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)
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.
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.
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.
