Ukraine Hockey Federation will be hoping that their development efforts unearth another brilliant talent like Tetyana Kobzenko, a multiple nominee for the world player of the year award. Inset, young hopefuls from Vinnitsa

Youthful revolution in Ukraine 

By Gabrielle van Doorn, FIH Development Manager 

From 1999 until 2003, the Ukrainian Hockey Federation received special development assistance from the International Hockey Federation (FIH) and European Hockey Federation (EHF), and financial support from FIH’s private sponsor, Coen Teulings. With Ukraine’s women’s team ranked in the world top 14 and in the top five in Europe, and with their strong hockey history (as part of the USSR), they were seen to have “high potential” in Europe. 

Five years down the road FIH’s Development Manager Gabrielle van Doorn and CDO for Europe Norman Hughes visited Ukraine to check the progress that has been made and the UHF’s future plans.

Over the years, development assistance has been given in the areas of national and regional development planning, youth programmes, facilities and equipment, and coaching and umpiring. The results have been quite spectacular, because the number of members has increased 250% from 700 in 1997 to 1800 in 2004. 

This is especially seen in the youth section where there has been significant growth, with 400 Under 21 players in 1997 to 1400 in 2004. During this time, the number of districts where hockey is played has expanded from 11 to 15 and the number of registered coaches grown from 33 to 48 with UHF employing two part time hockey development officers responsible for all youth events. 

These results have been registered despite the economic, demographic and climatic challenges that Ukraine faces. In a country as big as Ukraine, it’s not easy to organise hockey activities on a regular basis. 

With an average income of 200 Euro per month (and a high cost of living) you can imagine that there are priorities other than hockey. People need to work hard to get bread on the table and have not much time for voluntary work in hockey. The climate is harsh and with the fields being snowed under for six months of the year, it’s not easy to keep up with the rest of the hockey world. But, “not easy” doesn’t mean impossible and the UHF is proving that despite challenges, a hockey nation can go far if it has good (long term) plans and an endless drive and passion for hockey! 

Focus on Youth
Since hockey’s International Year of the Youth in 2001, in which the Ukraine played an active role, UHF has placed a strong focus on youth – especially on Mini Hockey. In the past, the age of 13 was the entry level age to start playing hockey, but from 2004 onwards young children from the age of 7 have been given the opportunity to pick up a stick and play. 

However don’t think it’s as easy as bringing kids together to play. In Ukraine, things happen a bit differently. In order to work with this new target group, UHF had to make an official program which had to be approved by the government. 

When approval came, the next obstacle had to be overcome: equipment. Parents can’t afford sticks for their children and in Ukraine, there are no sports shops available selling hockey equipment, so the mini hockey sticks and balls had to be subsidised and obtained from a foreign country. The UHF used part of its FIH grant for equipment and this year another 300 young players were able to play.

Youth Coaching
Since Ukrainian hockey coaches had never dealt with players younger than 13, UHF invited a foreign mini hockey specialist in 2003 and 2004 to train the coaches in the special teaching methods for this age group. These types of seminars will be repeated on a bi-annual basis. 

On top of these, UHF organises coach’s meetings during competitions and tournaments, where the tournament coaches share their experiences on techniques and game tactics with youth coaches. 

To stimulate coaches to work with youth, UHF has started to hand out an award, which this year went to Viktoriya Matvienko (girls coach from the Sumy region) and Sergiy Panasenko (boys coach from the Dnipropetrovsk region). They both received 12 balls, a scarce product in the Ukraine!

For many hockey nations, including Ukraine, it’s not easy to keep up with the modern game, which develops so rapidly and is more and more directed by technology - technology which is neither available nor affordable in countries like theirs. 

To compensate for the lack of information, UHF translated Dutch coaching materials into Russian (which the other former USSR countries could also profit from). A special working group was established to draft a new youth program of 136 pages, which will be implemented in the various sports schools all over the country. A hockey coaching program for education in the institutes and universities will be completed in 2007/2008. 

Besides this, UHF has profited from FIH recommendations for implementing a national coaches education and accreditation systems, which is in its final stages of development. By setting up its own national hockey accreditation system, the current PE coaches who are managing hockey teams will get the opportunity to receive more hockey-specific training.

Youth competitions
As mentioned above, Ukraine is a vast country and the infrastructure doesn’t invite people to travel long distances on a regular basis. Focus therefore needs to be put on regional activities, with youth players playing provincial tournaments and leagues. 

For the first part of the season (up to June), Under 12 and Under 10 teams play a regional competition and this year, an Under 8 competition was also established. The best teams represent their region in a national tournament, when teams from neigbouring countries like Poland, Russia, Belarus, Lithuania, Azerbaijan, Bulgaria and Slovenia are invited to attend.

Some youth competitions are mixed, to promote boys hockey in typical women’s areas (like Sumy) and girls hockey in former men’s centres (like Vinnitsa). 

To give their youth an early opportunity to measure their strengths with the rest of Europe, UHF sent its Under 18 and Under 16 teams to EHF tournaments and will continue to do so in the future. 

Give youth a voice
UHF doesn’t only organise activities for youth, it also tries to give youth a voice by involving them in their hockey leadership. This year UHF plans to arrange a seminar for young coaches in September in the new hockey accommodation in Vinnitsa, during the Men’s European Challenge. 

The two young national umpires (a 15-year-old girl and 17-year-old boy) need to serve as ambassadors for the promotion of umpiring amongst youth and UHF plans to organise seminars for these young umpires. 

Looking back
We asked UHF’s Secretary General Viktoriya Us, who also provided us with the information for this article, what the most striking difference is, if you compare hockey now in Ukraine with the situation six years ago. 

“We pay far more attention to the development of mini and youth hockey and we will definitely continue doing so, as without our young generation we have no future,” he said.