It started out as a team owned by the Jingu Ice Skating Rink, but approximately 15 years ago, the rink decided that they no longer wished to own a hockey team.

One of the fathers whose son was a team member then, Mr. Masaru Suzuki (he is now the office consultant) stepped  forward and launched Jingu IHC as a club team, and asked Mr. Satoshi Nomura (our General Manager) to coach the team.

Jingu’s long-term coaching is highly regarded wherever our graduates go. Our coaching staff educates and trains players while at the same time operates the management of the club along with the office, and also with the help of parents of the club members.

At present, we practice at Jingu rink. The schedule depends on slots allocation by the rink, and we usuall get Sunday sessions from 18:30 or 20:15 and Saturday sessions from 08:00.
The number of ice rinks is decreasing, so we cannot secure ice time as easily as before. However, we will continue the management of the club with the help and understanding of the rink and all parties concerned.

At the moment, each level/class has approximately 4 practice sessions per month. However, we may need to adjust number of sessions per month, depending on the rink schedule.
(If practice coincides with tournaments, we will try to move the practice sessions accordingly)

Ice hockey is a full contact sport, sometimes referred to as a type of martial art on ice.
At the same time, it is also a sport which requires thinking. One must be aware at all times, and be able to make instantaneous decisions under any conditions.

We try to promote this by having our members think for themselves, rather than just assigning practice menus, because we believe that in the long run, this will benefit them more in their progress.

We have decided that hockey notebooks will be beneficial to all classes, and not just for the lower elementary class. The members will exchange comments/questions with the coaches about anything they would like to ask.
We hope the members will hand in their notebooks voluntarily, as that will mean so much more than having their parents force them into it.

You may not always receive the answer you are looking for, but we believe in the importance of members and parents understanding the coaches’ ways of thinking.
Also, we are planning on using the dryland training time to have table hockey sessions about once a month.

The elementary school years should be spent on learning the basics of hockey. It should be a period in which to build a foundation to becoming a first-classഀ player in junior high school, high school, and still later on.

We feel that results are not everything during elementary school. There have been many cases where a player who was average when younger, became a great player in junior high & high school. It becomes very clear whether one has worked at learning the basics, when in junior high, drastic changes occur in one’s physique.

What sets hockey apart from other sports is that skating skills makes a huge difference between an average player and a great player. Just learning how to use the outside edge and inside edge properly will greatly improve your game. Please work at your skating.

However, if an incorrect form of skating becomes a habit, it is difficult to correct. It is very important to learn the proper basics of skating.

Also, practicing stick-handling is very important. There are many ways one can practice at home. Feel free to ask for advice from the coaches. They can help you find what is right for you. Skating, stick-handling, and regular practice at Jingu can all help in improving one’s skill. Most important, though, is how aware and willing one is towards practicing. That is the key to improving one's skill.

As with other sports, such as golf for instance, every coach/instructor has a different method of teaching. Participating in different schools can be beneficial, but at the same time, can also confuse the player. As long as one is aware of this, the club feels that it can be a good opportunity to broaden one’s view and widen one’s circle of friends.

The answer is similar to (6). We feel that skating, stick handling, and regular practice at Jingu is enough to improve one’s skill. 
However, casual hockey is a good way to meet new friends, resulting in hockey becoming even more enjoyable, especially for the younger players.

The lessons are basically held twice a week. Because the rink is crowded even on weekdays, Jingu rink allows us to rent a small space just for this purpose.

We cannot stress enough how important skating is, and strongly recommend our members to participate. Skating is not something one masters in a few months. It can take years of practice. But by junior high school, it becomes clear who has put in the time and effort, and who hasn’t. Because of its importance, we do not allow non-members to join, even though there are many inquiries from other teams.

For our younger members who have not reached a certain level, the lesson ends at 17:00 or 17:30. Players with high skating skills are able to tolerate intensive skating for long periods, but we feel that the younger players can get  more out of focusing for 45 minutes, and still have effective results. The rink can be used until 18:00, so we recommend practicing at one’s own pace.

The coaches decide by watching each player’s characteristics. There have been cases where a player has changed positions due to his progress, or to even out the balance of the team.

If there are any volunteers, we try to accommodate them. We do ask that goalies in the upper elementary class and older, stick to being a goalie exclusively.

You cannot be a player and a goalie. We have a goalie coach on the staff, but we also ask the junior high or high school goalie to teach the elementary school goalie at times. We find this beneficial to both parties.

During the elementary school years, we feel that children in Japan are much better hockey players than children in the U.S and Canada. Perhaps this is because the Japanese spends so much time on the basics. We do not deny that participating in a summer hockey camp overseas can be a good experience.

We think that the difference between NHL players and Japanese players lie in the physique of the players, and also in its environmental and population differences. It is amazing that even under such circumstances, Japanese men come within the top 25 in the world ranking, and Japanese women within the top 10.

The annual 10 day summer camp is Jingu’s main event, and it is there that the members’ skill improves tremendously while at the same time, they grow up mentally.

It has been going on for years with the help of the members’ parents. We are thinking about reporting more openly to the parents the details of the camp.

