Chinese hockey?

RobBrown4PM

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Oct 12, 2009
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The National Film Board of Canada produced a documentary feature in 1974 about the UBC Thunderbirds' 1973 friendship tour in China.



This was almost 50 years ago.


CAN-versation
HACK-ey


I thought I was watching an episode of the Great White North for a minute.
 

vorky

@vorkywh24
Jan 23, 2010
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Bykov just recently said to KHL that he took a delegation of the Swiss club HC Fribourg-Gottéron to China (a few years ago) to present to the Chinese hockey federation how to establish the hockey development program in the country. Bykov´s group had a plan/vision of how to create all the hockey hierarchy, including young kids until senior players. No words how the plan ended.
 
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alko

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Oct 20, 2004
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Bykov just recently said to KHL that he took a delegation of the Swiss club HC Fribourg-Gottéron to China (a few years ago) to present to the Chinese hockey federation how to establish the hockey development program in the country. Bykov´s group had a plan/vision of how to create all the hockey hierarchy, including young kids until senior players. No words how the plan ended.

Maybe China doesn't care about ice-hockey.
 

garbageteam

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Jan 7, 2010
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A lot may "care" but not be any good. France and Japan have actually quite a high proportion of registered players but fare worse than the likes of Denmark, Belarus etc.
 
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FrHockeyFan

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Dec 25, 2017
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Wasn't sure where to put it but wasn't feeling like starting a new thread just for it.

I'm surprised but at the same time not at all...

 

Fjorden

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Jan 17, 2021
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I thought this would happen before the Olympics to be honest. China has been reluctant to let non-Han chinese to compete for China in most sports except football where some minorities seem to be allowed.
Why are not China any better in hockey?
They have 887 indoor rinks according to IIHF. Only USA and Canada have more rinks.

But it is a good thing that they ban naturalization so they can develop their own team and players, IIHF should follow the chinese example here.
 

Albatros

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Aug 19, 2017
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They may have ice rinks, but not primarily or even secondarily for hockey other than some rare exceptions. There's no hockey league in Mainland China. Hong Kong yes, even Macau, but China, no. They're not developing and without naturalized players will fall like a stone back to Div II B.
 
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FrHockeyFan

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Dec 25, 2017
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But it is a good thing that they ban naturalization so they can develop their own team and players, IIHF should follow the chinese example here.

I doubt that would ever happen. Going down the same route as FIBA by limiting the number of not locally trained players would be more realistic.
 

Caser

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May 21, 2013
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Wasn't sure where to put it but wasn't feeling like starting a new thread just for it.

I'm surprised but at the same time not at all...


This "championship" source is the Russian website championat.com, which is far from a reliable source.

Not to mention it just doesn't make sense, at least I didn't hear that IIHF would make some changes in terms of player eligibility, did I miss something there?
 

Albatros

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This "championship" source is the Russian website championat.com, which is far from a reliable source.

Not to mention it just doesn't make sense, at least I didn't hear that IIHF would make some changes in terms of player eligibility, did I miss something there?
It's not an IIHF issue, rather there's widespread unwillingness in China to have foreigners represent the country. However, hockey has been really low-key after the Olympics so it remains to be seen whether the opponents really are having it their way now. In other sports this has not been a more general trend recently.
 

Caser

@RUSProspects
May 21, 2013
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It's not an IIHF issue, rather there's widespread unwillingness in China to have foreigners represent the country. However, hockey has been really low-key after the Olympics so it remains to be seen whether the opponents really are having it their way now. In other sports this has not been a more general trend recently.
Oh, that's interesting. Still I'd wait for a more reliable source than just championat.com to believe that is the case.
 
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FrHockeyFan

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Dec 25, 2017
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Oh, that's interesting. Still I'd wait for a more reliable source than just championat.com to believe that is the case.
I understand your skepticism and i usually wouldn't share without double checking first.

