Studio Hockey

Talking Tokyo is our 6-part podcast series ahead of Tokyo 2020 by Studio Hockey. We take 1 player from each team and match him up with an opponent from the opening game at the Olympic Games. The Olympic Games will start on July 24th. That's why from now on every month on the 24th we'll publish a new episode for Talking Tokyo.



In our first episode we have met up with Adam Dixon from Great Britain and Austin Smith from South Africa talking about their road to Tokyo.



Adam Dixon, aged 33,  captains the GB squad. Originally from Beeston he also played a year at Rotterdam in the Dutch Hoofdklasse before returning to Beeston in England. He played 3 World Cups and Tokyo will be his 2nd Olympic Games.



Austin Smith is a defender, aged 34, who made his debut for South Africa when he was just 18. After a couple of years at Reading in England he now plays his club hockey for Den Bosch in the Dutch Hoofdklasse. He played 3 World Cups between 2010 and 2018 and Tokyo will be his 3rd Olympic Games.





Episode 1 was recorded at 2020-02-21 and published at 2020-02-24.
Host: Ernst Baart
Podcast: Talking Tokyo by Studio Hockey
Produced by: OSMpodcasts.com

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Colin Batch, coach of Australia & Shane McLeod, coach of Belgium are the guests in this podcast. The coaches of the current first and second team in the world ranking. The finalists of last years maiden edition of the FIH Pro League and the two biggest favourites for gold in Tokyo.



With the FIH Pro League, season 2, starting this weekend we thought it was nice to talk with these topcoaches about the FIH Pro League and obviously about the number one priority for all this year: Tokyo! Of course these two teams will also be each others first opponent in the new FIH Pro League when they meet twice in Sydney next week.



Shane McLeod had to rush back to his hotel after a training with the Red Lions, currently in Sydney, so he joins in a little bit later in the podcast after some 10 minutes or so.





Episode 35 was recorded on 2020-01-13 & published on 2020-01-17 by OSMpodcasts.com.
Host : Ernst Baart
Podcast: Studio Hockey

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Talking Tokyo is a podcast series by Studio Hockey. In the 12 weeks ahead of #Tokyo2020 we will talk to players from all participating countries.

So make sure you subscribe to Studio Hockey in your favourite podcast app so you won’t miss a thing!

Every episode is hosted by either Nikki Alexander Lloyd for the women or Ernst Baart for the men. Each episode will have 2 players from the opposing teams in the opening matches in Tokyo. Talking about their “Road to Tokyo” and their expectations for these Olympic Games.

Talking Tokyo…. a weekly podcast for 12 weeks, just before the start of the Games.

A year ago, in November 2018, the FIH had its global congress. An event where several important decisions regarding the future of our sport were communicated. Also more or less a year ago we spoke with the "new" CEO of the FIH Thierry Weil, before the global congress on some my worries for the future of our sport. Following the global congress a year ago we had a talk with Mike Joyce, director of development for the FIH about the Hockey2024 plan that was about to launch.
So today, more or less a year down the road, with the end of 2019 in sight, we thought it would be good to have another talk with these two administrators from FIH about the plans launched in 2018 and what has been accomplished since then in 2019 or will be in 2020. We defined 10 topics to discuss with them:



FIH Pro LeagueFIH QualifiersTokyo 2020A dry artificial pitchThe FIH.live platformHockey2024Growing hockeyLA 2028One short format of hockeyDo all stakeholders have a voice?



