WhoIsGuyIncognito
Registered User
What is it with almost all czech prospects not being able to skate properly? I mean, come on, this is something every guy who wants to become a hockey player should be able to do very well. Even before he is given a hockey stick perhaps. Is it cos we don't teach them properly? Or that we simply don't see it as an important part of the players development as a hockey player? It's frustrating cos it just seems like such a stupid thing to not be able to do properly or teach.........
Almost no Coaches in czech republic teach skating. They will let kids skate drills over and over but if they see bad habits, they dont try to correct them, they will just make them skate more drills and hope that kids somehow pick it up by themselves, and this is the worst part, if the players is unable to learn the proper stride like that, they see it as a players failure, not theirs.
Also not teached by coaches are slapshots- in juniors and even in extraliga you see great percentage of players with a bad form of slapshot- for example: great numbers of players hold the stick wrong by their upper hand (creates bad angle for a shot), bad form of swing (I know it doesnt seem like a big deal but sometimes its just brutal), cant shoot through the blocking defender ( If you talk to players from czech junior leagues who just faced their first international competition they are in shock that they cant get a shot on goal against players that are in proper shot-blocking position(which is also not teached at all in czech rep) - thats why you see defenders shooting so many wrist shots from the blue line in int. tournaments, they dont have enough confidence in their slapshot to try to shoot. Once again coaches see players shoot badly every day and mostly do nothing about it.
As a product of czech youth system I can go on and on about wrong system of developing players in czech rep, so if somebody has some question about it, feel free to ask.