SPS Powerskating Review - New Westminster (Coach Duncan)

http://www.sps-powerskating.ca/

Camp attended: 1 hr semi-private power skating lesson for my son & 2 of his teammates March 2012 at Moody Park Arena in New Westminster, BC

Overall - Great feedback, a bit expensive compared to other camps but recommended (ie. you get what you pay for...)

(All ratings go from 1 = worst to 5 = best)

Quality of Coach - 4

Quality of Assistant coaches - N/A

Coach to Student ratio - 5

Quality of Drills - 5

Age vs. Skill flexibility - 5

Organization - 4

Off-ice session - N/A

Jersey - N/A

Website - 2

Game day or scrimmage - N/A

Value for money - 3

Would we go back?  Yes, but would probably wait for cheaper ice time or bring 2 more kids...


While we were back in Canada for Spring Break, as mentioned, we had issues with the lack of seriousness of the UBC camp, and we'd arranged for 2 of my son's teammates and their mothers to come all the way from Japan, so we thought we'd organize a semi-private lesson to do something a bit more serious.  Coach Duncan was great about helping to arrange the session, booking the ice time, and making all the arrangements.  The drills he had them run through were quite good, some very basic, but as he was doing it, he picked up a few issues in my sons skating (ie. not bringing his skates all the way back in before pushing off again), so he had the kids start doing drills that were specifically designed to fix the issues he'd noticed.  These were excellent.  He also gave a lot of good feedback after the class, in terms of what the kids could be doing to improve their skating and hockey, and the best feedback he gave was to have the kids not do hockey, but to cross-train and do something like gymnastics or judo that can help with their balance and body control.  Couldn't agree more.  It was a bit expensive per hour compared to other camps, as we only had 3 kids, however the feedback was excellent and very personalized, with clear takeaways for the kids to work on.  One note, on the website, it mentions video feedback, so we assumed this was included.  It's not, and is an additional charge for an off-ice session, so please make sure of this when booking your session.

UBC Hockey Camp Review - Vancouver

http://www.icerink.ubc.ca/youth/spring-break-skill-camp.php

Camp attended: Spring Break Hockey Camp March 19th-23rd, 2012 (6-16 year olds)

Overall - Babysitting on ice

(All ratings go from 1 = worst to 5 = best)

Quality of Coach - 2

Quality of Assistant coaches - 2

Coach to Student ratio - 2

Quality of Drills - 2

Age vs. Skill flexibility - 2

Organization - 2

Off-ice session - 4

Jersey - 2

Website - 2

Game day or scrimmage - 3

Value for money - 2

Would we go back?  Never to the Spring Break Camp


The spring hockey camp at UBC is held at the UBC Thunderbird arena, which is a very impressive facility, but it is not a serious hockey camp.  If you want your kid to actually improve their hockey, this is not the camp to attend.  If you want to be able to dump your kid off in the morning and pick them up again in the afternoon, and have them have some fun and get a bit of ice time in while you're gone, then this is the camp for you.  


We had originally signed up for the North Shore Winter Club Spring Break Camp, which looked great, however unfortunately they cancelled the session the week we were planning to be in Vancouver, so we had to switch to the UBC one, as it was the only other camp being held that week.  It would have been OK if it was only us, as my son did have fun, however we'd also arranged to help 2 other kids and their mothers from my son's team in Japan to come all the way to Canada for a proper Canadian Hockey Camp, however unfortunately that's not what they got.


What they got was a session with lots of fun, but with little organization, no proper coaching, little to no improvement  in the kids' hockey skills and little value, other than a full day of babysitting. 


Where to start...  Well, first off when we got to the Arena, there were no signs in the parking lot as to where to go.  We wandered around the outside of the arena for 15 minutes, and finally found a door that opened up.  After 20 minutes of stumbling all over the inside of the arena complex, through rooms and smaller rinks and up and down stairs, we finally found ourselves at the proper location, no thanks to the non-existent signage.


Once the kids got out on the ice, things did not improve.  There was a huge age & skill difference, from 6 year old non-skaters all the way up to almost adult 16 year olds, and all kids were lumped together in the same group.  This meant that there were huge waiting times, while the littlest kids at the end of each line tried to skate down the ice, falling all over themselves.  The drills themselves were quite mundane, and there was little creativity.


