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Sports and Recreation

"Jockey Club Ice Hockey Generation Next" programme to nurture young talent
12/01/2016

Sport can help people lead healthier lives and create positive values in the community, most especially by helping youth develop emotional resilience and physical health.

It is with this belief that The Hong Kong Jockey Club Charities Trust has developed an innovative concept to promote sport for all over the next few years. It plans to use innovation in sport to motivate individuals at all levels to take part, ranging from children to young people, adults, the elderly and the disabled. By injecting fun into sport, it intends to arouse people’s interest in taking up physical activity and to encourage them to make exercise a regular habit.

The Jockey Club Ice Hockey Generation Next is one of those initiatives. To help nurture a new, well-rounded generation of ice hockey players, The Hong Kong Jockey Club Charities Trust has provided the Hong Kong Amateur Hockey Club (HKAHC) with funding to implement a three-year ice hockey programme, which will encourage young participants to embrace Olympic values, including friendship and fair play, during training sessions that follow international rules. It is the largest sum dedicated to the Hong Kong Ice Hockey community to date.

The programme is supported by a HK$4.7 million Charities Trust donation. Under the initiative, a total of 180 players aged from 13 to 18 who possess basic ice hockey skills will receive intensive nine-month training to enhance their skills, including two to three training sessions or games per month.  In addition, special sessions will be conducted every two months to enhance members’ understanding of the rules, and they will play the role of ambassadors to introduce the sport to the public. The ultimate aim of the programme is to build the character of local young players through the systematic training and inspire them to embrace Olympism.

The majority of ice hockey training in the city is non-body checking in nature, unlike games played in the international arena in which strong physical contact is often a feature. The Jockey Club Ice Hockey Generation Next programme will bridge such a gap between junior development of the game in Hong Kong and international competitive standards.  For details, please refer to HKAHC’s website: http://www.hkahc.com/.