Former national team player Rakael Atieno has decried the poor standards of the game in the country and called on Kenya Hockey Union (KHU) to improve the coaching techniques.
Atieno, who plays for the USA Masters Women team, said in as much as there's slight improvement in the game, Kenyan players struggle to adapt to a different playing cultures abroad because of inadequate skills.
She said: "Coaching standards have remained stagnant for decades and I personally learnt the game when I started playing in the USA. I realised I did not know anything on the concept of the game.
"The coaching culture is very different. Whereas Kenya coaches focus on the physicality of the game and individual skill level, the west focus on the concept of the game and teamwork.
"Players need to understand why they are making the decision they make on the field rather than creating robots," observed the former Mombasa Sports Club player, who is also the Tunza Sports chief executive officer.
"Coaching also helped me really understand the game better and one way to develop players especially in the national team is to involve them is small coaching clinics.
"When you teach someone something, you must first understand it yourself. This improves the game for that coach," she noted.
Atieno, who was part of the 2003 All Africa Games team urged the players to be passionate about the game if they need to grow.
"The decline in the sport is about the players themselves. The current crop of players feels entitled.
"They think they are not playing the game for themselves but for other reasons known to them. That is why they find it easy to pull out if their needs are not met or take it to social media in the most ineffective way – complaining. Players should be the change they want to see, or at least raise discussion that leads to action. In my era, players really cherished the opportunity to play the sport," she noted.
She also wants Kenya to shine at the International stage if they are to attract sponsorship.
"For all sponsors all over the world, the main thing they want to see is performance and commitment. If we are not performing on the continental level, sponsors will not come," she insisted.
