Beijing Youth Club League kicked off, with more than 2,600 players from 199 teams participating
More games, hockey players grow fast
With the opening of Beijing youth ice hockey club league, 7-year-old ice hockey teenager Liu Sa began to look forward to the coming of the weekend. On October 27, the 11th hockey team of Huaxing International, where he is located, will usher in the second game of the new season. After losing the first battle, Liu SA paid special attention to this game.
As for the hockey junior in Beijing, the Club League which starts in October every year has become an important platform for them to learn skills and show their talents. The scale of this year’s league matches has reached a new high. 199 teams participating in the competition come from 31 clubs with more than 2600 players, which is a microcosm of the vigorous development of Beijing youth ice hockey, it also promotes the development and promotion of the project from the competitive level. With the opening of the league, Beijing will once again set off ice hockey fever.
Gradually improve the details
The scale of league matches continues to expand, and higher requirements are put forward for competition system design, schedule arrangement and event service. The 12th year of the league has been undergoing constant adjustment and improvement.
Now Liu Sa is intermediate principal stress of the team, and the initial competition experience is not good. When he entered the competition for the first time in 2015, he was only over 4 years old and was one of the youngest players. “At that time, U6 (under 6 years old) was still a big field competition. Several young children could hardly reach the ball, just running around the field with them. They were very tired but failed to run too much.” Liu Sa’s father said that the promotion and changes of the competition have become more and more obvious since these two years.
For the protection of small players, last season, the league changed U6 to a small venue for the first time, giving small players more opportunities to control the ball and more sense of participation. This season, the league has further refined the rule design. The competition will be divided into selection group and competitive group. Among them, the selection group only conducts regular season matches, and the top eight regular season players of all ages in the competitive group are ranked in the playoffs. In terms of grouping, on the basis of the last U7, U8, U10, U12 and U14, two selection groups U9 and U11 have been added to this league, which are more detailed, it further reduces the risk of injury of small players and improves the effect of military training in the event.
“In this league, we also invited foreign referee teams to participate in the execution. We hope that they will have more opportunities to communicate with domestic referees and help us train domestic hockey professionals.” Xing Yi, deputy secretary general of Beijing Ice Hockey Association, said.
Plus-sized investment
Beijing Ice Hockey Association has registered fewer than 500 athletes six years ago, and now has more than 4,000 registered players. The competition platform set up by the league matches strongly promotes the development of Beijing Ice Hockey like a snowball.
The 10-year-old Tu tongrui has participated in the club league for the fourth time. In the national youth U series Ice Hockey Championship in early October, together with his friends, he won the championship trophy of U10 men’s group. The first time he won the championship, he said frankly that the experience of participating in the league made him gain a lot. “Every year, the league will play many games. Through the games, you can find your own shortcomings, accumulate experience, and learn from your opponents.”
In fact, in this national youth U series Ice Hockey Championship, 10 teams sent by Beijing won 5 championships, 2 runner-up and 1 third place, with outstanding results. Xing Yan said that the advantages shown by Beijing small players in the level and ability of the game are inseparable from Beijing’s “deep cultivation” youth ice hockey project over the years.
It is understood that Beijing currently has two major ice hockey events: youth club league and intercollegiate league. At the same time, it will hold some Cup matches to provide more opportunities for young players to participate. In addition, Beijing ice Association also organizes training camps every year and invites foreign coaches to coach. These measures have played a positive role in the promotion and popularization of the project and the improvement of competitive level. Su Jun, director of the youth division of Beijing Sports Bureau, said that government departments would further plus-sized their investment in youth ice hockey. In addition to supporting the competition, they would also invest in workout devices, venues and teaching.
Patterns still need to be explored
In order to complete the weekly ice hockey training and competition plan, Liu Sa is learning how to better plan and use the time with the help of his father. Liu Sa’s father said that letting children play ice hockey is not to achieve any achievements, but to hope that children can learn something, such as the consciousness of teamwork and the spirit of never giving up. As they grow older, these will be of great help to the development of children’s character.
Different from the professional team form in the system, the development of Beijing Ice Hockey depends more on the family training mode. Even the four echelon teams of U18, U15, U12 and “Little Girl Ice” currently owned by Beijing ice hockey team, all players are also students in school, and they use their spare time to train intensively.
The innovation of training mode is an exploration, but it is not easy to go up the channel. “From a nationwide perspective, Beijing Ice Hockey has talent advantages in the age group under 16, but due to the lack of teams in high school and university, these players generally face the problem of reading or playing.” Xing Yi said. It is understood that under normal circumstances, junior players in primary schools can guarantee 4-5 times of training a week, and with the increase of age, the number of training per week will decrease significantly. For hockey generals, how to balance study and playing ball is a problem everyone will face.
Xing Yan said that the Beijing Ice Hockey Association will use the summer vacation to openly select small players for the society every year and set up echelon. The team training is also mainly arranged on holidays, “The construction of Echelon can bring direction to the children playing ball to some extent.”
Liu Sa’s father believes that to provide playing opportunities and environment for children who like ice hockey, they need the support of the school and the joint assistance of the Association and the society. “Beijing is promoting ice and snow sports into the campus. Many schools already have ice hockey teams, which has changed a lot compared with the previous few years.” He believes that although there is still something to be improved, Beijing already has a league and a good atmosphere. “children playing basketball in Beijing are still happy. If children like it, we will continue to support him in playing.”
Ji Fang