Vershinovets in Finland.
Training and training fee,dedicated to the 70th anniversary of the friendship of Kyiv and Tampere, the pupils visited the hockey department with the puck of KDYUSSH “Vershina” from February 25 to March 1 in Finland.
Such an end of winter for 31 pets of Kiev hockey will be remembered for a long time. Children of 2010-2012 were lucky enough to train under the guidance of reputable Finnish coaches, watch high-quality European hockey, just get away from the realities of war and even live a calmer life for a short time, discovering a new country. Such an opportunity for pupils of the capital's sports schools “Peaks”“Sokola”, “Ice Cream” and “Bulldogs” fell thanks to the invitation of the mayor of Tampere, a great friend of Ukraine Kalelvo Kummali. An authoritative functionary in the hockey world organized a training meeting for young Ukrainians in his hometown in honor of the 70th anniversary of the friendship of Tampere and Kyiv.
Considering that there were significantly more people willing to go on the trip than the organizers could accept, the coaches of our schools had to choose. They argue that when determining the lucky ones, they took into account the first thing about how conscientious children are about attending training at home. “This trip is a kind of encouragement for those who do not miss classes,” says the coach of the Bulldog school Andriy Kuzminsky.
Here names of hockey players of KDYUSSH “Vershina”,who left Kiev by bus with a transfer by ferry in Tallinn in Tampere:
2011 year of birth:
Mykola Bykovskyi
Yehor Tyupyshev
Mikhail Smirnov
Heorhii Pavlyuk
2012 year of birth:
Ivan Konoval
Semen Bakuta
Maksym Lysyuk
Vladyslav Berezhnyi
Ilya Gavrilchenko
Representatives of the Ukrainian delegation, and in addition to hockey players, it included coaches Andriy Kochur (“Vershina”), Andriy Kuzminsky (“Bulldogs”) and Viktor Prilipko (“Kryzhynka”), as well as doctor Kseniya Sekretna were impressed by how warmly they were received in Finland Ndiya and how perfectly the schedule of guests was drawn up for each of the days. Each step was painted, in fact, by the minute.
The training work itself was completed in three days and turned out to be extremely rich. The Ukrainians held two training sessions a day on the ice and two classes on general physical training in the hall. The residents of Kiev were engaged in the complex, which includes three skating rinks and a large gym with four floorball courts. Players of local “Ilves” and “Tappara” train in it. The classes were conducted by the coaches of the club academies of these clubs Antti Legtonen, Alexi Peltonen, Kari Aaltonen, Anna Toyvio, as well as three girls, current hockey players Ellie Poggianago from “Tappara”, Nanna-Katarina Timonen and Aleksandra Nurmieri Nen from “Ilves”. Separately, it is worth highlighting Miike Vangatalo, under his leadership, the junior team “Tappara” (U16) last year became the champion of Finland. Two years ago, Miika was named coach of the year in the SM-sarja U16. His older brother Lassi plays for Esset, and the younger Vilgo is a candidate for the Finnish youth team.
Ukrainian colleagues claim that each of the Finnish specialists was distinguished during their work with complete openness. “The first training started with basic exercises,” says Andriy Kuzminsky. - This is because the Finnish coaches wanted to determine the level of readiness of the hockey players. And after that, more difficult activities began. Particular emphasis was placed on sliding, namely power skating. Considering that Scandinavian hockey is famous for the quality of skating, we were pleased to hear the characteristic “cool skater” in relation to individual guys. Attention was also paid to exercises to complete the attack, to practice quick throws without preparation.”
“I would highlight the fact that Finnish coaches try to explain as much as possible what will be done in training, before going on the ice, — complements colleague Andriy Kochur. — On the ice itself, it was remembered how many chewing gums Finns chew during training. “That's not to want to eat,” they say. Interestingly, we were fed five times a day. There were two dinners — early and late.”
“It is impressive how polite the Finnish specialists are and that they conduct each training exclusively on the positive side,” says Viktor Prilipko. - I will also highlight the fact that all classes take place in a game form. It takes more time, but in Finland, unlike us, there is no problem with ice. The coaches there just live on the rink in the morning and into the evening. In addition to training for our children, they did the usual daily activities for their pets.”
