Why are the Dutch skaters so successful?
The most obvious reason for the Dutch success is that in all parts of the country skating tracks are available. In this small country there are 20 artificial ice tracks across the country and in nearly every town and village is a natural ice track that will be open as soon as there is ice. These facilities make it possible for all parents to go with their children to such a place to introduce their children to this sport.
On the photo we see a father who went with his daughter to Flevonice, an artificial open air ice track of 3km, Many parents go with their children to such artifical ice skating track to give their childern an idea what skating is like. This can be the start of a lot of skating fun or even of a skating career.
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At all tracks courses are provided for kids to learn how to skate. Speed skating is a technical sport. It is not evident that you have to push to the side to go fast in a forward direction. Some people detect that immediately by themselves but others have to learn this. Therefore, each track has trainers and these trainers will detect children with special talent for this sport. They will be promoted to become a member of a speed skating club. Speed skating clubs are also at all artificial ice tracks.The kids that have talents for it will enjoy this movement and the speed and will go on with this sport.
In the video below, you can see that on a normal training night of such a speed skating club the participants reach already a speed of more than 45 km/hour. Skating in a group with such a speed gives a tremendous kick and creates new world champions.
In the video below, you can see that on a normal training night of such a speed skating club the participants reach already a speed of more than 45 km/hour. Skating in a group with such a speed gives a tremendous kick and creates new world champions.
The most talented skaters were and are asked to join commercial teams and spend most of their time on training for speed skating races. There are professional teams for long track speed skating and for marathon skating. This approach of professional speed skating has been a big success as the results in this century have shown. While several professional teams existed in The Netherlands we like to provide special attention to one trainer who was very successful in preparing skaters for the championships .
Jac Orie was in his youth a succesful speed skater, till his career was interrupted by different deseases.Then he switched to the study of human movement, a study which was possible at the Free University in Amsterdam.
He did not have the plan to become a trainer or coach of speed skaters. He was very interested in scientific research, but when he was asked as assistent trainer at the TVM skating team in 2000, he didn´t say no.. |
However his scientific background made him a different trainer than the other trainers. All trainers occasionally test their pupils occasionnally , Jac Orie did standard tests every 6 weeks . The tests concerned anaerobic and aerobic capacities and anaerobic and arobic potency and flexibility and force. These six characteristics had to be balanced in their own way for different skaters given their physical characteristics.The skaters had also to make a diary of their activities and how much they liked these activities. All this information was stored in his data base on his computer. There he could see on what points his pupils were making progress or failed. He analyzed the general trends and the specific characteristics for each skater.. On the basis of this information he made plans for the training of the different skaters. Many succesful speedskaters, male amd fremale have trained under his supervision up to this moment.
Few trainers have had so much succes during such a long time as Jac Orie. Without the sponsoring by several different sponsors this succes would not have been possible. Below is a video that shows how he was able to study the movements of the skaters in much more detail than is possible without the tools provided by one of his sponsors.
Few trainers have had so much succes during such a long time as Jac Orie. Without the sponsoring by several different sponsors this succes would not have been possible. Below is a video that shows how he was able to study the movements of the skaters in much more detail than is possible without the tools provided by one of his sponsors.