing the games and that’s how learning is done. The Mayor Radhakrishnan Stadium is wonderful. SDAT and Hockey Unit of Tamil Nadu have done an amazing job,” Eric told The Hindu.
The 54-year-old was impressed with SDAT’s mission statement of “making Tamil Nadu the sporting state of the nation.”
He is confident of making Tamil Nadu a strong state in hockey but says that he is not a magician and needs time to build something substantial.
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