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.