Dear talents, parents, hockey fans!
Quite some time has passed since the last Camp HTA EUROPE. Quite a few interesting things happened in the meantime that are related to us and our philosophy. But about this a little later. This year, we have organized two camps less than last year (three camps in Italy, two camps in Slovenia), but we significantly increased the number of players and thus healthy competition among players. Generally, this year brought a lot of new things. Exercises at camps were changed or upgraded, new tools were available, which the majority of players used for the first time. In Italy we had a professional ice micrometer timer (radar) so that the players could see how fast they were skating and could realize that skating technique is very important for speed. Before the start of all camps this year we wanted to hire some new ambitious coaches from abroad (Canada, Finland, Czech Republic), which we succeeded. All coaches went through a special training and I am very satisfied with their approach and motivation.
In Slovenia (Bled), we first organized individual trainings, for which we received a lot of interest and a very positive feedback from players, as well as from their parents. We would like to organized them again and have more individual trainings and hours, but the price for the ice hall in Bled is a little too high.
As I mentioned earlier, the number of players increased significantly (especially in Italy) which makes me very happy, because this is the result of good work of all team members in our organization. This is the reason why we would like to organize more camps next year. This year we have skipped the camp HTA STICKHANDLING but we will organize it again next season. But we have organized the camp HTA One Vs. One for the first time where players had a full-range duel exercises (1-1, 2-2, 3-3). Players were excited and quickly understood that this is one of the most important and most common elements in today's hockey.
With the increased number of players I have also seen a number of different types of players. The biggest difference was in their mentality (they were from different countries) and therefore I would like to give my compliments to Austrian players. They never asked WHY :). The good work was also done by coaches who identified very quickly what the players lacked most. They were able to tell them and show them how to do and why to do, so the players could eliminate errors and could improve.
I was impressed to see how some players, who were with us last year, made a really great progress, especially in the skating technique. I praised them! They told me that during each training last season they reminded our advice and tried to skate as we have shown and taught them. I was really impressed!
So let's get to the interesting stuff which I mentioned at the beginning of this letter. As I have already written, there were many more players than last year. Consequently, there was more advertising and greater interest. I was very surprised and at the same time happy to be contacted by several clubs and interested players who have acquired knowledge and skills with us. Some still have time, some have tried. And you know what? They succeeded in tryouts!!! I'm convinced that we will have more such players each year. This gives me motivation and ideas for the future. We already work hard on organizing the camps next year. We would like to beat the number of 408 players and we believe that we will succeed. I wish all the players a healthy, happy and successful season! Continue thinking about our advice, but most of all, enjoy the beautiful hockey game.
ROK PAJIC - Head coach & manager for HTA Italy and Slovenia
