Enhancing their skills

Times Reporter

 

Elite Hockey Development Camps are coming to Strathmore again this summer, and this year there are a few new camps. The full day hockey school starts on August 8 and run to the 12th. The advantage program which normally runs in the spring will instead begin on August 15 and go until Sept. 10 this year, and is already almost full. This year Elite Hockey is also running a shooting and scoring clinic, a checking clinic and a conditioning camp for bantam and midget players.

“Our hockey camps mostly were based around the hockey development with peewee and under so a lot of the kids that we’ve taught are now in bantam or midget and there’s nothing for them,” said Doug Raycroft, director of Elite Hockey Development Camps.

“We’ve had people say there’s not a lot for the kids that age, so we thought we would offer this conditioning camp to get kids kind of in shape and ready for the hockey season.”

With the full day camp the kids are on the ice twice a day, working on drills and fundamentals before going outside to have fun with the group and their friends. The advantage program is a little bit conditioning as well as development, and Raycroft said the kids use it to get into shape before tryouts and things like that. 

The checking clinic is for anybody going into peewee hockey. It’s the player’s first year of body checking, which can be stressful for both the parents and kids. Some of the peewee age kids can have quite a big difference in size and ability, and they need to know how to be safe on the ice.

It’s four sessions in which they instruct the kids to be safe on the ice, how to play the body, how to give hits, how to take hits, and for the new kids it gives them a chance to get used to being hit in a controlled session, building their confidence for on the ice. 

The shooting and scoring clinic is about improving offensive skills and the bantam and midget conditioning camp is a high tempo camp that is meant to get the players in shape for the season. Players will be worked hard in the bantam and midget conditioning camp because that’s what Raycroft said he has heard people want. 

“Hockey, it’s no different then anything else, the more you’re on the ice the more you’re getting instruction the better you’re going to get. I think that the full day camp that we have is just great for mixing hockey development and fun,” said Raycroft. 

More information, and registration for all of the camps can be found online at www.elitehockeydevelopment.com.