There are new opportunities for the development of ice hockey players in Vilnius - a special training center for ice hockey players is being completed in the capital, which will not only help improve their skills on the ice, but will also have technical innovations never seen anywhere else.
UAB Sporto Komanda, which is installing the ice hockey center, has already opened its doors to the first visitors. Representatives of the Swiss company "Innovational AG Glise" in Lithuania have already installed running ice and electronic ice simulators - "skatemill" manufactured by the Czech company "International CZ". It is interesting that the software for these simulators is manufactured by a company based in Lithuania, which, according to its representatives, is already installed in approximately 80% of hockey centers, and finally Ozo str. The 20-seat ice hockey training center is expected to be completed in June.
The center has an artificial ice surface and the simulators in it meet all the highest standards and are in no way inferior to the facilities used for training in the strongest hockey leagues on the planet. They can be found both in the bases of KHL league clubs and in other hockey superpowers - Canada, JAV, in the Czech Republic or Scandinavia. This is the first such training hall in Lithuania, and two more are planned to be installed in the projected Kaunas ice arena.
Already now, visitors can perform running, puck handling or throwing exercises, and with the help of installed video cameras, a special program processes the performed exercise and provides its analysis. With its help, you can not only track your results and monitor improvement, but also get help with technical issues: mistakes made or imprecise movements are recorded.
"When receiving the puck, hockey players always have to move and their legs have to work, but with us, sometimes kids "turn off" their legs and they stop. You can't stop when receiving a pass on this track and your legs always have to work: you have to "work" the puck while running and make a shot, because you can't stop on this trainer. When there are many children on the ice, it is not always possible for the coaches to control it, but there is no other way out here - either you run on artificial ice, or you have to turn off the simulator.
There are also various exercises to improve puck control. During them, you have to constantly follow the monitors on the sides, so you can't lower your head and look at the puck. Soon, a projector will be installed on the goal, which will show the athlete the place where he needs to throw, and later the program will provide analyzes and show how accurately the throws at the goal are performed", - the representatives of the training center singled out some of the training exercises.
However, representatives of the center do not promise to stop: in cooperation with KTU University, they aim to expand the number of possible exercises as much as possible by developing software for exercise machines and constantly promise to provide updates to their visitors. Also, other devices that will expand the number of exercises are still being installed, which visitors will be able to try in the near future.
"We are constantly working on the software to provide as many new programs and exercises as possible. We follow how these simulators are used in other countries and we have already prepared programs that our neighboring Latvians or representatives of the Czech Republic do not have. We have plans to expand this field even more in the future, and we have not seen analogues like the ones we are planning in the world."
Both professionals and the youngest ice hockey players have already been given the opportunity to improve in the training center. This center has already been tested by the representatives of the Geležinio Vilkos ice hockey school, and their coaches very positively evaluated the opportunity to review the training record and provide comments to their students. Dainius Zubrus, president of the association "Hockey Lietuva", visited the newly established center, who was happy that a center with these simulators has appeared in our country, which will provide even more opportunities for Lithuanian ice hockey players to improve their skills.
