Petr Kubíček

“As a member of the Army Center for Sports my job was to do the sport for which I had gotten there. Depending on the season, there would be single-phase, double-phase or triple-phase training sessions. In the summer we would go to a camp in Hamr na Jezeře. There was a beautiful lake there – later destroyed by uranium industry – and a military base where we ran, paddled, jumped on trampoline, played tennis, worked out… Simply drill as usual in Dukla but we would practically only do sports. We would even get nutritious diet, pocket money and quite some freedom. They did not demand some particular dress discipline and so on. I was with the army and did sports – it was comparable to professional sports. One could not say it out loud back then but in principle, it was sports on a professional level. With the army unit, military employment was the primary one. Only after fulfilling my duties had I time to play hockey. We would go to train in Neratovice twice a week, and once per weekend or twice a week play a game. Emergency had also precedence over hockey: ‘It is your shift, bad luck, you don’t go anywhere.’ It was a military drill and the conditions reflected it. For instance the military diet was incomparable to the one in Army Center, and I suffered from that.”

“My transfer to Mělník was as if someone kicked me out of a train which went the way which I so desired: play hockey, perhaps make a living of it and thus make the hobby an occupation. It had also meant a loss of ambitions: everyone wants to play at the highest level, play for the national team. Back then I knew that this was also my end in the national team – one was connected to the other.”