The website implies via the connection with UBC that you are getting UBC coaches, but this was not the case.  The coaches were very nice people, however they looked to be students at UBC and seemed less interested in teaching hockey, and more interested in getting back to studying for exams...  There were usually only 1 or 2 assistant coaches and over 20 kids, which meant a terrible student to coach ratio.  


On the website for the spring break camp, it shows a picture with all the kids in UBC jerseys.  So, one would expect that the kids would get jerseys at the camp.  Apparently not.  The spring camp is the same price as the summer camps, and the summer camp kids get jerseys, but not the spring camp kids.  I had a chat with the coach as this was a bit much, especially for the mothers who had brought their kids all the way from Japan for this.  Amazingly, jerseys appeared at the end of the camp, which was a very nice touch, although still didn't really make up for the lack of seriousness in the program.


The only positive from this camp were the off-ice sessions which were quite good, with lots of ball hockey, gymnastics, swimming, etc.  The kids had great fun.


All in all, this is more of a fun, babysitting camp than it is a serious "improve your hockey" camp.  If you're OK with that, then head on over.  

Please note: The review posted here is for informational purposes only and is not designed to promote any specific camp.  The information posted is specifically for the camp that my son attended and that I viewed.  Your experience may be different.  Also, please be aware that some camps may change their format over time and make improvements, or have other issues come up.  I am not responsible for any differences in what is posted here and what you may experience. 

Turcotte Stickhandling School Review - Prince George

http://www.turcottehockey.com/


Camp attended: Complete Approach to Stickhandling August 15-19, 2011 (Novice/Atom in Prince George, BC)

Overall - OK, but a bit of a disappointment

(All ratings go from 1 = worst to 5 = best)

Quality of Coach - 3

Quality of Assistant coaches - 4

Coach to Student ratio - 2

Quality of Drills - 3

Age vs. Skill flexibility - 2

Organization - 3

Off-ice session - No

Jersey - No

Website - 4

Game day or scrimmage - 2

Value for money - 3

Would we go back?  Probably not


To be frank, I had high hopes for this camp.  We had just come out of Pacific Elite, which was very physical and my son was looking forward to a more technical stickhandling school.  Unfortunately, what we found was that there was a cookie-cutter, franchise like approach to this camp.  Not as much connection to the coaching staff as in other camps.  This may be because they travel all over the country and have little connection to the communities in which they put on the camps.


The coach was Ok, but time & ice management was not great, with a lot of waiting in line, and one-on-one drills that matched kids of very different abilities against each other.  The kids were generally divided up by age & size, not by skill.  However when it came to the scrimmage at the end of the camp, the kids were put out by skill level, which normally would be good, however at this camp the age ranges were quite wide which meant my son ended up playing against some kids who were 4-5 years older and significantly bigger than him, and he got pushed around a lot, which wasn't a lot of fun for him, however it was a good learning experience.


The assistant coaches, however were quite good, and spent a lot of time helping out the kids and showing them how to do drills properly.  One assistant coach in particular took a liking to my son's passion for the game and was very good in helping him out.  However, overall the coach to student ratio was low, and there was a lot of standing around.


The organization was OK, but not great.  The rink was hard to find, and not marked at all.  No signage, and no idea if you were in the right place or not.


No off-ice and no jersey, which was unfortunate, as jerseys should be considered by most camps as not just a giveaway that costs money, but as a prized souvenir that also acts as advertising,  and reminds kids every time they wear it to come back to the same camp the next year...


They do a good job of taking the kids through some basic moves, and you get a report card at the end of camp with some basic scores, however there's not enough chances to actually use these moves and practice them during the class, and most of the kids had very little clue as to how to actually apply these moves in the game, although points were awarded in the scrimmage for using the moves as well as scoring.   We also bought the DVDs, which were good for practicing at home, but again too much theory and not quite enough assistance as to how to use the moves during games.


Their website at the time was not great, but they have recently launched a new website that is better, but still not great.  They have some testimonials up now, and a decent explanation of what the class content will be, with a basic video on the homepage.


Overall, it was OK, but not as good as I was expecting, given the online reviews I had read.  Also, possibly it suffered in comparison to Pacific Elite, as had we done this camp before Pacific Elite, we might not have been as disappointed. 




Please note: The review posted here is for informational purposes only and is not designed to promote any specific camp.  The information posted is specifically for the camp that my son attended and that I viewed.  Your experience may be different.  Also, please be aware that some camps may change their format over time and make improvements, or have other issues come up.  I am not responsible for any differences in what is posted here and what you may experience.

