Russian President Vladimir Putin attended the RMNDP seminar in Sochi

On August 6, Russian President Vladimir Putin attended a seminar concerning the Red Machine National Development Program at the Sirius Educational Centre in Sochi, which was organised by the Russian Ice Hockey Federation.

The seminar was focused on the preparation for the 2022 Olympic Games and the introduction of the Red Machine National Development Program in ice hockey schools across the entire country. Youth ice hockey coaches attended the seminar alongside RIHF specialists and coaches.

The Red Machine National Development Program is a key element of realising state sporting goals, the RIHF strategy for the 2022 Olympic Games and dynamically developing ice hockey in Russia.

First RIHF vice-president and national team leader Roman Rotenberg:

- The Russian Ice Hockey Federation has produced a unified program for training ice hockey players. The program was accepted by the Ministry of Sport and will be used across the whole country. Our program isn't just about training concepts. It is the entire philosophy of Russian ice hockey, based upon the methods used by our great coaches such as Anatoly Tarasov and Viktor Tikhonov alongside the leading ice hockey countries. Both coaches and parents will use this program, and it will help children to become great citizens of our country. At the moment, our youth national teams are already training in accordance with this program, and the results are already there to see as our under 18 national team qualified for the final of their World Championship for the first time in 10 years. They only lost to Sweden in the final during overtime.

Since the Sirius Educational Centre was created in 2015, monthly events take place to increase the educational level of coaches.

Moreover, taking into account the importance of including disabled people in the sport of ice hockey, the RIHF included a full training section for sledge-hockey. The section will contain both methodical and practical training exercises for coaches. This material will also be available in the "Red Machine - Coach" section of the mobile application, which will allow for more effective training. All sledge-hockey information will be stored on the Red Machine National Development Program database.

The implementation of the Red Machine National Development Program is in accordance with the Decree of the Russian President Vladimir Putin (07.05.2018, no.124) of national goals and strategic objectives of the Russian Federation for the period until 2024 and the Order of the Russian Federation Government which approved the concept of creating a sporting reserve.

Earlier on Tuesday, a Red Machine National Development Program master-class took place at the Sirius Educational Centre. RIHF president Vladislav Tretiak, first vice-president and national team leader Roman Rotenberg, head coach Alexei Kudashov, coach Anvar Gatiyatulin, U16 head coach Vladimir Filatov, RMNDP coach Daniel Bochner and legendary coach Vladimir Yurzinov all participated in running the training sessions.

For us, it is very important to hold more of these training camps with national team coaches," said Vladislav Tretiak. "This sets a great example for the young players. The program is a very useful one and it contains everything which a player requires to become a champion. We are trying to take the program to more regions so that we can have more players for the national teams."