Regular practice and participating in all 4 mandatory tournaments, comes to about 200,000yen.
Participating in both the Spring and Summer camps, is about 200,000yen.
Participating in all the skating lessons also comes to 200,000yen a year.
Special practice (once or twice a month) comes to about 50,000yen a year.

If a junior high school member participates in all of the above, the yearly fee comes to approximately 600,000yen to 700,000yen a year.
Participating in the voluntary tournaments comes to still more fees.

If one were to practice voluntarily at home (stick handling etc.), it is possible for one to improve his game by coming to practice , participating in the mandatory tournaments, and coming to skating lessons (say once a week).
In this case, the yearly fee would amount to approximately 300,000yen.

Each game is played with the intent to win. In games where Jingu is leading by far, we try to have everyone in the bench play. Basically, however, we feel that there is plenty to learn inside the bench, as well as out on the ice.

In the lower elementary class, the players all take turns playing goalie. All games are played with the aim to win, but if there are no volunteers, the club has no intention of asking one particular member to become a goalie against his wishes.
By having the members take turns, they will learn to be more considerate towards their goalie, while improving their own skills because of the need to cover for them.

In the upper elementary classes and above, we would like to have an exclusive goalie. However, if there are no volunteers, then no one will be under any obligation to become one. When we do not have anyone to play goalie, what we do is search for one who is willing to change teams from other teams in the Kanto area.

It is also possible to ask a goalie from another team to come to Jingu under a one year agreement. If there is still no goalie, then the parents of the members must discuss whether to have the players take turns, or form a joint team with another team in order to be able to enter tournaments.

There are examples of this in Hokkaido where hockey is very popular among children. In recent years, many of the elementary school teams have been entering tournaments as joint teams, and it is rare for a single team to enter by themselves. We feel that playing hockey together with children from other teams can only be beneficial.

They can, but must be extra careful against injuries. A team can play a game with as few as 7 or 8 players. In such cases, it is quite true when we say that the players’ physical strength grows tremendously with each tournament.

If there are not enough members to enter a tournament, we can participate by forming a joint team. There is a system for all teams in the Federation to cooperate with one another.

We feel that there is much to gain from practice matches, which is why we are trying to have more of them. As all the sessions that we own need to be used for regular practice, we must ask around for other teams to share their practice time at their rink with us.

We feel that experiencing games/tournaments is indispensable to improving a player’s skill. It also supports the players in growing up mentally. If a parent were to decide that their child needed more practice than games, and more members were to agree, then we would no longer be a club team, but a hockey school. So it is also a rule we made in order to draw a line between the two.

And as you know, all entry fees for voluntary tournaments are divided by the number of participants. In the past, it became a source of trouble among the parents when many of the members decided against coming to games, and just came to practice. This is another reason for the rule. However, we do understand that there are circumstances such as school activities where it cannot be helped. In such cases, coming to practice is not forbidden.

Please feel free to contact us to discuss your situation. As a rule, though, we do try not to schedule a practice on the same day as a game/tournament.

Members are selected by vote through a coach meeting among the 6 Tokyo teams.
The basis for selection is mainly the Tokyo Junior Ice Hockey Spring League.
The head coach for the All-Star team is generally chosen from the winning team.
The number of team members is 22 players (G 2, DF 8, FW 12).

The team competes in the Summer Cup held in Tomakomai, Hokkaido, and also in the All Japan Junior Ice Hockey Tournament held in Karuizawa in March.
In either tournament, a player will enter as a member of the All-Star team of the region that their team belongs to. (For example, Jingu is located in Tokyo, so a player selected from Jingu will be a member of the Tokyo All-Star Team).
Their place of residence or location of their school has nothing to do with the selection.

Candidates for members are selected at a meeting of the Federation, based on a recommendation from their coaches.
After a few training sessions for the candidates, there will be try-outs for the All-Star Team.
Ultimately, it is usual for the team to consist of 17 members (G 2, DF 6, FW 9).

High school members are selected in the same manner.
There are 2 national tournaments for junior high school students registered in a school located in Tokyo.

The Nippon Junior High School Physical Culture sponsored by the Nippon Junior High School Physical Culture Association, and the All Japan Junior Ice Hockey Tournament sponsored by the Japan Ice Hockey Federation.
The location of the tournaments change every year.

At present, there are 11 members, and they practice jointly with the Jingu Juniors as our ‘brother team’.
They support our team at practices and especially at our annual summer hockey camp.
At times, members from Jingu are allowed to join the Tokyo Medical School hockey camp as well.

The med students have been a good influence on the members of our club since the beginning, through their mannerisms and through their approach towards hockey. (There is a Japanese word ‘bunbu ryoudou’ which means that one excels in both literary and military arts.

We feel that the med students are a good example of this word, therefore acting as a sort of role model for our club members. )

Many Jingu graduates who wanted to continue their hockey training at school, have gone on to high schools and universities in Hokkaido, Aomori and Miyagi.
There are also many graduates who are actively taking part in the Kanto University League, and some as all-Japan members.

In recent years, there have even been graduates who have become professional hockey players after university, and  are currently active in the Asia League.
Members who would like such a future for themselves should discuss their ambitions with the coaches.

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