Pacific Elite Hockey School Review - Richmond

http://www.pacificelitehockey.com/

Camp attended: Pre-Season Tryout and Conditioning Camp August 8-13, 2011 for 2001-2002 at the Richmond Ice Center in Richmond, BC

Overall - Great coach, great organization, highly recommended.  Best camp we've been to yet.

(All ratings go from 1 = worst to 5 = best)

Quality of Coach - 5

Quality of Assistant coaches - 3

Coach to Student ratio - 4

Quality of Drills - 5

Age vs. Skill flexibility - 4

Organization - 4

Off-ice session - Yes, but hard to score as wasn't allowed to watch

Jersey - 4

Website - 3

Game day or scrimmage - 4

Value for money - 4

Would we go back?  Absolutely, and we've already booked again for this summer...

This was the second camp we attended, and I was blown away by this camp.  Coach Glenn Wheeler was amazing, strict but firm and loud but in a good way and not abusive at all to the kids.  He pushed the kids hard, but always to the limits of their abilities, and the kids seemed to love it and loved him.  My son is very athletic, but the second day when he woke up he had muscle pain for the first time in his life, and that's the best recommendation I can give...

The assistant coaches were OK, but were a bit young and didn't really seem to be too involved in giving advice, they mostly moved cones around and demonstrated how to do the drills.  The coach to student ratio was OK, but as mentioned, the assistant coaches were not spectacular, so it meant a somewhat lower relative coach to student ratio.

The quality of the drills were quite high, and they always had 4 or 5 stations going all over the ice, so there was very little waiting around in lines.  The kids seemed to be always skating or puckhandling.

The organization of this camp was excellent.  Coaches should coach, as that's what they know best, and they should leave the camp organization up to someone else who has experience in this area and this is what Pacific Elite does.  Coach Glenn's father Gary Wheeler is a retired executive, who clearly knows what he's doing.  The camp itself was run amazingly well.  Everything was set up at the rink well ahead of time, with lots of staff available.  They even had lots of ex-campers around to help out with tying skate laces and taking kids to lunch if the parents wanted to leave the kids there for the day.  There was also good communication in advance of the camp, in terms of what to bring, etc. however the e-mails sent out had the e-mail addresses of everyone in the header, a bit of an information privacy issue that they've now fixed this year through the use of the bcc function.

In terms of age vs. skill flexibility (ie. will they move kids up and down based on skill not age) was good.  The camp was for 2001-2002 year kids, and even though my son was 2003 he was moved into this class as his skills were more in line, which shows good flexibility on their part, although some of the kids were quite a bit bigger which was a bit of a concern.  In the end, however it worked out well.  In terms of skill level for the age range it was fairly high, although as mentioned there was some movement of kids up and down which helped.

The off-ice session was held at Gold's Gym next door to the rink, which was convenient.  Parents were not allowed to watch, so I can't comment specifically on this, however my son said it was fun and good.

The website is functional, with basic descriptions of the camps, but would benefit by adding additional info on the camp drills, some videos, and testimonials/reviews from parents whose kids have attended in the past. 

One of the best parts of this camp was how they divided the kids up into 2 teams (red & black) right from day 1, giving half the kids black jerseys and half the kids red jerseys (and the Jerseys were very nice, and all sized properly).  During the drills red & black got to compete against each other and the losing teams had to do pushups.  Lots of pushups...  Then on the Saturday they hold game day where red team and black team actually get to play each other for a trophy.  It was an incredible experience for both the kids and the parents, although unfortunately they only managed to have one goalkeeper and he showed up late. And they used a goalie mat (with cutouts in each corner and the 5 hole) in the other goal with the stipulation you could only score in the top holes which seriously cut down on the number of goals scored.

Overall an excellent camp that is highly recommended.  Some improvements to the assistant coaching and the website and 2 goalies for game day would raise their marks even higher...






Please note: The review posted here is for informational purposes only and is not designed to promote any specific camp.  The information posted is specifically for the camp that my son attended and that I viewed.  Your experience may be different.  Also, please be aware that some camps may change their format over time and make improvements, or have other issues come up.  I am not responsible for any differences in what is posted here and what you may experience.

