First edition: Last week, the first ever "IIHF Women's Goaltending Development Camp" took place in Granada, Spain. For five days, 48 girls from 18 countries were instructed, motivated and pushed on and off the ice by a total of 16 coaches. The goalkeepers, who were divided into four groups according to age (U18 and seniors), had a mentor for each team: Florence Schelling (Switzerland), Zuzana Tomcikova (Slovakia), Brianne McLaughlin (USA) or Versa Vita (Finland).
In addition to warm-ups and cool-downs, as well as two ice sessions and athletics sessions per day, video meetings and lessons on topics such as nutrition, anti-doping and sporting goods were also on the agenda. Joe Johnston from Hockey Canada was particularly responsible for the organization and implementation on site. He received great praise from the participants for his commitment on and off the ice. "Joe did a really great job, he took a lot of time for the goalkeepers, whether on the ice in technical matters or afterwards with video clips of his own training," said 19-year-old Sandra Abstreiter, who was one of three Germans allowed to take part. "But the other coaches, trainers and mentors were great too. It is of course particularly cool when an Olympian stands in front of you on the ice and explains what you should best do in certain situations." In addition to her, the Germans Frederike Trosdorff and Lilly Uhrmann also took part in the camp in Spain.
Although there wasn't much time for a varied supporting program alongside the training sessions, the IIHF organized a bus tour through Granada's old town after the official opening on the first day, so that the atmosphere was relaxed and easy-going from the start despite the intensive sessions. Overall, the conclusion after the five days in Spain from the perspective of the German participants is very positive: "We really took a lot away from our time here and it was a great experience to be able to take part," said Abstreiter, who was born in Erding.
Women's national coach Benjamin Hinterstocker also sees the newly launched format of the goalkeeper school as positive: “It's great that the IIHF was able to implement the successful concept of the IIHF development camps and now also launch a goalkeeper camp call. It also shows the importance and energy that the IIHF invests in women’s ice hockey.”