Great Britain: Olympic Qualifiers (Latvia)

[Siamese Dream]

What's the funding like for GB hockey compared to other countries like France and Latvia?

We get pretty much 0, the $100k dollar sum we got recently was the first I have ever heard of being given money. Sport England don't give us anything at all, I know that for a fact.

Funding is another issue I forgot to mention. Plus the cost of playing compared to other countries. Most of the rinks are owned by an absolute joke of a company called Planet Ice. My team (NIHL2) play in a Planet Ice-run rink and pay astronomical prices to train and play on terrible ice and we don't even get hot showers.

 

[ukyote]

I've said it several times now, player numbers and ice rinks isn't really an excuse anymore. We have more rinks and players than nations like Denmark and of course Latvia but they can still produce NHL talent and we can't, so it makes you wonder why is that?
A lot of it is down to development, coaching isn't too shabby but actual ice time is the big one. Junior leagues play less than 20 games a season, even if a player is good enough to play for the higher age group that's still less than 40 while kids in other countries play a lot more than that. And most are not on the ice for more than 3 hours per week. There's also a lack of competitive games at the junior level, games are often won by an excess of 10 goals so this makes it boring and a lot of kids quit.

Numbers may be greater, but without researching it I'd guess that the distribution is poor? I'd be prepared to bet that Scotland has a fair % of GB's ice rinks; disproportionate to its small population.

Going back to our discussion earlier, getting to ice isn't easy from many place to London, and that's where a 6th of the island's population is based! Anybody outside of London in England will be lucky to have one within 30 odd miles.

Totally agree about ice time - our uni team was given the time of 3am for 2 hours on Saturdays to practice, so you can guess how popular it was. That's another function of the lack of rinks.

 

[ukyote]

This seems to confirm what I'm saying:

http://www.iceskating.org.uk/category/rinks-clubs

It's nuts that there are 20 rinks in Scotland alone! The distribution really is bad...

 

[Siamese Dream]

Numbers may be greater, but without researching it I'd guess that the distribution is poor? I'd be prepared to bet that Scotland has a fair % of GB's ice rinks; disproportionate to its small population.

Going back to our discussion earlier, getting to ice isn't easy from many place to London, and that's where a 6th of the island's population is based! Anybody outside of London in England will be lucky to have one within 30 odd miles.

Totally agree about ice time - our uni team was given the time of 3am for 2 hours on Saturdays to practice, so you can guess how popular it was. That's another function of the lack of rinks.

The distribution is poor but that's irrelevant, we still have more registered players.

Even if there were more rinks, kids would still only be getting 2 hours of ice time per week, simple reason being the people who run the rinks like Planet Ice are greedy ***** and they make more money from public skating, and the figure skaters. It frustrates me to no end when I walk into a rink and there's one or two figure skaters on the ice, I get that they need the space but that's ridiculous and it's such as waste of the ice time.

Good thing that Steve Nell took the initiative in Swindon and bought all the ice time off the council to set up the Okanagan Hockey Academy, and basically said **** you to the figure skaters. I guffawed endlessly when I saw the figure skaters crying in the local paper because the hockey players took their ice time in the words of Bart Simpson: the ironing is delicious

 

[Siamese Dream]

This seems to confirm what I'm saying:

http://www.iceskating.org.uk/category/rinks-clubs

It's nuts that there are 20 rinks in Scotland alone! The distribution really is bad...

I've never heard of half of those, I don't they're used or suitable for hockey. And Braehead arena is only used for the EIHL team.

 

[ukyote]

I've never heard of half of those, I don't they're used or suitable for hockey. And Braehead arena is only used for the EIHL team.

Fair enough, but availability of ice to get kids skating from a young age is far less of a problem in Scotland than everywhere else in the UK!

How do we address the problem of poor coaches? Presumably that'll need central funding in absence of paying customers?

 

[Siamese Dream]

Fair enough, but availability of ice to get kids skating from a young age is far less of a problem in Scotland than everywhere else in the UK!

How do we address the problem of poor coaches? Presumably that'll need central funding in absence of paying customers?

With coaching the senior pro/semi-pro teams need to get involved more with the junior setup, I know this already happens at a lot of clubs, it is improving. The governing body has to put more effort into it too.

 

[villevalo]

The governing body has to put more effort into it too.

