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| The future is bright! |
The first purpose built hockey rink is now in Tampines Central Park.
The brain child of Mr. Patrick Tan (Volunteer – Chairman of
National Inline Hockey League) together with a committed group of
Hockey fanatics and volunteers, and funding from Tampines Central
Community Centre, have designed built and have now completed the Millennium
Court. The court is fully booked each afternoon evening of the week
and with the regular competitions and more teams and players joining
in the growth is expected to be exponential.
With the Tampines Millennium Court completed, Inline Hockey Singapore
(IHS) built another court in Singapore Polytechnic to provide better
accessibility to more players in the west area. IHS was now teaching
in students from 8 International and several local schools. The increased
participation saw more teams being formed, especially the juniors
with Under 12, Under 14 and Under 18 divisions.
Mission Inline Hockey Festival marks the beginning of each competitive
year. 27 teams consisting of junior and senior divisions compete.
MIHF has received extensive media support which includes television
trailers produced by Hallion Productions which will be aired on AXN
over two months. IHS also organizes teams to compete in the World
Inline Hockey Cup, Canada each year. |
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| Singapore leads in Inline Hockey |
Singapore can be seen as a leader in the development of the sport
due to its professional inline skating instruction, strong foundation
of skate schools and retailers, and ever strengthening infrastructure.
Singapore has a NIHL, holds several tournaments each year and has
participated in international tournaments in New Zealand, Hong Kong.
This year, teams from Singapore attended the World Inline Hockey Championships
in Canada and the FIRS World Championships in Chec Republic.
Inline hockey players in Singapore range from age 6 to 40. Predominantly
male, players cut across all social barriers. They include lawyers,
business people, courier guys, tertiary students, commandos, military
police, and cuts across all races. What binds them together is the
love for the game. |
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| How does Singapore compare? |
Hong Kong has always had a strong Ice Hockey following due many
to the large number of expatriate families living there and ice hockey
being a favorite sport in most northern American and European countries.
Since mid 90s, inline hockey programs has been taught in school. One
such school – ESF (English Schools Foundation) http://www.esf.edu.hk
– is however limited by the lack of parks and flat ground available
to leisure skate. In 2001, the YMCA in Kowloon established an indoor
rink and have been promoting this venue and the sport including Asian
tournaments, for the past three years. Hong Kong YMCA Inline Hockey
Cup.
Japan is another country with a great ice hockey following due to
their climate. Japan is currently ranked number one in Asia for Inline
Hockey men’s division after the most recent YMCA challenge in
Hong Kong where teams from Taiwan, Singapore, Taiwan and the Philippines
attended. Japan has also send teams to the past three world championships
and the inline skating industry. Their participation is increasing
due to school developmental programs for kids.
Taiwan, on the other hand, is predominantly Inline. From the early
90s, professional inline skating tuition was introduced and promoted
throughout schools. With a healthy supply of products, skate clubs,
and skate schools, Taiwan is poised to send out some real champions.
Philippines, Thailand, Malaysia have also been involved in the inline
skating/ inline hockey boom. However due to an apparent lack of experienced
and dedicated directorship, these countries fall behind on the development
of this sport. Having said that, Malaysia has a healthy skating following
and actively participated in several Inline Hockey Championships over
the years, more recently in the ESPN X-Games. |
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| 70's -80's - Past to Present |
Unlike Europe and the USA where inline hockey evolved from off-season
training for ice hockey enthusiasts, the evolution of Singapore’s
inline hockey scene began with roller-skates.
In 1975 members of Singapore’s first roller-skating club, loosely
made out of ex-Soccer and Hockey players started playing roller hockey
on Sentosa and later, at the old Kallang Airport in a space provided
for by the Peoples’ Association.
In the late 1980s, the group (renamed the Singapore Skating Club)
was introduced to inline skates by a friend who had brought them from
America.
An instant hit with the club members, the roller skaters found that
inline skates offered more maneuverability and speed with its bigger,
narrower wheels covering less surface area. The added bonus that the
inline skates did not require a special court surface soon led to
the decline in popularity of roller hockey and a boom in inline skating
in Singapore. According to information shared by sports retailers,
in the early to mid 1990s, over 100,000 skates were sold per year
in Singapore! |
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| 90's - Starts Inline Hockey! |
By mid 90s, skaters who had the advance skills were looking for
new challenges and other ways to have fun on skates and soon took
up the specialized area of aggressive skating, speed skating and inline
hockey.
Barry Hanson was at the forefront of Asian boom. After pioneering
the skate retail and skate school business in Taiwan and assisting
with Certification programs and development in Hong Kong, Barry relocated
to Singapore. His first project was to start up the largest inline
skate specific skate store and professional skate school in early
2000. Sales of inline skate and hockey equipment increased dramatically
2000 to 2003. Although no official sales survey is available, independent
retailers recorded a two-fold increase in sales of both equipment
and as much as three-fold for classes! |
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| 2001- Proper infrastructure set in
place |
Barry Hanson established IHS to be the central development organization
of the sport in Singapore. IHS teaches inline skating and inline hockey
classes in several international and local schools and the interest
demanded expansion.
Professional classes, Instructor Certification programs, and imported
skate products, have provided a foundation for the sport that didn’t
exist in the mid 90s. The number of teams in NIHL (National Inline
Hockey League) has also more than doubled during the same period –
from an initial eight in 2000 to whooping 22 teams in 2002!
In 2002, IHS together with NIHL organized a Singapore All-star team
to participate in two international tournaments; organized and managed
the NIHL season; and 4 local tournaments in the year including: Charity
Cup, Sin Boon Ann Cup, Mission Cup, School’s Cup Challenge;
as well as supported the AXN Challenge.
With the assistance from sponsors SMINT and Mission Hockey; support
from North East Central Development Council, the teams entered the
Hong Kong YMCA Cup Challenge in November 2001 and 2002, as well as
the FIRS Pacific Cup February 2002 held in New Zealand. In 2002, IHS
established the inaugural NIHL Junior division with 11 teams in two
age divisions taking part. |
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