Please note this column is not an exact transcript (far from it) of the podcast. I do recommend both reading the full column as well as listening the full podcast... ;)



FIH Pro League



2019 has been the year of the launch of the FIH Pro League more than anything else probably. At least in terms of visibility on a global scale.
FIH felt it was very important to give a boost to the promotion of hockey around the world. When they spoke to broadcasters their major issue with our sport was the lack of a fixed calendar, a time of year when broadcasters were assured of enough international games to schedule in their programming. So the wish from broadcasters for a more consistent hockey calendar has been fulfilled. The major learning from this first year of the FIH Pro League has been the home & away games in the current schedule were too much of a stress on the health of players. So the 2nd year will see an important change with double home games for some opponents this year followed by double away games for the same the next year. This means travel is cut in half which is not only better for our environmental footprint but especially will be less of a strain on player health. Feedback from coaches and players, according to Weil, was very positive. But obviously some changes were needed going into year two. The change of schedule for player welfare but also a change in the production of these events for TV. More uniformity in showing a recognisable format of the game on TV. Another issue in year 1 has been the lack of supporters in the stands in some countries. A fact Weil blames on the short preparation time between the final green light and the first Pro League games. Not allowing enough time for some good marketing of these events to draw in the crowds. This time however there is enough time for the marketeers in each country to work on a good ticketing plan and promotion of their home games. For example in Germany this time the marketing agency that was in charge for the very successful indoor world cup will make sure the German hockey supporters will not miss out on their home games again, according to Weil. Financially it's clear this first year has been an investment. A much needed investment in the promotion of hockey. But another equally important goal is to create revenue and profit for the FIH to use for the development of hockey around the world. Because in order to grow hockey, more money is needed. So obviously a business plan for this event at some point in time will need to show profits to be able to do more for growing our game of hockey. Though Weil states he would also be happy with a break even and more promotion of our sport, the business plan by the FIH assumes a profit will be generated to help develop hockey as of 2022 or 2023 at the latest.



Still, even if I consider myself a big fan of top international hockey & the FIH Pro League... I will be curious to see a full evaluation by 2023-2024 to see how much money not only the FIH has invested i

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So it's the middle of November. In Lausanne, Switzerland where the FIH is based first snow has arrived. But that did not stop FIH from launching a couple of press releases in recent days. Announcing some novelties following the meeting of their executive board last week.



In today's podcast & column here we will only be addressing two of these. So the first ever world cup to be held in two different countries will not be on today's agenda. Nor the controversial choice for Bhubaneswar for the men's world cup, meaning 3 out the most recent 4 world cups would be hosted by India.
The choice to start a world cup for Hockey5s by 2023, a possibly fatal choice for our 11v11 game of hockey, will also have to wait for another time. As will the launch of the FIH Intercontinental Cup, basically the 2nd division for the FIH Pro League. We will discuss these choices in separate podcasts & columns in the near future…



However today we will limit ourselves to less controversial though important changes: first we will discuss the new system for our global ranking to be launched in January of 2020. Secondly we will talk about the road to Bhubaneswar and future world cups. Wether these will all be hosted in India is for some other time.



Who better to talk us through the new global ranking and the new pathway to qualify for a world cup then Jon Wyatt, sports & development director for the FIH… We spoke with him before when the idea of a new global ranking was first announced in March (listen here), but now we're close to the launch.



Why we need a new global ranking



As Wyatt explains the current global ranking is based upon tournaments, where the new ranking will be match-based. Since most nations only got to participate in FIH tournaments when qualified, some only got to play for points once or twice every 4 years. Because only some 20% of all official matches played in the international scene were being played in ranking tournaments. So 80% of the games being played did not have any contribution to the world ranking.



That is a problem. Because most nations would have to show to their government or the sports funding bodies in their country some kind of progress to be considered for support. If you hardly ever get to play for world ranking points that becomes a difficult task. So this was one of the more important reasons to rethink the global ranking. But it's not the only reason.



In the previous ranking most everybody will agree there was too much subjectivity, especially in the relative importance given to different continental championships. This led to a flawed ranking. A match-based system will to a certain extent eliminate this subjectivity. Because it will now focus on the relative strength of the two teams playing a game instead of trying to figure out and compare the strength of entire continents.



Besides this, the new ranking will be more simple and dynamic... making it easier to create some extra buzz about individual international games of any level. Because the immediate impact of a win or loss will be easy for all to see.



