The numbers behind
The numbers behind
1.7 million registered players worldwide
23.09.2016
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Women’s hockey is among the winners of the survey. There are four per cent more female hockey players than one year ago and the number is growing almost everywhere. The absolute numbers, however, diverge more than in men’s hockey. Canada (87,500) and the United States (73,076) are again leader while the rest of the world together has less than half of their numbers. Finland (5,950), Sweden (5,014), the Czech Republic (2,714), Japan (2,586), Germany (2,416), France (2,206), Russia (1,964) and Switzerland (1,230) complete the top-10.
Not only the size of the hockey communities in the countries are a reason but also different rates of female participation. In Canada 13.7 per cent of the players are female and in the United States 13.5%. In most top hockey countries in Northern and Western Europe, the numbers are between five and ten per cent while in Eastern Europe the numbers tend to be lower such as 1.9 per cent in Russia or 1.5 per cent in Latvia.
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According to IIHF's 2016 statistics, only 13.7% of Canadian hockey players are female.
Not only is there are a huge difference in physical dimensions -- 5'8'' is the average height of this year's Team Canada women's team --, but the talent pool in women's hockey is
significantly smaller than that of the male game. I think there is a major disparity in the quality of coaching as well. The way that they play is extremely one-dimensional -- everything seems very tunnel-visioned, and the decision-making of these players is suspect relative to even major junior hockey.
It's clear that the average size of female hockey players will never match the size of male hockey players. The most obvious deficiency, however, is the lack of soundness in their fundamental decision-making on the ice. A certain degree of soundness can be coached into a player. This is evident in the men's game. What separates elite players in the world from mediocre players is intuition -- not every male player has elite intuition, otherwise known as hockey IQ. As players graduate to the next level of hockey, only the players with the greatest amount of skill and hockey IQ from the previous level are taken. The problem here is that not enough women play for there to be a sufficient number of players with enough talent or hockey IQ to really exceed midget-level hockey. Hayley Wickenheiser is a rarity in the women's game when players of her caliber really should be more common. Blame low participation levels. However, even Wickenheiser -- 5'9'' in stature -- would have benefited immensely from a stronger development system.
When players in women's hockey currently skate with the puck, they tend to take way too much time to decide what they want to do, and it often burns them. It goes hand-in-hand with a lack of confidence in making crisp tape-to-tape passes. The number of turnovers in a game is so much higher in the women's game than in the men's. Coaching can fix this. Fundamentals and details can be taught to a large degree. Evidently, even the coaches were asleep today, as they should have been yelling at #14 to keep her eye on Team USA's #7 on the tying play in the third. There is very little attention to detail.
The women's game is so far behind the men's game in terms of having players
think the game well, and it's due to a combination of the insufficient development system (relative to men's hockey) and a lack of participation in the sport to broaden the talent pool.
This applies to all countries that represent women's hockey.
Canada has 17.45 times as many female hockey players as Sweden does. This is reflected in their on-ice performances at international events. Relative to the entire women's field, Canada is so much more advanced. Relative to men's hockey, though, Canadian women's hockey is practically in its infancy -- the greatest gain can be made by developing smarter players and teaching faster, more precise puck movement.