The article from championat.com is actually just a copy paste from the FHR about China being replaced by a VHL All-star team and does not mention why China withdrew.

Hockey Worldwide is pretty reliable as social media hockey news goes but finding any primary source on Chinese hockey is pretty hard, only North Korea being worse than them.
 

Caser

@RUSProspects
May 21, 2013
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I understand your skepticism and i usually wouldn't share without double checking first.

The article from championat.com is actually just a copy paste from the FHR about China being replaced by a VHL All-star team and does not mention why China withdrew.

Hockey Worldwide is pretty reliable as social media hockey news goes but finding any primary source on Chinese hockey is pretty hard, only North Korea being worse than them.
Just they state that their source is just championat, so that's why i'm skeptical. Also because a rather reliable Russian journalist/announcer Vitaly Magranov directly stated that it is "cool story, but very far from the truth". So yeah, would like to see some other sources about this, didn't find anything both on twitter and Russian medias so far, only sport-express stating "inappropriate political climate" as the reason.
 
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VainGretzky

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Jun 4, 2015
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Athletes who excel in China on the world stage are trained one-on-one for many hours a day with their own personal trainer and do not live at home, this would be very hard to do with a hockey program
 
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Albatros

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In team sports training tends to be very rigid, players often have a set of drills that they go through again and again without much variation. As a result they can do quite well what they explicitly trained for, but can not always react naturally to evolving situations in the game or have much synergy as a team.
 

GindyDraws

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It's not an IIHF issue, rather there's widespread unwillingness in China to have foreigners represent the country. However, hockey has been really low-key after the Olympics so it remains to be seen whether the opponents really are having it their way now. In other sports this has not been a more general trend recently.
I think its more that after China's humiliating performance at the Beijing Olympics, they decreed that hockey was a losing endeavor and are not putting any more emphasis on it. It's a combination of their unwillingness to have foreigners come in and provide help even if it gives China the edge in the end along with how they find it easier to develop individuals rather than teams. It's why they always suck at team sports but they dominate in sports where a single athlete controls the game.
 
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Albatros

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I think its more that after China's humiliating performance at the Beijing Olympics, they decreed that hockey was a losing endeavor and are not putting any more emphasis on it. It's a combination of their unwillingness to have foreigners come in and provide help even if it gives China the edge in the end along with how they find it easier to develop individuals rather than teams. It's why they always suck at team sports but they dominate in sports where a single athlete controls the game.
If they ever thought otherwise they would have at least established a domestic hockey league before the Olympics, which they never did.
 

Albatros

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Why do you think China Dragon lost a bajillion games in a row?
Because they were a half-arsed attempt playing with foreign pros, when they got the Olympics that was turned into Kunlun which ultimately isn't much different besides an ounce more professionalism.
 

FourQuarters

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Mar 31, 2022
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I think its more that after China's humiliating performance at the Beijing Olympics, they decreed that hockey was a losing endeavor and are not putting any more emphasis on it. It's a combination of their unwillingness to have foreigners come in and provide help even if it gives China the edge in the end along with how they find it easier to develop individuals rather than teams. It's why they always suck at team sports but they dominate in sports where a single athlete controls the game.
No one in China sees the men's ice hockey team's performance at the Winter Olympics as a humiliating performance. Even the initial goal set by the national team was not to lose badly when they were eliminated, and they have achieved that. Ice hockey has been played in China in the past year, though more often in tournaments such as the national Winter Games than in leagues. Meanwhile, the women's professional league(allowing teams to sign foreign players) is underway, with playoffs scheduled for late January. There are also more and more youth leagues and tournaments.
On the other hand, hockey is not the only sport, nor is it special. So what if Chinese hockey sucks? More fans are still focused on the NHL or KHL, and the NHL's inability to compete with NBA or MLB in the Chinese market is their problem, not the problem of Chinese hockey. Chinese soccer is much worse, but that doesn't stop fans from paying to watch European leagues.
 
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