How & when



The new ranking system will take effect from 2020-01-01 onwards. However FIH has chosen to make the change more gradually. So as not to throw everybody off balance from the get go... Even though the position of the FIH is high performance directors of the nations should not focus on this global ranking, but rather on performing well at key moments such as the Olympics and the World Cup. It is clear an immediate change of the ranking, recalculating the results of the last 4 years for example, would not be fair on those who made their choices in those days based upon the old system. That is why the points for each country in the global ranking on January 1st will be exactly the same as today. But for every game played from that day on the new calculation per match will take effect. Hence for the new system to take full effect it might take some time. It wil

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The one with Marijke Fleuren, president of EHF and executive board member at the FIH. Within these organisations but also within IOC she is known to be the champion for #EquallyAmazing and all matters related to gender balance in sports. Because "together we are better"!



Every day during the European Championships we published a new podcast before 8am about #EHC2019 ! In this 12th and last episode - a week after the last whistle more or less - we talked hockey, European Championships and gender balance because “together we are better” with Marijke Fleuren.
This will be our last podcast in this series. We hope you enjoyed them all… and rest assured we will come back later with not only season 2 of the Belgian Hockey Podcast (Dutch language only) but also several new episodes of Studio Hockey (in English) about the international game.
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Host : Ernst Baart
Recorded : 2019-08-25
Published : 2019-08-31
Part of : #EHCdaily

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The one with the marketeers behind our sport... Every day during the European Championships we will publish a new podcast before 8am about #EHC2019 ! In our 11th episode we talked hockey, business and "doing things together" with Bob Verbeeck, CEO Golazo - a renowned expert in making sure sports and sports events are able to reach their audience - and the organisation behind this European Championship.
Our second guest in this episode is Tom van Kuyk, manager sponsoring for the Dutch Rabobank, probably the most loyal partner for our game of hockey around the world.
This will be our last podcast in this series. Well... kind off. We will do one more somewhat related to this event which will probably go online in a week or so. We hope you enjoyed them all… and rest assured we will come back later with not only season 2 of the Belgian Hockey Podcast (Dutch language only) but also several new episodes of Studio Hockey (in English) about the international game.
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Host : Ernst Baart
Recorded : 2019-08-25
Published : 2019-08-26
Part of : #EHCdaily

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The one with Adam Commens. But before we hear from the technical director of the Belgian hockey federation, listen to the post final comments by Red Lions captain Thomas Briels and his team mate Alexander Hendrickx. Every day during the European Championships we will publish a new podcast before 8am about the day ahead at #EHC2019 ! In our 10th episode we spoke at length to Adam Commens, technical director in charge of the amazing rise of Belgian hockey.
Join us also tomorrow for our last podcast in this series. We hope you enjoyed them all… and rest assured we will come back later with not only season 2 of the Belgian Hockey Podcast (Dutch language only) but also several new episodes of Studio Hockey (in English) about the international game.
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Host : Ernst Baart
Recorded : 2019-08-24
Published : 2019-08-25
Part of : #EHCdaily

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The one with Michelle, Lidewij and Nike. Every day during the European Championships we will publish a new podcast before 8am about the day ahead at #EHC2019 ! In our 9th episode we spoke to Michelle Struijk from Belgium, Lidewij Welten from the Netherlands and Nike Lorenz from Germany.
Join us also tomorrow for yet another podcast. Every day a new episode until the champions are known! We hope you enjoy…
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Host : Ernst Baart
Recorded : 2019-08-23
Published : 2019-08-24
Part of : #EHCdaily

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The one with Adam Dixon and the happy Belgians. Every day during the European Championships we will publish a new podcast before 8am about the day ahead at #EHC2019 ! In our 8th episode we first spoke with Adam Dixon, captain for England following their victory over Ireland. Following this is Simon Gougnard from the Belgian Red Lions after their epic win versus Germany and some short Belgian soundbites with Shane McLeod, Florent van Aubel, Antoine Kina and Alexander Hendrickx.
Join us also tomorrow for yet another podcast. Every day a new episode until the champions are known! We hope you enjoy…
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Host : Ernst Baart
Recorded : 2019-08-22
Published : 2019-08-23
Part of : #EHCdaily

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