The future and direction of Czech curling.

The membership meeting of the Czech Curling Federation, which took place on 30 May 2015, had as one of its main points the completion of the seven-member federation representation, i.e. the executive committee. It was possible to elect a pair that will certainly be an asset to the current leadership of the federation, although once again there was no women, who for several years, unfortunately, have not been represented in the top body of the sports federation. Some of the topics discussed revealed the alarming fact that the membership meeting fundamentally, and in detail, deals with marginal issues that can be solved at a different level than the CSC membership meeting, and even less with strategic issues. As an example, we can mention the extensive debate on the potential number of teams playing divisional competition, conducted between two participants of the membership meeting and, on the contrary, the mere mention of the negotiations with the City Hall for more than two years. Prague about the purchase of the land under the hall. The more time was devoted to the game and competition regulations, the less time was given to the topics of adult national teams, youth base and junior national team. In fact, most of the attendees at the membership meeting didn't even know where we stood in world comparison. For the sake of clarity, it is good to recall the results. For the 2014/2015 season, the results are as follows (excluding wheelchair and Olympic hopes):

EMCC 2014, Czech team eleventh, ECC 2014, Czech men fifth (successful qualification for WCC 2015), ECC 2014, Czech women tenth (dropping to Group B after four years), EJCC 2015, Czech juniors fifth behind Russia, Spain, Turkey and Austria, WUG 2015, Czech academics sixth, WJCC 2015, Czech women tenth (dropping to qualification after six years), WMCC 2015, Czech men ninth, WMDCC 2015, Czech mix eighteenth, WSCC 2015, Czech men twelfth, WSCC 2015, Czech women ninth

It is clear from the list that only the men (ECC and WMCC) and a bit of academics bear comparison with the wider world. An interesting illustration are the coaches' reports, where formulations like "A lot has changed in the 14 years I have not coached at the European Championships.", or even: "However, I have to say that I don't see the future with our base, the functioning of the junior teams and SCM, the quality of the players, their training diligence, their determination, their characters and the renewed competition in the world (the matches of the top four teams were of a very good standard and not only for women's junior curling) very optimistic in the next few years." The Coaching and Methodology Committee, through its chairman Vladimir Černovský, offered the management of the federation the opportunity to debate and look for a way to gradually correct the current poor situation (especially the trend in the junior national teams), but did not receive a response to its suggestion. It follows that the CSC is currently not paying enough attention to the issue.

The logical pillars for the functioning of our organization are economics, youth, representation results, marketing, and property care. The economy, with the arrival of Jan Letal to the VV, will be under professional control and the outlook for the future will be more optimistic. The area of youth education is currently being crushed by the persistent efforts to enforce the dysfunctional and long outdated model of spreading the care of youth and juniors under the clubs, along with the inadequate system of forming junior national teams. If there is no change in this matter, the good times of Czech junior curling are irretrievably gone. The federation is not active in the direction of controlled recruitment and systematic education of youth. An illustration of this issue is the statement of Curling promo on the demand of twenty-eight children to try curling for an hour (weekday, 10.00 11.00 a.m.) on three lanes for a total price of CZK 2,800. Quote of the response here: "CSC and CP are trying to develop the sport of curling also within the sports education of school children. CSC and CP provides these activities in several ways. One of them is shifted to the curling clubs who would like to expand their player base and have decided to organize the said events on their lines. In such a case, the CSC and CP rules are given that recruitment is organized under the club or commercial event of that lub. The other option during the playing season is to participate in the so called "Open Days". On this occasion, any interested person who wants to learn about curling can attend the event. Since these activities are financially and organizationally demanding, events of this type are limited and have already been held this year.

The CP does not consider it meaningful to organize other events without a specific intention for primary schools. Despite this, a similar event has already been organised for the Kateřinky Primary School in the hall this year, but CP will not offer another repeat."

The fact that the CSC and Curling Promo can't respond to the interest of age-appropriate kids other than by rejecting them is surprising, and suggests that they are not familiar with the issue of developing a junior base.

The marketing report failed to thank Czech Television for its consistent interest in Czech curling, which resulted in the opportunity to provide two broadcasts of the 2015 Men's World Championships. This was thanks to M. Vránková and J. Kalemba. The Czech Curling Federation only tried to influence the sports editorial office of ČT until the last moment and to change the person of the commentator - expert, even in the form of pressure in the sense of threats to limit cooperation with ČT!?! The waste of energy on irrelevant matters and the resulting mistakes is demonstrated by the media output of the VV representative for marketing towards the media after the final of the Czech championship. Quote. Among the women, Aritma 3, led by skip Kubešková, won the title, replacing last year's winners from Zbraslav. They finished third when they were knocked out in the semi-finals by an enthusiastically fighting Savona M. Among the men, the standings are the same as last year - Jiri Snitil and his team First Curling Club Brno first, followed by Kolibris 1 and Rainbow Unicorns in third place."

Speaking of language poverty and wording opacity, the official media release of a non-existent team as national champions is both sad and scandalous.

The minutes of the SC meetings contain items that have not shown any progress in a long time. For example, the following:

• On June 12, 2013, the Metropolitan Municipality of the City of Prague responded. The city of Prague responded to the request of the CSC to purchase the land on 12 January 2012. After two years, nothing new.

• On Oct. 7, 2013, the marketing agency was scheduled to be selected in November 2013, according to the minutes. There is no agency yet.

• On 7/7/2014, the SC approved Option "A" to change the CSC website - not yet implemented

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From my point of view, I have no choice but to believe that with the arrival of the newly elected (and co-opted) members of the SC, there will be a change in the sense that the CSC and the Curling Promo can react flexibly and sensibly to important stimuli and signals and will not tendentiously and blindly act and decide against the interests of our sport and the members of the Czech Curling Union.