USAHIL
03-16-2006, 12:40 PM
China has joined the IIHF and may be able to play in the Asian qualification tournament with Taipei and New Zealand. The winner of the qualification tournament will attend the World Championships in Hungary this July. Having the world?s largest country begin international play can only help grow the sport worldwide.
Also recently, over the course of a 3 day training session, Chinese coaches, players, and referees converged on the city of Beijing for a hands-on course to improve on their abilities to coach and officiate the game of inline hockey to US and international standards. With this knowledge, the 15 students will return to their provinces to continue to promote the inline game. USA Hockey InLine shared training materials used to train US coaches and officials. The course participants were able to learn material typically taught in level 1 training sessions around the United States. Though the facilities in China are not currently up to US and international standards, the desire to learn and promote the game are at an all time high. With a population of over 1.3 billion people (more than 4x the population of the US), the sports popularity is expected to grow quickly in the next 3-5 years. Go to www.usahockeyinline for more information and pictures of the training session.
Since we?re on the topic of International play, here is a little information on the IIHF World Championships:
Each year since 1996, the IIHF has conducted an InLine Hockey World Championship with the intent on determining the best team in the world. USA Hockey InLine has selected a team and competed in this event in each of those years. We have also hosted the event four times.
The tournament has evolved into a 16 team event with an 8-team A Pool and an 8-team Division I (or B Pool). The nations who regularly participate year to year include: USA, Finland, Sweden, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Germany, Austria, Slovenia, Great Britain, Hungary, Japan, Australia, New Zealand, Argentina, Brazil, Belgium, etc. In the last few years, several new teams have qualified to participate including: Chile, South Africa, Namibia and Portugal. Recently, more nations have joined the IIHF Inline Hockey family - Ireland, Croatia, Chinese Taipei, China and Liechtenstein. As this event continues to build momentum, more and more nations intend to participate.
The tournament format starts off with round robin pool play (3 games) based on the previous year's finish. That is followed by a cross-over game in which the last place team from Pool A plays the top ranked team from Division I (based on round robin play) to determine the final playoff seedings. Once the playoff seedings are determined, the tournament is single elimination from that point on in both divisions. If you lose at any point in the playoffs, you will have one more relegation game to determine the final rankings for the next year's tournament. The top 14 ranked teams are guaranteed spots in the next World Championship. The teams that finish in the last two slots (15 and 16 ranking) are relegated to the qualification procedure.
After the main tournament, there are two qualification tournaments held each year on a rotation basis from four regions of the world. These qualification tournaments are usually held in the winter to determine which teams will qualify for the two open spots (15 and 16 ranking) in Division I.
Jay Milton
USA Hockey InLine
[email protected]
Also recently, over the course of a 3 day training session, Chinese coaches, players, and referees converged on the city of Beijing for a hands-on course to improve on their abilities to coach and officiate the game of inline hockey to US and international standards. With this knowledge, the 15 students will return to their provinces to continue to promote the inline game. USA Hockey InLine shared training materials used to train US coaches and officials. The course participants were able to learn material typically taught in level 1 training sessions around the United States. Though the facilities in China are not currently up to US and international standards, the desire to learn and promote the game are at an all time high. With a population of over 1.3 billion people (more than 4x the population of the US), the sports popularity is expected to grow quickly in the next 3-5 years. Go to www.usahockeyinline for more information and pictures of the training session.
Since we?re on the topic of International play, here is a little information on the IIHF World Championships:
Each year since 1996, the IIHF has conducted an InLine Hockey World Championship with the intent on determining the best team in the world. USA Hockey InLine has selected a team and competed in this event in each of those years. We have also hosted the event four times.
The tournament has evolved into a 16 team event with an 8-team A Pool and an 8-team Division I (or B Pool). The nations who regularly participate year to year include: USA, Finland, Sweden, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Germany, Austria, Slovenia, Great Britain, Hungary, Japan, Australia, New Zealand, Argentina, Brazil, Belgium, etc. In the last few years, several new teams have qualified to participate including: Chile, South Africa, Namibia and Portugal. Recently, more nations have joined the IIHF Inline Hockey family - Ireland, Croatia, Chinese Taipei, China and Liechtenstein. As this event continues to build momentum, more and more nations intend to participate.
The tournament format starts off with round robin pool play (3 games) based on the previous year's finish. That is followed by a cross-over game in which the last place team from Pool A plays the top ranked team from Division I (based on round robin play) to determine the final playoff seedings. Once the playoff seedings are determined, the tournament is single elimination from that point on in both divisions. If you lose at any point in the playoffs, you will have one more relegation game to determine the final rankings for the next year's tournament. The top 14 ranked teams are guaranteed spots in the next World Championship. The teams that finish in the last two slots (15 and 16 ranking) are relegated to the qualification procedure.
After the main tournament, there are two qualification tournaments held each year on a rotation basis from four regions of the world. These qualification tournaments are usually held in the winter to determine which teams will qualify for the two open spots (15 and 16 ranking) in Division I.
Jay Milton
USA Hockey InLine
[email protected]