Focussed on revitalising hockey in Jharkhand and the tribal bel
Aims at producing 5 hockey international players in the next 10 years,
Over the next 4 years, will house 104 players (both girls and boys) in the age group of 14-16
Academy has a FIH Global artificial turf, international high-performance coaches, nutritionist, physical and mental trainers
Bringing the global best for high performance modern hockey training to bastis and villages of Jharkhand integrates quality education and life skills
Jamshedpur।
Tata Trusts and Tata Steel today announced the establishment of the Naval Tata Hockey Academy (NTHA) at Jamshedpur, a world-class high performance residential hockey training facility for 14-to-16 year-old boys. The Academywas inaugurated on theeve of the Founder’s Day celebration by Mr. Ratan N. Tata, Chairman, Tata Trusts.
In keeping with the Tata group’s Founder, Jamsetji Tata’s vision for Jamshedpur to “reserve large areas for football, hockey and parks”,the Academy is yet another world class facility in the city.The Academy is named in honour ofNaval H. Tata to commemorate his contributionto Hockey in India, his achievements as an outstanding sports administrator and passion for sports. Mr. Tata held prestigious positions such as President of the All India Council of Sports (AICS), President of the Indian Hockey Federation (IHF) for fifteen years and Vice Chairman of the International Hockey Federation (IHF).
The Naval Tata Hockey Academy brings world-class facilities, including an FIH global quality artificial turf with floodlights, international coaches, a nutritionist, and mental and physical trainers to provide high performance hockey training, to begin with, to 26 boys from bastis and villages of Simdega,Khunti and West Singhbhum districts. This first batch of players have been selected after one year of rigorous training provided by Dutch coaches and Indian hockey legend, Sandeep Singh, at the grassroots level to over 5,000 boys and girls.
Through this, for the first time in India, a structured, high-quality international level training is being provided at the grassroots level, including playing on artificial turf, truly professionalising hockey at the grassroots.
In due course, the Academy is slated to similarly train and select 26 girls from Jharkhand and transform them into hockey stars of tomorrow.
Tata Trusts and Tata Steel have partnered with the legendary Dutch drag-flicker, Floris Jan Bovelander, through the Bovelander Hockey Academy and the One Million Hockey Legs programme to coach both boys and girls.Bovelanderis the first Technical Director of the Academy. At full scale, the Academy will have 52 boys and 52 girls training and playing competitively. Recognising the importance of receiving quality education, all the players will be admitted to schools as well and provided personal tutors to achieve academic excellence.
The added focus on developing life skills has already broken the “culture of silence” in the selected players and made them confident youngsters, who are learning to dream big. In keeping with its tradition of bringing the global best, Tata Trusts and Tata Steel, have roped in a Dutch Architect firm to conceptualise and design the Academy. The Academy building is envisioned to meet international standards, with a distinct Indian identity.In the long term, the Academy and the artificial pitch will be further scaled up.The artificial pitch has been constructed and laid by TigerTurf through its India and South Asia partner M/s Altius Sports and Leisure Private Limited.
