{"id":215401,"date":"2022-02-02T12:05:55","date_gmt":"2022-02-02T10:05:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mypr.co.za\/?p=112511"},"modified":"2022-02-02T12:05:55","modified_gmt":"2022-02-02T10:05:55","slug":"ex-madibaz-hockey-star-lands-great-britain-coaching-post","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/ex-madibaz-hockey-star-lands-great-britain-coaching-post\/","title":{"rendered":"Ex-Madibaz hockey star lands Great Britain coaching post"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"scaip scaip-1 \">\n<aside id=\"republication_tracker_tool-2\" class=\"republication_tracker_tool clearfix\">\n<h5 class=\"adtitle\">Republish for Free<\/h5>\n<div class=\"license\">\n<p><button name=\"Republish This Story\" id=\"cc-btn\" class=\"republication-tracker-tool-button\">Republish This Story<\/button><\/p>\n<p><a class=\"license\" rel=\"noreferrer license noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"http:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by-nd\/4.0\/\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Creative Commons License\" class=\"lazyload\" src=\"http:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/ex-madibaz-hockey-star-lands-great-britain-coaching-post.png\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Creative Commons License\" src=\"http:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/ex-madibaz-hockey-star-lands-great-britain-coaching-post.png\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"message\">\n<p>Republish our articles for free, online or in print, under a Creative Commons license.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/aside>\n<\/aside>\n<figure align=\"alignleft\" id=\"attachment_112512\"><a href=\"http:\/\/mypr.co.za\/save-with-myprs-monthly-flat-fee\/\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"300\" height=\"178\" class=\"alignleft size-thumbnail wp-image-112512 lazyload\" src=\"http:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/ex-madibaz-hockey-star-lands-great-britain-coaching-post.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/ex-madibaz-hockey-star-lands-great-britain-coaching-post.jpg\" class=\"alignleft size-thumbnail wp-image-112512\" width=\"300\" height=\"178\"><\/a>Former Nelson Mandela University and South African player Jody Paul (right) has been appointed assistant coach of the Great Britain women\u2019s hockey team. Photo: Full Stop Communications<\/figure>\n<p>Former Madibaz hockey player Jody Paul would not \u201cin a million years\u201d have envisioned himself as the assistant coach of the Great Britain women\u2019s team.<\/p>\n<p>The 45-year-old ex-South African star was last month appointed to the position with the national team after spending 15 years heading the hockey programme at the University of Bath in England.<\/p>\n<p>During that time Paul, who played 38 times as a defender for South Africa and went to the 2004 Olympic Games, also took on various coaching roles with England age-group teams.<\/p>\n<p>He said he saw the national appointment as a step in a different direction to his previous positions.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cUntil now I have been involved in the U21 and U18 environment, which is all about developing players to potentially play senior international hockey,\u201d said Paul.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNow I see my role as one which is about performing on the world stage.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He said his involvement with the elite development programme in Britain had played a big part in his appointment.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI have worked more consistently in this programme, which is the final stepping stone for our athletes before transitioning to senior international hockey,\u201d he explained.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis environment has helped me to bridge the gap from being a development coach to a performance coach.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>When Paul, who grew up in Gqeberha (then Port Elizabeth), reflected on his hockey journey he admitted that he had never dreamt it would come to this stage.<\/p>\n<p>His coaching career started with a three-year stint as player-coach at Nelson Mandela University, before moving into the role fulltime by taking on the University of Bath post in 2006.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI guess I was always going to end up coaching in some capacity, but I just did not think it would be a Great Britain squad,\u201d added Paul.<\/p>\n<p>He had forged a new life for himself and his family in England, but said he would never forget his roots and the hockey opportunities he received while at Nelson Mandela University.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI loved playing for the university and Eastern Province.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe experience gained from my playing days under great coaches and with some outstanding players like Clyde Abrahams, Chris Hibbert and Denzil Dolley still stand in me in good stead all these years later.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Paul said he would forever be indebted to the people who gave him the opportunity to play for the varsity.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe late Dr Sharon Beckham and Brian Hibbert were instrumental in getting me there.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI have lifelong friends from my playing days. We won loads of titles, but the friendships made over the years will be what I remember most.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Paul said his specific role in the Great Britain management team was still being defined, but that he would most likely be working on the technical development of the players in the programme.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI am looking forward to the challenge of working with this group as it consists of multi-medal winning athletes and a few of the U21 athletes who have transitioned to the next level,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAll of them have the capability to continue to improve, which is exciting.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He was sorry to leave the University of Bath, which he said became his second home after leaving Gqeberha.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt was an extremely difficult decision to make but it is the right time to move on,\u201d said Paul. \u201cI have been fortunate to work at two great universities.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMy time at Bath was like a finishing school for my transition from player to coach.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe university provided me with a great environment to develop and learn, and has been invaluable in my growth as a coach.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/mypr.co.za\/contact\/featured\/\">CLICK HERE to submit your press release to MyPR.co.za<\/a>.<\/p>\n<div class=\"entry-pagination pagination\">Pages: <span class=\"post-page-numbers current\"><span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Page <\/span>1<\/span> <a href=\"https:\/\/mypr.co.za\/ex-madibaz-hockey-star-lands-great-britain-coaching-post\/2\/\" class=\"post-page-numbers\"><span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Page <\/span>2<\/a><\/div>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/mypr.co.za\">Source: MyPR.co.za<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Republish for Free Republish This Story Republish our articles for free, online or in print, under a Creative Commons license. Former Nelson Mandela University and South African player Jody Paul (right) has been appointed assistant coach of the Great Britain women\u2019s hockey team. Photo: Full Stop Communications Former Madibaz hockey player Jody Paul would not [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":215402,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[9021,3330],"tags":[3257],"class_list":{"0":"post-215401","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mypr","8":"category-port-elizabeth","9":"tag-mypr","10":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/ex-madibaz-hockey-star-lands-great-britain-coaching-post.png","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/215401","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=215401"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/215401\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/215402"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=215401"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=215401"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=215401"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}