Bridges. Better than the best.
The International Bridges Conference, organized by the Czech Coaching Academy of the Czech Olympic Committee, is intended primarily for coaches. The last one so far took place on 12 December 2024 at the Columna Congress Centre in Prague and had a stellar cast. Tomáš Pacina, Jiří Welsch or Karel Poborský are certainly tempting celebrities representing the big sports, i.e. hockey, basketball and football. Their performances were interesting, spiced up with their own stories from the top sports environment, where business is often the defining element. The theme of the conference "Better than the best" determined the topics that the guests addressed. Moderator Jiří Nikodým, incidentally a formerly active curling player, was careful to keep to the timetable and the individual panels, separated by short breaks, were not only engaging but also proportionately long. The traditional short summaries at the end of the individual points of the programme helped to highlight the most important things that were said. Topics such as personal resilience, competitiveness, discipline, self-confidence, but also the character of athletes and working with athletes' strengths and weaknesses resonated through all the presentations and their emphasis led to many interesting questions. The insight into modern technologies (AI, VR), their application to the sports environment and also the inspiring presentation of overseas experiences with systemic work with youth did not remain aside. The main organizers Zdeněk Haník and Michal Ježdík did, as always, a great job and thanks to them for creating a functional discussion platform for coaches and trainers. Smaller sports, such as curling, tend to listen and be inspired. Their voice could be heard at a future conference, not just for refreshment.
photo: Jiří Welsch