Teemu Hartikainen is one of the most difficult players to shake at the World Cup, but he doesn’t lift the punt at all anymore.
Teemu Hartikainen is a strong man.
Perhaps the most bullish player of the Lions has made protecting the puck a trademark for himself, which has already been admired in several international matches before the World Cup. Naturally, the opponents of this tournament also got their share.
Iltalehti’s ice hockey expert Pekka Virta coached Hartikainen during his Kuopion years already when Hartikainen was a junior. Virta describes Hartikai as strong in nature and gives an example.
As a B-junior, Hartikainen was at KalPa’s A-junior training, where the players took good-natured knee presses. Hartikainen beat his parents, which made the others hilarity that the other player “lost to the lunatic”. Virta heard this and urged others to try. Hartikainen won all.
Now, almost 20 years later, Hartikainen smiles when he hears the story.
– I remember this. I think we were training at Puijo. Then it got twisted. Even though I was a young boy, I felt like my muscles were sticking and I had to twist with the older guys, says Hartikainen.
Opponents falter when Hartikainen starts to protect the puck. Petri Saarelainen / AOP
Ball games
Hartikainen says that he did “everything possible” as a child.
– I went to physical education classes, we played football, lawn tennis, badminton, tennis and all ball games a lot. It was my own love. Whatever the game was, it had to be played, Hartikainen enumerates.
– Oh yes, and I skated a lot. It probably developed balance.
Around the age of “moped card age”, playing games started to decrease. Ice hockey began to take over more and more areas of life, and at some point, side training and lifting punts also came along. And those pounds went up.
– It’s hard to say where that natural power came from. After puberty, we started lifting iron, and it started to move well. I don’t know if there are some genes then the muscles grew and I became strong.
In the end, Hartikainen comes to the conclusion that he has no rational explanation for why he was and is so strong.
– It feels like the power levels have increased throughout the career, and that’s a good thing.
Sometimes you need to send two men to attack Härski. Jussi Saarinen
Enough already
Nowadays, Hartikainen does not lift a punt at all.
– It hurts my spine and doesn’t help me, says Härski.
– I already have enough strength, so I try to keep my body as relaxed and good as possible so that the skill can come out. The strength is enough to get out of the corners, so I don’t need to bother with any bicep twists, and on the bench I start to dull that skill or stiffen the upper body.
Hartikainen has scored such power points in Russia, Switzerland and the national team that skill is also needed. That’s what the man has focused on in recent years.
The stories about Hartikainen’s powers are memorable and the man has turned his abilities into strengths, but if the clocks could be turned back, Hartikainen would also do things differently.
– Maybe it is hoped that I would have practiced more skill when I was young. Had to be in dry training quite a lot. If I had spent more time on the skill side, would I have become an even better player? Hartikainen ponders.
– In this sport, you don’t have to be impossibly strong and overwhelming in terms of strength. Speed and skill come first in this sport.