Coaching Academy

I have been working in hockey as a coach for more than twenty years. During that time, I have had the opportunity to build and lead a number of projects – Hockey Talent Academy, Rytíři z Telče, I have worked as a club head coach and methodology specialist in various clubs, including a major international club, and I created the WTT, T4HL and other projects. I have been involved in player development every day for the full twenty years. Finding and educating coaches has also long been part of my work. I look for them, convince them, teach them, give them space and experience. Today, many coaches in our projects have grown precisely from graduates of our player academy.

We do not teach coaches only to know, but also to find the way, understand and know how.

It is difficult work, however. There are painfully few high-quality coaches in hockey. And even fewer who not only know the theory, but can truly work with a player, see their needs and help them move forward. When I started, there was very little information available. I had to find my own way, observe, experiment, make mistakes, look for connections and gradually build my own system. Today we have the experience, the environment and the results. And the time has come to pass them on.

From skills coach to player development specialist

Originally, the academy was intended to focus primarily on skills coaches. At HTA, we have long worked on skating, movement, efficient technique, speed and individual skills, and these were the experiences we wanted to pass on. Gradually, however, we realised that we needed something bigger.

A player is not merely an individual developing only skills and conditioning. There is much more that has to fit together. A player's development includes those skills, conditioning, physical development, psychology, recovery and nutrition, but it is also influenced by the surrounding environment – family, club, physiotherapist, mental coach, agent, massage therapist, teacher, doctor, simply the people who work with the player. And it is often the way these elements are connected and coordinated that determines how the player will develop.

That is why we ultimately chose the professional focus Player Development Specialist. A coach with a broad perspective who can understand the player in context, identify their potential, plan their development and coordinate the individual parts of their journey. Not merely telling a player what to do, but above all understanding why they should do it.

Practice is the foundation

We believe that a coach does not become a coach through study alone. Above all, a coach is shaped by experience. That is why the academy is not built on memorising information, but on understanding it and applying it in practice.

Students will work with players both on and off the ice. They will observe, analyse, plan, coach, test and evaluate. They will become familiar with our methodologies and programmes, but most importantly they will learn to think about each individual player and their needs.

We want graduates not only to know what to do at the end of the programme, but to actually be able to do it. To transfer the knowledge and experience they gain into their own practice – in a training group, club, academy or anywhere else.

We teach what we live

HTA is not a theoretical classroom created solely for the purposes of the academy. It is a living environment where we work every day with players, coaches and parents. We have long focused on skating, movement, efficient technique, speed, skills, conditioning, testing and the player's overall development, including mental and personal development.

Our methodologies were not created on paper. They were developed in practice, on the ice, tested, adjusted and verified again. This is exactly the experience we want to pass on to our students.

One result of our long-term work is, for example, Martin Nečas, a graduate of our academy and repeatedly one of the fastest skaters in the NHL. For us, this is not a reason to claim that there is only one right path. Above all, it is confirmation that systematic work makes sense.

Who is the academy for?

The HTA Coaching Academy is intended for beginning coaches, young skills coaches, former players and youth coaches, as well as experienced coaches from top-level competitions who want to broaden their perspective on player development.

Age and the number of years spent in hockey are not decisive for us. What matters is the approach – the willingness to learn, think, try new things and keep moving forward.

There is plenty of criticism everywhere today. Anyone can criticise. We do not want to be just another voice in that line; instead, we want to show our path, philosophy, training methods and overall approach, and in doing so help move the hockey environment forward.

We did not create our projects to tell others how they should do hockey. We created them to show what we believe works. We bring the same philosophy to the coaching academy.

If we want better players, we must create better conditions for their development. And one of the most important conditions is a high-quality coach. A coach who is not merely an authority figure or an executor of a methodology, but a person who stands on the player's side and helps them find their own maximum potential.

That is why the HTA Coaching Academy in Telč was created.

Perhaps I should have created it earlier. But some things require a person to mature first.

Now the time has come.