Education, maintaining contact with parents and clubs, goalkeeper and athletic training: all of these are tasks, in addition to the classic requirements of everyday coaching, that should be part of player training today. In the 17th edition of DEB-Podcasts “Coach the Coach” Karl Schwarzenbrunner welcomes the Young Talent Coordinator Düsseldorfer EG, Anja Strohmenger, and the U13 coach of the Iserlohn Young Roosters, Collin Danielsmeier. Strohmenger has been pursuing her profession for 20 years now and brings a lot of experience to the young talent teams U7 to U15. Last season she was named Young Talent Trainer of the Year. Former professional Collin Danielsmeier also has the necessary know-how that he needs as a young talent and technology trainer. With the Kölner Haien he became German champion in the DEL in 2002 and played a total of eleven times for the German national team. Danielsmeier has been in charge of the “technical trainer” training branch for several years now and calls it his “hobby horse”.
The question of the biggest changes in young talent training in recent years runs like a common thread through the current episode and always takes up interesting topics: “Are you more of a trainer or more of a teacher?” and “Will you purely authoritarian trainer type will die out?”. The problems that coaches of smaller clubs face are also discussed.
Danielsmeier describes the mindset of trainers and parents as one of the biggest changes in young talent training. “We are trying to provide training that is much more player-oriented,” he says. “It’s not about winning the next game with the team, but about training players in the long term and keeping them in ice hockey.” In addition, Strohmenger is constantly increasing this growing exchange between trainers and trainers.
Strohmenger also believes that a balancing act between the role of educator and coach is necessary, as you want to instill certain things in your players, such as discipline and persistence, but you also have to take action in many situations. Both see the fact that many young people in the corresponding age groups are going through puberty as an important part of dealing with one another. Danielsmeier also emphasizes the important point that not every player makes the leap to professional status.
“Parents always only want the best for their children and that sometimes creates difficulties,” says Danielsmeier. He therefore sees dealing with the players' parents as extremely important; after all, they are the ones who give the children access to ice hockey. “We try to get the parents to understand what we as coaches do and why we act the way we do.” The two also appeal to parents that you have to have a certain understanding of the actions of the coaches, be it in training or in life Game.
Difficulties that arise in young talent work are often not immediately apparent from the outside. For example, it is stated that not all clubs can afford a goalkeeper coach, which makes goalkeeper training more difficult, especially in the lower age groups. Danielsmeier even describes the goalkeeper position as a sport in its own right. “In coaching training, coaches are given more guidance in the area of athletics than in the subject of goalkeepers. “You could consider training trainers more in this regard,” he says.
At smaller clubs, problems are often even more fundamental. Shortages of ice time or the lack of full-time trainers often cause hardship. Strohmenger suggests: “You could help these small clubs if we – the larger clubs – show how we approach things and look at how the other side works. This would allow us to find a consensus and make the most of the opportunities available.” Ultimately, the goal of Ice Hockey Germany is to train and promote young talented players. At the same time, the optimum must be achieved at each location with the best possible mutual support.
When looking into the future of young talent ice hockey, Danielsmeier hopes for ever-developing coaching training and even better cooperation between coaches so that even more young players can become even better. Strohmenger relies on past developments and names players like Moritz and Florian Elias, Alexander Blank and Tim Stützle, all of whom are a product of the rethinking in German ice hockey a few years ago.
Here Go to the podcast episode with Anja Strohmenger and Collin Danielsmeier.