Lol which one

 

[Siamese Dream]

Lol which one

Touché

I mean EIHA though, IHUK don't actually do anything in terms of grass roots management

 

[Siamese Dream]

GB currently 2-0 down in the 2nd against Kazakhstan, Ben Bowns in net

 

[Like Wall]

Any live streams? IIHL says 3:0 in favour of KAZ

 

[Siamese Dream]

No ESPN isn't showing this game live they're only doing highlights later tonight

 

[Like Wall]

Damn it, 5:0 KAZ is steamrolling. That's not good at all. Makes Latvia look very bad.

 

[Siamese Dream]

Damn it, 5:0 KAZ is steamrolling. That's not good at all. Makes Latvia look very bad.

To be fair even with the rest day I think our legs have really gone after the last 2 games, we're also playing our 22 year old backup goalie who has never played an international game at the senior level. So I wouldn't worry too much if I were you.

 

[Like Wall]

To be fair even with the rest day I think our legs have really gone after the last 2 games, we're also playing our 22 year old backup goalie who has never played an international game at the senior level. So I wouldn't worry too much if I were you.

That's a mild relief, but maybe you're right, your boys are too tired and probably morale is low. I still hope GB will score at least 1. Meanwhile it's 6:0.

 

[Call me Suds]

To be fair even with the rest day I think our legs have really gone after the last 2 games, we're also playing our 22 year old backup goalie who has never played an international game at the senior level. So I wouldn't worry too much if I were you.

Welcome to the senior club Ben but it's still good experience. He's facing a ton of shots against really good competition

 

[Like Wall]

GB isn't ready for big level teams. If Latvia is a punching bag for Finland, Sweden, Canada and other strong teams, imagine what will happen to GB team. We rarely hold our ground against Switzerland and Slovakia. Latvia is usually at the bottom of Elite Division. It would be difficult for you, if you somehow made it. You need more international experience and popularity for this game in GB. Only then will success slowly follow.

 

[BalticWarrior]

GB isn't ready for big level teams. If Latvia is a punching bag for Finland, Sweden, Canada and other strong teams, imagine what will happen to GB team. We rarely hold our ground against Switzerland and Slovakia. Latvia is usually at the bottom of Elite Division. It would be difficult for you, if you somehow made it. You need more international experience and popularity for this game in GB. Only then will success slowly follow.

Last two games with finland for us have been pretty close like 1-2 goal difference and we won sweden in 2009 not that long ago.

 

[Like Wall]

Last two games with finland for us have been pretty close like 1-2 goal difference and we won sweden in 2009 not that long ago.

Yes, I remember 2009 like no other year, but we cannot live in the successes of past. What bothers me is lack of speed and lack of leadership (OzoliņÅ¡ doesn't count). I think quality of our hockey has fallen since we last played against Finland. And don't forget that it has always been due to goalie's fantastic game, that we have coped "good" against Finland. Last year we played 3(?) games in a row without scoring a single goal. Once we face someone, who plays on our level (and didn't before), the players become nervous and defeatist attitude overcomes them.

 

[Shrimper]

Shame to lose so heavily against Kazakhstan but I think they were just tired. We had two really good performances, can't comment on today's as I haven't seen it. If we can continue to compete at this level and improve our grass roots and get people more interested then there's no reason why we can't be in this stage more often and giving the likes of France and Kazakhstan close games.

 

[Call me Suds]

Shrimper & 99 probs you guys should go coach teams. Focus on hockey during practice and bring the kids to community skating and work their legs twice a week lol

 

[Bojovnik]

Shame to lose so heavily against Kazakhstan but I think they were just tired. We had two really good performances, can't comment on today's as I haven't seen it. If we can continue to compete at this level and improve our grass roots and get people more interested then there's no reason why we can't be in this stage more often and giving the likes of France and Kazakhstan close games.

Well technically Britain should always be getting to this stage as they were the top seeded team in their group in Japan.

 

[Siamese Dream]

Shrimper & 99 probs you guys should go coach teams. Focus on hockey during practice and bring the kids to community skating and work their legs twice a week lol

I already play and officiate I haven't got time to do anything more

 

[Call me Suds]

I already play and officiate I haven't got time to do anything more

Give back!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[Siamese Dream]

Give back!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I had thought about coaching in the past but I play nearly every Sunday and on Saturdays I'm officiating and during the week I study so there is literally no time. When I quit playing I will think about it again but I'm very serious about officiating and I want to do it more often. A junior schedule is lighter than NIHL so it might be possible for me to coach and officiate fairly often at the same time.