I can only say that I am 100% in agreement !
The situation of our international federation has not changed for 30 years and so it is normal that our sport has suffered. Until players realize that WE select our club and national representatives nothing will change. We need to put professional people in place who care about the sport AND we need to embrace technological changes and not be afraid of them.
With the in-line revolution a young child today thinks that quad skates are OLD
FASHIONED. The essence of our sport is not the skate but the STICK AND BALL. When I coached the national Canadian team to third place in the world B championships in England beating Colombia etc., the Canadian players (all ex-ice hockey) told me that what made them play our sport was that they can do so much more with our stick and ball than with a long ice hockey stick and puck. The media and ALL the young spectators were more interested in the Canadians and their in-line skates than the winners of the tournament. I also learnt that with special in-line skates they can stop and change direction as fast as we can !!!! AND they are faster in a straight line.
If we opened our sport to ANY SKATES and then let the players choose what suits them then I believe we would stop losing young players to in-line hockey and would in fact TAKE players from them ! Our sport would be more modern, democratic and more dynamic. Tennis players and golfers can choose their equipment so why not hockey players?
Instead of working against the in-line trend we could work WITH it and trust that our stick and ball will attract players. This modern image would allow us to ride on the back of the in-line racing phenomena which IS the most attractive of our sports right now to the media and financial interests. We would have the in-line skate makers etc WITH us and not against us and unfortunately they have the money !
The situation of our international federation has not changed for 30 years and so it is normal that our sport has suffered. Until players realize that WE select our club and national representatives nothing will change. We need to put professional people in place who care about the sport AND we need to embrace technological changes and not be afraid of them.
With the in-line revolution a young child today thinks that quad skates are OLD
FASHIONED. The essence of our sport is not the skate but the STICK AND BALL. When I coached the national Canadian team to third place in the world B championships in England beating Colombia etc., the Canadian players (all ex-ice hockey) told me that what made them play our sport was that they can do so much more with our stick and ball than with a long ice hockey stick and puck. The media and ALL the young spectators were more interested in the Canadians and their in-line skates than the winners of the tournament. I also learnt that with special in-line skates they can stop and change direction as fast as we can !!!! AND they are faster in a straight line.If we opened our sport to ANY SKATES and then let the players choose what suits them then I believe we would stop losing young players to in-line hockey and would in fact TAKE players from them ! Our sport would be more modern, democratic and more dynamic. Tennis players and golfers can choose their equipment so why not hockey players?
Instead of working against the in-line trend we could work WITH it and trust that our stick and ball will attract players. This modern image would allow us to ride on the back of the in-line racing phenomena which IS the most attractive of our sports right now to the media and financial interests. We would have the in-line skate makers etc WITH us and not against us and unfortunately they have the money !
Anyway, just ideas. Bravo to both of you for loving our sport so much. I have become so tired of people preferring to stay in the past keeping our sport tiny rather than moving WITH the times that I have nothing to do with it anymore but as Pedro knows, I still love to skate with the veterans.Nick Galtos
P.S. IN business I use now the internet to develop 50% of my sales while my competitors still use the old newspaper marketing. I am growing while they are dying! That is life…grow, change, adapt or die.
***
Merci Nick.
Aucun commentaire:
Enregistrer un commentaire