For reference. In Tampere, which is home to 230 thousand people, there are 25 skating rinks; in Finland with 5.5 million inhabitants there are 320 skating rinks per country. Kiev, which before the Great War was populated by about the same number of people as all of Finland, has only three ice rinks. “Is it any wonder that our Finnish colleagues are not worried about whether they will be able to train skilled hockey players? summarizes Andrey Kochur. — Since the first selection through a team of the same age, 800 children take place there. There remains the top 20 in all understandings. And then, provided that the training in Tampere is paid - 250 euros per month. And in our realities, sometimes we are forced to conduct not selection and not even recruitment, but selection, so that there is a sufficient number of hockey players for quality training.”
“What we are similar in is the issue of communication between coaches and parents,” says Andriy Kuzminsky. “This problem also exists in Finland, and it is even more acute than ours, because most dads once played hockey at different levels, and therefore they defend their children even harder.”
In addition to training, Ukrainians had special impressions from visiting two matches of the Finnish championship — Ilves — Esset and Tappara — Pelicans at the state-of-the-art Nokia Arena. “First, there was hockey of the highest level, which our children had never seen in real life, says Andriy Kochur. — Secondly, there were special sensations, goosebumps on the skin when, during the breaks of matches, more than ten thousand people were informed that young hockey players from Ukraine were present at the match and “Oh, red viburnum in the meadow” was heard in our honor. And after watching motivational clips in Cuba, a colleague Kuzminsky said: “I am under 50, but after what I saw I want to play hockey again.”
“There were special emotions when we visited the Museum of Finnish Hockey,” says Andriy Kuzminsky. - There is no such thing in the capital Helsinki. All because Tampere is considered the birthplace of the game in Finland. There are hundreds of unique exhibits, jerseys of hockey players of different generations, three Olympic medals won by Suomi at the Calgary Games, Nagano and Turin. We, the trainers, were no less delighted than our pets. Perhaps because on the play of Yari Kurri, Essa Tikkanen, Teemu Selyanne, Saku Koivu, Yere Legtinen and many other legends, we grew up, and we had to explain to the children what is the magnitude.”
Of those players who are playing in Tampere now, the most popular in the city is striker Petri Kontiola, who now represents Tappara, and previously was a three-time World Cup medalist and won bronze at the 2014 Olympics in Sochi. “At the same time, it is gratifying that when mentioning Ukraine, Finns already mention the name of Danyl Trakht, a striker who this season debuted for the adult team “Lukko” in the elite division of the Finnish championship,” adds Andriy Kuzminsky.
... before one of the trainings to guests from Ukraine visited Kalervo Kummola.And Mayor Tampere went directly to the locker room. “We even took off, offered to meet in a more formal atmosphere,” says Andriy Kuzminsky. “But Mr. Kummola reassured: “It should be so.” He congratulated our hockey players, said that the Finnish people will always be with Ukraine, and the city of Tampere will support Kiev. And put on the jersey of the national team of Ukraine presented by us. In farewell, Kalervo conveyed special greetings to Alexander and Anatoly, to his friends Alexander Slatvitsky and Anatoly Brezvin.”
“Those people who met us do not need to explain once again what is being done in Ukraine and in what conditions we live now, says Andriy Kochur. —It seems that in Tampere everyone is morally with us. We felt it literally from the first moments on Finnish soil, when we were met in a family way, each child was presented with socks tied with their own hands.”
“For our pets, this journey was special,” says Viktor Prilipko. - Previously, some of these guys have already traveled to tournaments in Latvia, Estonia, Hungary, Poland. But in such a hockey country as Finland they are for the first time. I hope that after this trip, the children will engage with double energy. And we agreed that we will contact our colleagues from Tampere in the future, in particular, we agreed that if everything goes well, we will come to one of the training camps.”
Schools “Vershyny”, “Sokola”, “Kryzhinki” and “Bulldogs” thank for organizing and holding these meetings of the Hockey Federation of Ukraine, the Department of Youth and Sports of the Kyiv City State Administration, the City Hall of Tampere and personally the Mayor of Kalervo Kummoli, schools “Ilmoli” “Tappara” and “Tappara”.