Reply To: Game Intelligence / Decision Training

[hockeygod]

Tom,

It's a coincidence that you post these comments… John and I were wondering today, "Why does hockey seem to be stuck in this drill mentality?" Now we now… damn North American coaches and their interpretations of Russian Hockey!

I remember after the '72 Series, my dad took me down to the old Calgary Corral to watch the Russians practice. I believe they were touring the country, playing some exhibition games against NHL teams or maybe it was during the '76 Series… not sure, but I was in awe of their skills! They had the old-school wooden chairs out on the down one side. As they skated laps to warm up, along the side without chairs, they handled the puck, passed and stretched. Along the other side, they had these chairs back to back with a stick lying across the top (backs) between them… so like a high jump. The Russians would skate up to them, jump them (both feet) in full stride and keep going. As I recall, there were 4 chairs on one side. The explosive strength was impressive. Then they started passing along both sides of the ice… maintaining control of the puck while jumping… and still passing (and receiving) on the tape. Incredible timing!
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Dean in the mid 90's I did a couple of hockey schools in Vierumaki, Finland. One year the Russian team Kazan was practicing the two weeks I was there. It was amazing watching them practice. Their coach weighed about 300 lbs (150 kg) and he didn't go on the ice but instead yelled into a microphone from the bench. They had really good practices. I remember one passing drill where they made terrible passes to one another and the goal was to be able to handle bad passes.

I was lucky enough to coach with Vladimir Jursinov (IIHF hall of fame) in Austria. He came one week a month to do the skills sessions. I knew him before as Juhani Wahlsten and him are good friends and the three of us presented at the 97 IIHF World Championships and we also have done seminars together. There are a few videos on this site with him running sessions. I wish I would have filmed a few more. When he was the head coach of TPS (Finnish elite league club) he had me run a practice on body checking technique.

The Russians are very dynamic skaters and really develop the core strength.

Dean
M.Ed (Coaching)
Ch.P.C. (Chartered Professional Coach)
Game Intelligence Training
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