News

On the 18th of December Mikhail Vasilyev trained the 2005-birth-year-team of Ak Bars Specialized Sports School of Olympic Reserve for Children and Youth on the rink of Ak Bars Hockey Club.

Mikhail Vasilyev is the Olympic Champion, the World Champion, the European Champion, Ex-Coach of Russian Junior Team and Youth Team of CSKA "Red Army".

Mikhail Aleksandrovich is going to train not only target teams of Ak Bars Specialized Sports School of Olympic Reserve for Children and Youth, but the hockey players of Dinamo Sports School for Children and Youth and Neftyanik Sports School for Children and Youth (city of Almetyevsk) as well.

Mikhail Vasilyev:

– This is the second time when I train these children and I see that they have already improved their skills. I mean skills rather than efforts or anything else, because at this stage we are entitled to require the players to perform well. It's heartening to see that the coaches consider modern demands of ice hockey.

– Please share your impressions of todays training?

– Our exercises appear easy to onlookers. But they require attention. Technical execution of elements is quite hard. I asked the children right away: "It is easy to give and go. Do the following: take a pass, settle the puck and send an abrupt pass". It is a hard task, but children have coped with it. At first, they one-touched, and then they played better.

It is important that the players enjoy the game, do not run mindlessly, do not dump in and then get nose dirty. This is a philosophy of ice hockey – to play with the puck. Everyone asks me: what is the main thing in NHL? First of all, to handle the puck: to play and to deal with it properly. If the hockey player knows how to do it, we will teach him how to run...