Ice stock sport is particularly atmospheric in the bitter cold, but you can play it when the sun is burning down, too. Since the formation of the club in 1974, players of the Mörlenbacher Eisstockclub (MESC) are on the ice all year round. Precision, team spirit and the appropriate strategy have already won the club a European Championship.
The blue ice stock hits the brown one eliciting a hard, metallic clack. The sound is so loud that spectators inexpert at the discipline will instinctively flinch. Dieter Schwarz doesn’t flinch. The slim man wearing a blue Norwegian cardigan is accustomed to the loud clacking. He is familiar with it from training just as much as from friendly matches, competitions and the national league. Dieter cracks a slight smile. It went exactly as he had planned. His ice stock pushed the other one out of the field and is now very close to the black rubber ring, the Daube. This means one point for Dieter at this stage of the game. Satisfied, he grabs the next stick.
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Ice stock sport–Dieter Schwarz explains in the video what makes it so fascinating.
Dieter has been the chairman of the Mörlenbacher Eisstockclub (MESC) since 2023. On this grey day in December, he is at the Winterwelt Mörlenbach ice rink waiting for a company that wants to hold its Christmas party here. Sixteen ice stocks are ready, along with a few other MESC members volunteering to instruct the teams and act as referees.
No matter whether company event or family celebration, ice stock sport is guaranteed to liven up any get-together.
In the third year since its opening, the venue has established itself as a meeting place for pre-Christmas celebrations in Mörlenbach. The Christmas stalls and the two rinks in the immediate vicinity of the town hall square are open for seven weeks. This year, it takes place under a roof for the first time, so that the winter fun will not be spoiled by snow or rain. School classes come to skate in the morning, while companies, clubs, and groups of friends and regulars’ tables compete against each other in ice stock sport tournaments from the afternoon onward.
The Winterwelt venue has been a meeting place in Mörlenbach for pre-Christmas celebrations since 2022.
Ice skaters can do their laps in the mornings.
From the afternoon, the rinks belong to the ice stock teams.
Volker Schmidt launched the Winterwelt venue—and definitely wanted the MESC to be part of it.
The sport requires the right swing…
… as well as precision and patience.
The Winterwelt has also a place where you can warm up.
When Mörlenbach-based travel agent Volker Schmidt launched the Winterwelt venue in 2022, it was clear to him that the MESC must be on board. The club not only organises the tournaments, but also teaches its skills on the ice rink—and hopes to attract a few new members as well. After all, it is anything but a matter of course that there is such a club around here, far from the Alps. More than 90 per cent of the members of the German Ice Stock Association come from Bavaria. “When we play in Bavaria, we’ve usually lost from the outset,” says Dieter, commenting on the superiority of the Bavarian teams. But the MESC has nothing to be ashamed of.
Precision and concentration are the most important qualities. But you also need to apply strategy
Dieter Schwarz
Founded in 1974 by four friends who first encountered the sport during a holiday in Austria, the club quickly made a name for itself in the German ice stock sport scene. The team from Mörlenbach celebrated their greatest successes in the 1990s and 2000s. Even top Bavarian clubs had a healthy respect for the small club from the Odenwald back then—as the club’s homepage will boast. The MESC won a total of seven medals at the European Championships, including one gold. They also won a German Championship and sent two players to the national team.
Successful years: The MESC won a total of seven medals at the European Championships, including one gold.
Dieter only knows about this time from stories told around the club. He joined the MESC only in 2017, as a ‘junior player’ at age 57, after he had been approached by club members at a recreational tournament in Weinheim. He remembers his first training session very well: “I had back pain for three weeks afterwards.” He makes it clear that ice stock sport is not just about strength. The speed at which the ice stocks whizz down the track is influenced by the type of base plate chosen. Depending on the surface, you can choose and interchange between rubber and plastic plates. Different colours represent different levels of friction. “The blue and purple plates produce particularly high friction. The professionals use these a lot,” Dieter explains. And this is exactly the type of plate he was given during the first training session. In any case, the team is fortunate that he stayed.
Dieter’s back pain has gone, his joy of playing the sport has stayed.
He worked as a skilled nurse and is retired now. He trains at least once a week at the club. The MESC currently has 36 members, around a dozen of whom are active members. In winter, they meet at the ice sports centre in Mannheim. In summer, they play on their own tarmac tracks in Mörlenbach. Ice stock sport does not work only when there is ice and snow, but also at times of the year when others would prefer the swimming pool. Dieter feels comfortable on tarmac, too. However, he looks forward to the winter season every year. The first time being back on the ice is always something particularly special for him.
On ice in winter, on tarmac in summer: ice stock sport can be played all year round.
Dieter had his difficulties in the beginning. “I just couldn’t hit the target,” he recalls, shaking his head. But he has come to be the player who takes the first shot, which requires you to land the ice stock as close as possible to the Daube. The trick is to “stay relaxed, take your time and always keep your eye on the target,” explains the chairman, demonstrating once again how it’s done: Put your right foot on the sprayed blue line on the track. Take a small step forward with your left foot. Swing the ice stock back and forth a few times with your outstretched arm. Then send it as horizontally as possible down the track and run a few steps behind it.
Dieter demonstrates the best way of sending the ice stock down the track.
“Precision and concentration are the most important qualities for it. But ice stock sport is a game in which you also need to apply strategy,” says Dieter. Two teams of four people play against each other. The aim is to get as many of your own ice stocks as possible closer to the Daube as your opponents. To achieve this, the players have to coordinate their strategy well: Is it better to knock an opponent’s ice stock off to one side or to get one of your own ones closer to the Daube, or even to hit and relocate the Daube? But there’s no time for long team discussions. A game lasts about 25 minutes during which the teams change sides five times and each team shoots its four ice stocks over the ice six times.
Approaching the Daube closely.
The ice stock glides across the track with a dull thud and comes to a stop a few centimetres in front of the Daube. The days when Dieter didn’t manage to hit the target are clearly over. And if he does miss, he tries not to get annoyed: “If you miss a shot, you may dwell on it until you change sides. No longer.” Then it is back to full concentration.
At the MESC, you can try your hand at ice stock sport even in summer. In the period from April to September, contact the club at mesc-moerlenbach@t-online.de to arrange a date to enjoy a good time with your colleagues, friends or club members there. You are also welcome to attend training sessions.
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