A simulator can assist with shot accuracy and skating technique improved on a skating treadmill uphill, for instance. Ice hockey training is rendered more effective when the very latest technology is employed to boost skills.
Repetition, repetition, repetition That's how top-flight skills are perfected in many sports disciplines. At the end of 2009 Finland's first private training centre focusing on skills coaching for ice hockey was opened in Jyväskylä. At the Breakaway Hockey Centre state-of-the-art technology has been harnessed for the individual improvement of skills.
"We offer an opportunity for individual guided training, on which feedback is provided immediately. The amount of repetitions and feedback is bigger than in training sessions with a team," explains the company's Chief Operating Officer and Head Coach Marko Pykälä. Ice hockey players have the chance to improve their skating technique, puckhandling, passing and shooting using the fruits of the latest technology: a skating treadmill, a shot simulator and as far as is known Finland's largest area of synthetic ice. The ShootOut simulator is identical to the one in the Hockey Hall of Fame in Toronto.
"All training data relating to skating to skating and shooting are documented. To assist training we use videos, mirrors and the experienced eye of a professional coach," Pykälä continues.
Underpinning the business idea of the Breakaway Hockey Centre is the master's thesis written by the company's Chief Executive Officer and Coach Timo Salonen at the University of Jyväskylä. Salonen studied the influence of balance on skating speed.
"Very little scientific research has been done on skating. Learning the skill in this kind of environment is virgin territory relatively speaking. So we're confronted by questions of what learning is based on and how it can be boosted," states Salonen.
Salonen and Pykälä developed the business idea for almost two years and sought funding from various sources. Instead of franchise entrepreneurship they wanted to see how far their own wings would carry them.
"The plan is to get the concept working well in Jyväskylä, and then someone else could spread it on a franchise basis to other parts of Finland. We've had initial discussions about expanding operations to Russia as well," Pykälä reveals.
Salonen and Pykälä say they considered the potential for running a rehabilitation clinic. With the help of the Breakaway Hockey Centre's services the rehabilitation periods of professional athletes could be made more aggressive than before. Instead of an athlete having to go it alone rehabilitation could be conducted in groups.
The Breakaway Hockey Centre operates in partnership with the University of Jyväskylä. Salonen stresses that cooperation with the university makes the Breakaway Hockey Centre not just a training centre but also a centre for research.
"The idea is to find the company new products through research."
As knowledge and experience accrue the entrepreneurs behind the training centre believe it is possible to change ice hockey's whole training culture. In their view new-style individual training supported by leading-edge technology could in future be a part of normal team training, not simply an extension to it. 
words by tommi salo, photos by petteri kivimäki