EINDHOVEN, Netherlands – On 18th November 2010, the new Ice Hockey Field Lab and its new High Tech Center officially opened at the Eindhoven Ice Sport Center in the Netherlands. Recently 11 high definition cameras were installed in the Ice Sport Center and the Dutch are now able to view, record games, practices, and use the material to further analyze all movements in detail and conduct university research with their athletes. This will greatly benefit the further development of ice hockey talent in the Netherlands.

The creation of the new Ice Hockey Field Lab is the joint result of the two Dutch national coaches, Tommie Hartogs and Robb Serviss. Hartogs a former national team captain and player in Germany with Krefeld, Duisburg, Kassel and Mannheim, was born and raised in Eindhoven and has been the Netherlands’ national team coach the last five years. Serviss is a former CIS/OHL graduate from Canada and a long time part-time Dutch U20 national team coach and college professor. The Ice Hockey Association of The Netherlands united the two last season with the start of this new CTO Junior Olympic Development program.

Talent development in Eindhoven has been shaped according to the model of USA Hockey’ National Team Development Program (NTDP) in Ann Arbor, Michigan, as the new fulltime Junior Olympic Development program plays under the name Eindhoven High Techs in the Dutch first division with the majority of selected players coming from the national U18 and U16 teams. Guest speakers at the opening ceremony were former NTDP player and U18 world champion Jason Lawrence, who currently plays for the club team in Eindhoven, and former Detroit Red Wing Alumni Jerry Serviss. “A picture is worth a 1000 words” was the slogan of his presentation.

The camera and video applications in the Eindhoven Ice Sport Center were generously donated and supported by the XRC Services Group and their partner The Xserius Group. Both were amongst the first dedicated sponsors when ice hockey was re-established at a professional level three years ago. XRC and Xserius are working together with the new CTO to promote ice hockey and to work jointly on the further development of ice hockey talent in the Netherlands.

The CTO Eindhoven is one of four Centers for Excellence in the Netherlands initiated by the Dutch Olympic Committee and the Dutch Sports Federation. This is a location where young elite athletes can practice, live and study in one sole location without having to worry about travel and other “down time”. The Ice Hockey Association of The Netherlands decided to participate in this project as well and since September 2009 young Dutch ice hockey talents practice, play, live and study in Eindhoven with one ambition missing: to participate in the 2018 Winter Olympic Games.

These young talents, supported and mentored by national coaches Tommie Hartogs and Robb Serviss, practice twice a day and follow a professional off-ice program that includes a strength and conditioning coach, sport psychologist, nutritionist, life skills coach, a goalie coach and sport physiologist. “The foundation has been laid to create better ice hockey players in this country. It’s our job as coaches now to show our players what they need to do to play at the highest level”, said Hartogs.

With files from the Ice Hockey Association of The Netherlands