Dream on ice

There have been many foreign athletes here, but they don’t come much more successful than Czech-born ice hockey star Patrick Martinec.

Now 40, Martinec has established himself over the course of five seasons as one of the all-time best ice hockey players in Korea. His name will not be familiar to many, but the former Czech national player is a superstar among hockey fans here.

Unfortunately, I’ve never been a hockey fan. So while waiting for Martinec at his club Anyang Halla’s ice rink, some 25 kilometers south of Seoul, I am nervous, trying to think of questions to ask. But it doesn’t take long before I realize that I know next to nothing about hockey. I recall one famous hockey player, Wayne Gretzky, but that is about all I can think of.

It’s 3 p.m. on Jan. 6. Five minutes after I start feeling terrible about myself, still wondering whether Gretzky is Canadian or American, the hockey team’s public relations manager appears and takes me back to the coach’s room, where I find Martinec.

He is much shorter than I had imagined and rather slim. In a dark blue windbreaker, training pants with a bushy beard and uncombed hair, he has a just-rolled-out-of bed appearance. He looks pretty relaxed.

“Our team practice starts at 7 p.m.,” he says.

“Isn’t that pretty late?”

“This is a public rink. Here, public skating always comes first, and figure skating, then short-track speed skating. And ice hockey always comes last,” explains Martinec in English, with a strong European accent.

In contrast, in Czech or other European leagues, ice hockey is very popular, so most teams have their own rinks, he adds.

“In Europe, we practice in the morning from 10 a.m.”

He admits that the level of Korean ice hockey was far behind European leagues when he first arrived here.

Then why Korea?

“It was because of this guy,” he points to the wall covered with photos of former managers of Halla. There hangs a picture of Vejvoda Otakar, former Czech national coach, who managed the Korean side for the 2005-2008 seasons.

“One summer he called me and said ‘Hey, Patrick do you want to play in Korea,’ I couldn’t answer it. Because I had no idea of Korean hockey and Korea,” he recalls.

“But he said to me that they play with the Japanese team in the Asian League. I knew how the Japanese team play. They are good. So I thought it’s okay if Korea plays like Japan.”

But he was wrong. “First, I was a bit disappointed,” he admits as we move to the coffee table.

Six years ago, there was still a wide gap between the level of Korean and Japanese ice hockey leagues. The Asian League was established in 2003 with seven teams from Korea, Japan and China in order to make up for the declining popularity of both Korea and Japan ice hockey leagues. And Japanese sides were dominant at the seven-team league.

But the disappointment soon turned into a new motivation. “I wanted to win the Asian League title. That was my dream.”

And he succeeded.

He hit the 20-goal plateau in his debut season which led him to a multiple year contract with Halla. During the past five seasons, he notched up 70 goals with 203 assists to become the league’s all-time leading goal scorer. Moreover, he was one of the reasons why Halla won its first Asian League title last year.

After the season, having achieved his primary goal, he retired from professional hockey. His first thought was to head back to the Czech Republic. Instead, he took a coaching role with Halla.

The Czech national believes he can offer something different to the team. He speaks from experience.

“Korean players are very good skaters. They don’t need to learn how to skate. But their problem is they don’t know how to play with a puck. And not many Korean coaches know how to teach with it.”

But he has know-how and a great deal of experience in puck-handling drills. “I have played with it since when I was five. I know how to make the practice,” he claims.

He says he has nocommunication problems with his Korean players.

“We use hockey language. I have also this pen and board, so that is no problem,” then he gives me a big smile.

But there must be something, I insist. Then he makes two main points ― a lack of players and practice.

“In Czech if players are not happy with a coach they can leave the team, and the coach can take a new guy. But here you can’t really do that. And if the players don’t like my coaching style then it’s a big problem.”

Also because Halla uses the Anyang public ice rink their training hours are very limited, he says.

“We now practice 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. I need to have my players do more practice.”

But he brushes aside all of this talk with his typical smile. And he claims, being a coach in Korea is still greatly inspiring.

“Korea is so different from six years ago. Every year it’s a big step, their level is up and up,” he explains.

“I know the Korean national team because most of them are from Halla,” so he wants to see Korea become a top level team, like the Czech Republic or Russia.

“My first dream was to win the Asian Champion title. I made it come true last year. Now my second dream is the Korean national team.”

However, he claims that government support is urgently needed to raise the level of Korean ice hockey.

“They need to play more international games. They only play against Asian teams at the moment, but not against the Czechs, Sweden, Finland or Russia. They need to play more of these games.”

It’s clear during our conversation that Martinec likes Korea.

“I like people here, and Anyang is like my second home.” he says.

But he still can’t give a definite answer on how long he will be staying.

“My contract is one year. I don’t know if I can stay here next year. If they still need me, I’ll be here. But if they need another coach, then I’ll leave,” he says coolly.

As we walk out I ask him whether he would be happy if the Korean ice hockey team beat the Czech team one day. He doesn’t reply. Instead he gives me another big smile.

By Oh Kyu-wook (596story@heraldcorp.com)