Little Holiday on Ice or how Jochen Schweizer changed my life

Without a doubt, he was totally thrilled with this extraordinary gift. I couldn’t deny my nervousness and I was really looking forward to February 10 at 7 pm when I had to perform at the well-known and traditional Olympia Eishalle in Munich.

Beforehand, I urgently needed to brush up on my skating skills while practicing with the Medientigers, a club founded and designed specifically for interested athletes over the age of 40 in Freising, the famous cathedral city north of Munich.

I was lucky enough to join this club for about 3 years to improve my deficits in terms of back skating. We would meet regularly every Thursday night for 2 hours on our artificial ice rink, where we received valuable instructions from a passionate 70-year-old man.

I must not neglect the fact that I was able to enjoy a psychological advantage: since I took advantage of a summer ticket that allowed me to glide on the skating rink in Munich in a very glamorous way.

The next few weeks I could not help preparing enough for this overwhelming event, in particular by clarifying all the essential organizational requirements.

The fundamental assumptions were the following:

Minimum age 16 years

No sanitary restrictions of any kind.

Basic ability to move.

Own skate shoes, ski socks and functional underwear.

Fortunately, I was able to use my full equipment, including the stick, which I proudly took with me on this spectacular night.

The achievements provided are listed as:

Vocational training including the full range of learning units

Professional trainer dealing with applicants.

Penalty competition against goalkeeper

Cap symbolizing the Munich club

Ticket to the next home game

Now the time has come to leave for that unique event;

I was accompanied by my wife and my eldest son, Tobías; I had already proven to be a passionate supporter of my beloved club, the Straubing Tigers, who proved to be a tough opponent for EHC Muenchen throughout the season.

The video camera definitely guaranteed exciting and lasting memories.

Apart from me, there were 3 other gifted guys with almost the same ice skating knowledge and experience. In fact, Moritz had already enjoyed the opportunity to join a so-called VIP training with the professional team from Munich.

Mentally, I felt safe and good; he was certainly ready for the game. Mainly our two professional coaches Mr. Christian Winkler and Mr. Martin Hinterstocker, known for winning the bronze medal in the 1976 Olympics, picked us up in front of the players’ entrance. Both trainers seemed very relaxed and seemed forward to looking after us. They had provided us with a separate locker room, however, we could even see some greetings from the professional players, who slowly finished their training early and passed our locker.

Those magical moments further incited our enthusiasm for the upcoming training session. However, getting dressed turned out to be hard work as always trying to proceed as pragmatically as possible.

Before we luckily ended up wearing a special jersey given to us for this event, Pat Cortina, the head coach of EHC Munich stopped by and wished us all the best. This was the point in the I: it was just fantastic.

Eventually, he was ready to walk down the hall of fame to the track. I was already wondering what kind of special units and tasks would await us during this training.

Outside, my wife and son were waiting for me near the entry gates to the icy area to arrange the first historical photos for our family journal.

In fact, there was room for a personal walk; I couldn’t deny that I loved this form of self-introduction shortly before the big easy.

Walking around a table with sophisticated-looking technical equipment, it caught my eye; I never thought that players’ heart rates would be professionally assessed during training. Those devices really impressed me.

Suddenly, I spotted Kevin Lavallee performing for the Straubing Tigers; we had a brief animated discussion about the measurements and his previous time in my hometown before he headed to the cabin.

Now the excitement could literally be felt – just a few minutes into the icy area, what a feeling!

To be safe, I chose full face protection due to my nearsightedness.

At first we were offered a briefing on the general procedure and attitude required on the ice. In this way we obtained the necessary security regarding the following units, which were always adequately commented and improved.

Aside from these brief welcome interruptions, we had to perform intensely throughout the night; sweat and tears made of luck were the logical outcome. Rather, we were provided with enough water bottles to balance out the birth family.

The longest main task was to warm up with all the players from the Munich youth team; the first rounds without a puck and then including the decisive material, which had to be carried close to the post and then scored on the empty goal. The basic rule was not to skate behind the goal; Initially, I did not adhere to it and got proper advice from the trainers.

One of the trainers, Mr. Martin Hinterstocker, was so experienced that he was amazing. He even praised me for representing a specific unit.

After the usual warm-up session, the coaches indicated the next activities, which should consist of different specific tactical units. These tasks turned out to be quite difficult, as Jochen Schweizer’s group had to participate properly.

In the end, I’m sure we did a great job, particularly since the coaches recognized our performance from time to time.

Last but not least, the game plan had to be implemented accordingly in a real 4v4 game. During this rather intense game, we had a lot of turns on the ice. I almost wrote down what would have been properly recognized. One of my colleagues actually managed to shoot a goal. He felt like a true champion.

Unfortunately, time flies when you’re having fun; at 9 pm sharp, training was over, even though penalty shootout was supposed to be on the schedule according to the voucher. Due to time constraints this could not be done. However, we had a great time and were happy to move our tired bodies into the locker room to get naked again.

We said goodbye to the nice coaching staff and were finally rewarded with the promised cap and the well-deserved ticket for the next derby against the traditional rival from Riessersee.

This exciting game turned into a dramatic game that ended in a 5:4 victory for Munich after the penalty kick. It was an amazing game that I happily enjoyed with two colleagues.

I was now able to perceive an ice hockey game from a different perspective since I recently practiced on the same ice a week ago. Above all, I was able to critically analyze the professional goalkeeper, whom I met then. Also, I closely watched Kevin Lavalle with his number 71 who played very well.

I felt like I was in the clouds when I went home that night. At the same time, I was wondering if and when I could participate in an event with the VIP players from EHC Munich.

I seriously planned to realize this dream, but after surfing the net I realized that Jochen Schweizer surprisingly no longer offers this training. Perhaps this was due to the likelihood of being injured too easily, although the trainers assured us that these special events have always been carried out with care.

However, I felt proud that I had bravely mastered this extraordinary situation.