Jukka Jalonen has an insane influence on Finnish sports coaching, says Henrik Dettmann. Markku Kanerva tells what kind of advice he received from Jukka Jalonen before the European Championships.
When the buzzer rings in the hockey Olympic final, Jukka Jalonen used to raise his hands to ventilate. Finland secured its first Olympic hockey Olympic gold after winning the Russian Olympic Committee’s 2–1 team.
For Jalon, the victory in the value tournament was already the fourth in his career. Under Jalonen’s leadership, Finland has won the world championships at the adult level in 2011 and 2019 and at the youth home competitions in 2016.
At home competitions, Jalonen got to coach the brightest stars of the Finnish disc when Mikko Rantanen, Sebastian Aho, Roope Hintz, Kasperi Kapanen and Patrik Laine decided the championship for the Young Lions.
This time in the NHL, merit stars were not seen in the tournament. However, 59-year-old Jalonen showed that his style of play also works in a smaller trough. As a result, he also became the first Finnish team football coach to achieve an Olympic victory.
Jalonen’s Olympic victory was not a significant achievement for hockey alone. It is significant for Finnish bowling as a whole.
We interviewed other Finnish national football team coaches about the significance of Jalonen and the Olympic victory for Finnish football and coaching culture. Head coach of the floorball team Petteri Nykky considers the Olympic gold won by Finland to be an insane and amazing achievement.
– 70 years this has been chased and now it has come. The whole hockey family has worked really hard and for a long time. The quality and scope of work in both the club and national team has been good for a long time. This was a good achievement in the meantime. I think this will continue later, now the head is open, Nykky tells Sport.
Head coach of the national basketball team Henrik Dettmann also recalls that the achievement of the Lions is the result of long and consistent work.
– This was a great performance. Olympic gold in ball sports is a completely insane thing for Finnish sports. Of course, the team’s coach has an insane effect on Finnish sports coaching in general, Dettmann says.
– It is one of his secrets how he has made the team commit and work together according to goals. Of course, he has a lot of coaching experience and knowledge of the sport, but the main coaching emphasizes leadership, Markku Kanerva says.
According to Kanerva, Jalonen has brought recipes for success and a culture of winning into the Finnish coaching culture. Kanerva considers Jalonen’s importance to Finnish ball culture.
– The power of team play and working together is really clear. He has made the most of the strengths of his team members and players. He has a big impact, Kanerva emphasizes.
– Above all, the approach to his coaching comes to the fore. Players are at the center and you need to interact with them. The human and player-oriented coaching style is a really important part of the repertoire of Jukka and many of our other coaches.
The head coaches of the sports have learned the secrets of coaching from Jukka Jalonen, but also from other colleagues in regular meetings organized by the Finnish Olympic Committee.
According to Kanerva, the meetings exchange thoughts, ideas and ways of working, but above all we talk about the game. Kanerva wanted to hear from his colleagues, for example, when preparing for the European Football Championship, how they have prepared for value tournaments and important matches.
The tips were helpful and important. According to Kanerva, one of the most important tips given by Jalonen was to focus on the essentials, ie team spirit, game philosophy and its clarification.
– Lions and we have long tournaments too, so it is important to keep the atmosphere positive. In a way that everyone believes in doing. Through it, the culture of winning is built very far, Kanerva adds.
Interdisciplinary cooperation
According to Kanerva, it is great that the head coaches do not have a variety of envy. On the contrary, everyone understands that by sharing knowledge and their own thoughts, everyone can develop as a coach.
– We are all proud of how Finns do in sports. We are a small country and we need to work closely together between species. I am not just talking about competitive sports, but about sports and exercise in general: how can we get children, young people and adults alike to exercise and raise them to a sports lifestyle? Cooperation between unions is a very important part of that.
Dettmann and Nyky have also learned important lessons from Jalosen in coaches’ meetings. The most important thing in my mind today is cooperation and listening to others.
– Jukka is very down to earth and he understands the species, its requirements and the value of cooperation. That’s probably the most significant thing he’s grabbed, Nykky says.
According to Dettmann, Jalonen’s most important lesson, on the other hand, is that it is not worth it.
– He understands that by letting players play, the team plays the best of all. He exudes such serenity, professionalism, an understanding of the person, and an understanding of how the process will move forward.
The power of cooperation
– The championship team is built together with the others. We are probably the best in the world in team building and I am really proud of how our team management team works. We have the last professionals on the job. Of course, players switch from year to year and tournament to tournament, but the machine still picks up profitably. That’s where the success comes from, Jalonen told .
Kanerva also considers this issue to be a strength of Finnish team sports. A well-assembled management team is able to help players reach their full potential holistically.
– The head coach has a very big role to play in choosing a background team that is above all able to support the activities in accordance with the goals, to create team dynamics and spirit.
– I think this is a strength in Finnish team sports that we get everyone involved to blow one coal, Kanerva continues.
Olympic gold haunted the ball
Nykky believes that Jalonen’s influence on Finnish ball culture will be even more visible in the future. According to him, Jalonen’s teachings also provide good training material for young coaches.
– Not just for puck, but for all other sports, why not for individual sports as well. The worlds of values are similar, Nykky says.
– Someone has said about their own background group and players that everyone has an equally important role, and no one is more important than the other. One carries the team here, and the other in the other. When we understand that, we are pretty strong.
According to Nyky and Kanerva, the Olympic gold achieved by Finland also has an inspiring effect on other sports. The present compares the gold medal achieved by the Lions to a middle distance runner Roger Bannisterin to reach the milestone.
In 1954, a British runner broke the ghost limit of less than four minutes on a mile. Within a year, many had already broken the Bannister record.
– At that time, it was considered a bit insurmountable. This Olympic gold may also have haunted Finnish sports in terms of team sports, when it will be done.
Consistent work
According to the present, the Olympic gold won by the Lions creates the belief that other sports can also stretch to their best.
– This kind of crossing the line creates faith for us other coaches. It can carry in other sports as well, when you are determined and long-term with good humor in search of the best and optimum of man.
– This increases faith in the Finnish team game and culture in all respects. I think the impact of this will be seen in the future as we get a little bit of what it entailed.
The trio highlights the success of hockey as a result of consistent, determined, long-term and multi-stakeholder cooperation.
– This is the result of a wonderful but very consistent work. If you think about where the whole hockey coaching culture has started, then it has sometimes started in the 1980s when Rauno Korpi and Alpo Suhonen put it on. Then came Pentti Matikainenafter that Erkka Westerlund and now Jukka Jalonen, Dettmann begins and continues:
– The background to this has always been that of hockey leadership specifically Kalervo Kummola has understood how important the role of the coach is in the whole process.