International Hockey Camps Review - Surrey (Coach Enio)

www.coachenio.com


Camp Attended: Power Skating and Puck Control "Mini" Camp on June 16-18th, 2010 for 7-11 year olds in Surrey, BC


Overall - Great coach, organizationally challenged


(All ratings go from 1 = worst to 5 = best)
Quality of Coach - 4
Quality of Assistant coaches - 4
Coach to Student ratio - 5
Quality of Drills - 4
Game day or scrimmage - 0 (none)
Age vs. Skill & flexibility - 3
Organization - 2
Off-ice session - 2
Jersey - 2
Website - 2 
Value for money - 3 (early registration discounts available)
Would we go back?  Yes, if the timing was right.


This was the first camp we attended in Canada in June of 2010, mainly because it was in June and fit into our travel schedule.  Had some challenges signing up as the info posted on the webpage did not exactly match the info from the pdf downloads.  The website itself is not great and doesn't give quite as much info as one would hope (lots of info on the coach which is good, but no videos or testimonials/reviews from parents whose kids have attended in the past, and all camp info is contained on PDFs that you have to download).  Then once I'd registered the e-mails listed my son as being in the 11-14 year old mini-shooting camp, not the 7-11 year old Power skating & Puck Control camp.  Finally got that sorted out, however when we arrived at the rink in Surrey 1 hour before the session (as requested in the documentation) there was no one there to meet us. Luckily there was another father & son and I confirmed that we were in the right place.  Finally Coach Enio showed up.  We got signed up, and he had Jerseys for the kids.  Unfortunately the jersey was way too big for my son, as apparently he was still registered in the 11-14 year old camp, but my son made do.


Onto the ice and things quickly picked up steam.  The drills were excellent, and with a very low coach to student ratio, each kid got great individual instruction.  Coach Enio has spent a lot of time in Europe, and this shows as the focus really was on skating and stickhandling.  He used the triangles very well to teach puckhandling and had the kids doing some drills I'd never seen before that seemed very effective.  Overall the organization and use of time was excellent with very little downtime or waiting in line.


For the Power skating session, this was held by a specialist speed skating instructor, and there was an off-ice session as well.


In terms of the off-ice sessions, it was mostly videos and lectures with a lot of good information that connected directly to what they were teaching on the ice, but some of the motivational aspects were a bit hokey, and probably better suited to an older audience, as some of the younger kids were rolling their eyes.  They would be better off doing a bit more conditioning, and less lecturing.


Back on the ice and more great drills.  I was a bit worried about how my son would do, as he was one of the youngest kids on the ice, however he did fine.  There was a fair range in abilities and ages, however the high coach to student ratio meant that this was OK.


All in all, my son had fun, the coach was good, but the lack of organization knocks their score down.




Please note: The review posted here is for informational purposes only and is not designed to promote any specific camp.  The information posted is specifically for the camp that my son attended and that I viewed.  Your experience may be different.  Also, please be aware that some camps may change their format over time and make improvements, or have other issues come up.  I am not responsible for any differences in what is posted here and what you may experience.

Hockey camp reviews for Vancouver, BC & Japan Hockey Camps that my son has attended

This blog will focus primarily on reviews of Hockey Camps in Vancouver, BC Canada and in Japan that my son (who is currently 8 - 2003 birth year) has attended since he started to play hockey 3 years ago.  We currently live in Japan, and he plays hockey here, however we come back to Vancouver once or twice a year to visit family and use the opportunity to put him into a hockey camp to improve his skills and also to see how he stacks up against the Canadian kids.

If you're like me, when you choose a hockey camp for your son or daughter to attend, you want them to have the best experience they can, and learn as much as possible.  What I've found, however is that there is almost no information online on the quality of the various hockey camps available, and when your child actually attends a camp, the quality level varies quite significantly.

Now, I don't claim to be a hockey camp expert.  I have played hockey in the past, and continue to play in a beer league here in Japan, however I am primarily just a dad looking to maximize the return on our investment of time & money.  I'd also like to share our experiences, as I feel this may help other people out who are struggling to decide which camps to put their kids into.

Keep checking back for more info on the various camps, and feel free to comment or submit your own reviews...


Please note: The reviews posted here are for informational purposes only and are not designed to promote any specific camp.  The information posted is specifically for the camp that my son attended and that I viewed.  Your experience may be different.  Also, please be aware that some camps may change their format over time and make improvements, or have other issues come up.  I am not responsible for any differences in what is posted here and what you may experience.