Legitimate ambitions of Czech curling? Only after changes.
When 16 years ago we brought back the A group of the European Women's Curling Championships, which we first won and then successfully maintained for two years, with the fact that we once played an unsuccessful challenge for participation in the World Championships, it was a great success for Czech curling. Back then it was Šafránková, Rubášová, Netušilová, Petráková, Synáčková, Danielisová. We could play with the best teams in Europe and gain experience and inspiration. Subsequently, the Brno phenomenon appeared in the men's category and even managed to achieve a bronze medal from the European Championships. But other, previously insignificant curling countries started to make their mark alongside us. The Spanish, Austrians, Slovaks and next year the Poles will play the European A Cup. In women's curling, Latvians, Hungarians, Turks and Estonians have already participated for the first time. In order not to be stuck in the European B's and to be good in both categories, we need to change a few things, and fundamentally. First, we need to focus on the junior category. Find educated, capable and hardworking coaches for our young players and get back on the world stage. To the position we had in 2012 (silver at the World Junior Championships). To change the approach to supporting quality Czech teams in the sense that every team drawing on the federation's support will have a coach who will meet the required parameters and ensure the performance growth of the players being coached. The setting of performance targets and their objective monitoring by the federation management in cooperation with the CSC Coaching and Methodology Committee must be an organic part of the system, as well as a special regime for Czech adult national teams (A and B only) with a focus on contact with foreign countries. There is certainly more that needs to be adjusted, but something has to be started, otherwise Czech curling is in danger of the dynamics of its development falling slightly behind the level of development in other countries. For example, in Poland or Turkey.