Reply To: Jasper Camp: Progress Report

[Tom Molloy]

The camp has 22 players. Age range is 6-19. The 19 year old is captain of a Jr. A team and a fantastic skater who has come to the camp the last 10 years. He comes to refine his skating technique.

We have 4 young girl's who just started playing last year. They are all under 10. There are 4 little boy's all under 8.

There is a group with 6 boy's and 2 girl's that are under 12 and one small boy who is 9 but one of the best players there and plays with the older boy's. The oldest group has boy's ranging from the really good 9 year old to the Jr. player, a father and my son who plays the games with them to model.

They all skate together and the faster ones go first so no one is passed. They get 7 skating sessions and 7 hockey sessions in 4.5 days. They also do dryland at the end of each day where they do core work and stretching.

We start Day 4 today and Gaston will focus on the start. Yesterday he did a lot of Chocktow and Mohawk turns. The first two days were on the basic stride and x-overs. He also does 3 figure skating sessions per day with a group of 5 girl's.

My focus in the hockey sessions is carrying the puck and playing with good habits. We practice the Russian Big Moves along with lots of other stick handling skills. Players partner up with older ones instructing the younger ones. They play SAG with modified rules for at leat 30 out of each 60 minutes. There are always 3 or 4 games going on at the same time.

Today we have 2 hockey and one skating session and we will have them do peer coaching to review puck handling and passing technique. I will do the same thing with shooting in the second session. We have been using 6 small nets as there are zero goalies. Today I will use 2 full sized nets with the big group by putting one face down and the other behind it. This gives an opening at the top of 6" – 10 cm. that they must learn to hit vs. butterfly goalies (who are everywhere). I will focus on them becoming players with 270 degrees of vision instead of 90 degrees. They will do drills and play games that mandate they face the play with the puck so they are in a strong "triple threat", 'lock and load,' 'stick in the hip pocket' position. (they all mean the facing the play with the puck on the forehand side.)

We have a simple theme for the whole camp. 'Be able to skate in all directions with power and balance – be able to handle the puck all around the body and pass and shoot while skating."

Good Technique + Good Habits = Good Players

Japser is magical in it's beauty. Yesterday I biked up a mountain trail to Pyramid Lake Island. Many couples get maried there. I was looking around and there was a family there whispering to each other like they were in a church. it was like they didn't want to ruin the majestic silence they were in 'awe' of. I love this place.

I found this link showing the lake. http://www.explorejasper.com/sights/pyramidlake.htm

'The Game is the Greatest Coach'
'Enjoy the Game'