Transferring knowledge

For the last 10 days one of our key players and leaders of Estonian national team, Olle Sildre, has been spending his time at Kouvola Finland. Coach Lehkonen invited Sildre to Kouvola to practice with his team KooKoo at Finnish Mestis pro league with main goal to teach Olle the methods that Ika is using with his team both on and off the ice. With this knowledge Sildre can now go back to Estonia and pass the info to his teammates and use the drills and techniques himself as the national team players work out together with Sildre on their own between the national team gathering / events.

Sildre will also translate the dryland programs used by Ika for his Estonian team mates to follow.

Due to injuries and bad flu wave at KooKoo Sildre also got an opportunity to sign a 3 game contract. Ika knew what to expect, but a lot of other people were skeptic about 36-year olds capability to still play at this level. In 3 games against to top teams of the league Sildre proved that he can still play at very high level and be a leader at the locker room. In the 2 games against D-team and 1 game against Vantaa Sildre did keep up with the pace of the game and also collected 2 assist and served 1 minor penalty. According to Lehkonen it is very much a possibility that Sildre could still don KooKoo’s jersey this season if team phases another injury wave.

Overall this was a very good experience and encouragement for the Estonian national team program and all Estonian players. It shows that with hard work talented Estonian players can take the next step and elevate their game. Key is how ever to become a serious professional athlete and live & workout as that status requires. Sildre has always stayed in good shape, but this season his training has been raised to a different level in intensity since late August when Estonian national team new coaches started the project and showed the players what it means to be serious and professional athlete. During those 3 games at KooKoo Sildre demonstrated what 3 months of serious work can do to elevate the game. If all Estonian players keep on working like Sildre and follow coaches instructions they can expect very good results at the end of their project in April when Div-II world championships are being played at Tallinn, Estonia.