For many years Jacques Brinkman was a well known field hockey player. He was part of the Dutch national team at a total of 337 international events - a record until 2006 - and participated at four Olympic Games between 1988 and 2000. He won all titles: Olympic Champion in 1996 and 2000, World Champion twice, a European Champion and three times winner of the Champions Trophy.

As a coach, Jacques trained the SCHC team for four years and reached the play offs three times. Currently he is a youth coach for the east provinces in The Netherlands. Jacques completed the International Program in Coaching in 2010-2011.

You are a very experienced coach. Were you able to learn new skills during the study program?
Yes, I mainly learned a lot about myself. Before this program, many decisions were based on my personal experience and gut feeling. It was a great way to many successes, but now theory consolidates these experiences. The program is a good mixture of practice and theory. In particular, the guidance you get from a personal coach and the lectures from key note speakers were very instructive. It provided me with a lot of new in-depth information.

What are your plans now the program has come to an end?
I will dedicate myself fulltime to coaching. I would like to extend my field hockey coaching to – let’s call it – more social coaching and contribute to projects such as the aspiration to organize the 2028 Olympics in The Netherlands, the coaching of micro finances, youth fitness and health (physically and mentally) – you name it! Or to say it in other words: This program contributed to a personal switch, something that never would have happened without the course.