It confirms what Sportbladet has revealed: promises of gold and green forests
He is a high authority in Swedish elite hockey.
At the same time, he referred to the education system for the future elite as “corrupt”.
– It’s reprehensible, says the hockey leader of the poke-and-prick system revealed by Sportbladet.
The best players are pressured into hundreds of thousands of kronor if they want to finish their education at some of Sweden’s elite hockey high schools. At the same time, those whom the associations themselves no longer want after a year or two of study are expelled.
Sportbladet’s revelations about NIU’s ice hockey education are confirmed by a pioneer in Swedish ice hockey.
– It is a hell of madness where the associations are promised golden and green forests.
He has his reasons for anonymity, and is well versed in the business. His reaction was mainly how little emphasis was placed on education in particular.
It has become too results-oriented and counterproductive to education. There are small margins and you don’t know until players are 19 to 20 years old that they will really become elite players. That’s why it’s so important to live up to the fact that everyone feels like they’re getting a fair chance.
I got to play another 232 minutes
To prove unfair, he decides to compare different players on the same team and at the same high school during a certain time in the season.
Player X then played 8 games and averaged 10 minutes of ice time per game.
Meanwhile, Player Y has had a chance in 13 games and averages 24 minutes per game.
During one month of the season, Player X received 80 minutes of ice hockey practice per game, compared to Player Y’s 312.
– They can hardly get the same education, says the commandant.
He wonders how player X will catch up to player Y evolutionarily when he only gets a quarter of the ice time, and points out how impossible it is to conceive of the same system in another school subject.
– If you are bad at math, you will not improve if you are not allowed to attend lessons. The ice hockey captain says the whole system is corrupt.
Describes the excitement spread around education for the entire three years. First, associations fight for the biggest talent and then struggle to show results also on the junior side in order to remain attractive for future generations.
It also describes how federations put undue pressure on each other by signing players with promises of fixtures or early play in higher age groups.
– If you go back five years, there was an agreement not to chase each other’s players. That too has been overlooked, and I think it’s wrong. Because, frankly, there is no reason for a player to move from one SHL club to another. The only reason someone would do that today is because they were promised something more, because education is usually no better.
“This is disgraceful”
At the same time, the associations have to withstand the pressure of demanding parents who wonder why their son did not grow up that old or more. All the time with the risk that the player will tire and switch to a rival club.
– In the past five or seven years, they’ve created a huge craze around NIU. I see some teams playing even the best matches.
How do you see these twinges that happen after a year or two?
– sinner. I can’t help but think of the recruitment process itself. If after one year you have already fully condemned a player on the grounds that the player is not doing their job.
What should happen now?
– I don’t think that you should be able to choose players from each other in the SHL and then the federation should make higher demands on education. If you get into the NIU program, you have enough talent to become a hockey player, but you also need to get a proper education. There must be oversight, because it is not acceptable for one player to play 70 minutes and ten minutes more, week after week. Somewhere to follow. We must have an oversight and review of the system, at the same time that club administrations across Sweden have an enormous responsibility.
The delicate thing about elite hockey schools is that they are run in two different arenas. During the day, the associations and the school are responsible for formal schooling. In the evening it is a pure association activity but with the same players, leaders, equipment and buildings.
Several Sportbladet spoke to describe how the two activities cannot be separated. That the federations use the school time to train to prepare for the match and that it is practically impossible to participate only in one of the two segments.
The high-profile hockey leader now believes change must come from the sport itself.
– Take, for example, that the association chose to divide the junior series into two parts, one before Christmas and one after. It’s just there that the signal is sent that the first half of the season is the show and that you’re next headed to the SC playoffs. But there will still be a lot of focus on winning from the start.
How should they do?
– You can have a continuation string divided in a different way. Maybe right from the start you should have all the top teams in a series so that it’s more of a given who will play in the SC playoffs and you don’t have to finish in the top five of the table. There are a lot of ideas and models out there but you have to stay away from the results.
Urges parents
It places a lot of responsibility on the leaders, but also urges parents not to rush too far in moving up the league and education system.
The most important thing to remember is that hockey is a refereeing sport. Someone has to make a personal assessment of the players and it can be very different. This is why it is so important for everyone to have a chance at education, he says and continues:
– Today we already have the elimination of the televsion and then it continues in the elite teams. However, everyone talks about the importance of training for a long time, those 10,000 hours. But if you only join for 5,000 hours, it will be hard.
How do you talk about this in your club?
– We play it a lot every day, but I’m not at all sure that everyone does. There are those who just try to get the best in Sweden, bet two or three in each combination and then make it or break it. But it is devastating for Swedish hockey.
– We try to work away from focusing on results, we don’t care if we win junior matches and we focus on everyone getting a good hockey education. We want everyone to play and experience different roles while encouraging the best by taking them to the next level. Then they can be stimulated without having a much longer ice time compared to the others. We also talk all the time with coaches about, for example, not always using the top five in attacking designs, or using the same player in the box or power play.
At the same time, a common objection in Swedish hockey is that players should “learn how to compete”. This competition can also be a motivator. But the hockey stick doesn’t worry about missing something when you bet more players.
– Of course players must learn to compete, this is like the DNA of ice hockey and it is also an important part of education. But the chain system is structured in such a way that the competitive element is built on the basis of what you get, and if you then focus on training, we are convinced that the results will also come.
How do you see all of today’s best inevitably congregated into NIU’s high school clubs?
– As an SHL club, you need to think about it. You can’t just bring in the top 14 because it would be a disaster. This is where it is lacking today. But it is inevitable that SHL clubs will select players from smaller clubs and this is how it should work.
“all quasi-polar”
Why can’t you say this with name and photo?
It’s an elite sport in a nutshell. There are so many strong people who push themselves that it is not possible to speak openly about these things. It’s very sensitive, but it’s a sick system.
The important thing to look at is also to look at the coaches in the clubs today. They are mostly just retired hockey players, but winning SM gold and coaching hockey players are two completely different things. It’s not on the same plane. It’s also an issue that we’ve looked at, trying to recruit outside the box. It is very important and crucial not to have old hockey players or friends with their kids in the club pushing themselves. Because blood will always be thicker than water.
Favoritism, believed to be rife in ice hockey, is also considered by the hockey elite as one of the biggest obstacles to changing the NIU system as well.
– It’s like everyone knows everyone in the bubble. If you’re an elite level hockey player, you know it’s in the federation and protect each other rather than sit around and puzzle out how we’re going to be the best in the world at coaching players. The system needs to be changed properly, but it is difficult for the federation to make demands because they are all almost polar. Everyone knows everyone and it’s not good.