This site gives information about Jasper National Park.
http://www.pc.gc.ca/pn-np/ab/jasper/index.aspx
The fundamental skills a hockey player needs are:
1 - Skating
2 - Puck Handling
3 - Competitiveness
4 - Hockey IQ.
14 ice times in 5 days - 7 skating, 7 hockey, 5 off ice sessions.
Our camp focuses on
1 - Skating - Featuring Olympic skating coach and professional ice skater with a Doctorate in Body Mechanics (his son assisting).
2 - Puck Handling with a coach who has worked with North American professionals, Russian Olympic coach, Finnish IIHF Hall of Famer and many other former NHL and International coaches. Puck handling is the foundation of passing and shooting as they are an extension of the puck handling skill.
3 - Competitiveness - everything we do in hockey sessions starts with the game is focused on and then put into competitive situations.
4 - Hockey IQ - good game playing habits like facing the puck, give and go, defensive side, etc. are taught along with the basic skills.
I usually stay in one of the big camp grounds along with many families who have players at out camp. We gather around the fire a few of the nights and visit and have some pops together. There are great places for the kid's to ride bikes or run around. I usually ride my bike into along the river path into town for the ice times.
The dorm has a common room for girl's and one for boy's. We get high school over 18 to stay in the room and supervise them when they are not busy on ice or dryland. Gaston stays in a coaches room. The meals are great and in the same recreation centre.
White Water Rafting is optional and costs about $40. They can go on the ice with an instructor if they don't want to raft.
We hardly make enough to pay the ice time with this camp. I am promoting it because it is such a good hockey and LIFE experience.
The borochure is in the posting above this.
Things are heating up a little with our Jasper Camp.
Deniz Ince, the former captain of the Turkish National Team, who came here last fall and I met with at the World's in Helsinki last month is bringing about 8 players to the camp in Jasper. We are working on the details now. Visas,etc.
We are suggesting that the boy's stay at the dorm in the rec centre so they get a better cultural experience, but this hasn't been decided yet.
I posted two pictures of Deniz one on the train to Turku to visit Juuso and one with Juuso while walking along the Turku, River. He is a good guy and a very good hockey player.
Our hockey camp starts in Jasper next week. We focus on skating in 7 one hour sessions with Gaston Schaeffer, former Olympic coach, Swiss Champ, feature ice show skater who has a Doctorate in Body Mehanics.
Another 7 one hour sessions I focus on good technique and game sense.
Gaston's son Gaston Jr. and my son Jim will be on the ice with us helping.
If a player is going to succeed in the game he/she needs to be a great skater and if you want to carry the puck and do things with it you need good technique and game understanding.
The above is the focus of this camp and details are in the postings above. The players have fun in a relaxed professional atmosphere.
Just got an email from Petr Svoboda who is a former NHL player (Leafs) and who I would have coached with had I accepted the position of asst. u20 coach and mentor for the Jihlava Dukla Club in the Czech Republic.
He has been appointed head coach of the Czech National U17 Team and they are coming to Calgary to play in a tournament at Christmas time. I assume they will play in the same one the Finnish U17 team played in. A sports school tournament (so U19) sponsored by Hockey Canada.
When I got back from Austria at the end of the 08-09 season it was the first time I saw my grandson skate. He had just finished his first year and it was a sad sight. He was walking on the ice. He learned to stride and hold his stick properlly that summer at the Jasper camp and improved a lot the next season. He has come to two more camps and now he may be the best 10 year old skater in Calgary (watched him play vs summer elite teams this spring). He handles the puck really well and is one of the only players I saw who actually shoots the puck and doesn't flip it.
Good Mechanics are base for improvement. He loves to play and practices in his basement all of the time. The key is that he is practicing good technique and creating thicker myelin. He won't have to create new pathways like I had to after I had finished playing Jr. A, college and semi pro. I could skate as well as anyone and worked harder than almost everyone and that is how I played a highter level than most. If someone would have taught me good mechanics in holding my stick and using my top hand more I would have been twice as effective. I am much better with the puck now than I was at 30. I learned proper technique when I started working with Juhani and travelling around with him and Jursinov and doing his big moves routines.
I showed the Russian Big Moves Routine to Tomas Pacina (Montreal skill coach) who was living with Hayley Wickenheiser at the time. They did a tour together to teach skills in little towns all over Western Canada. Hayley demonstrated the routine every day and Tomas told me that her stick handling improved a lot.
So it is really important to have efficient mechanics and be introduced to lots of moves that you can practice on your own. You have to be like the twin brothers Pete and Repeat. Keep practicing.
It is the same thing with skating. You need the proper stride and body position and the ability to use and trust your edges.
These are the things we teach at our camp along with using the skills in game situations.
No one from this site has ever gone to the camp and I doubt anyone will but I feel obliged to offer the opportunity. Info is in the postings above.
Jasper Camp Travel Alternative - for those planning to drive the Banff, Lake Louise route on 1A
They have been having a lot of rain in the mountains west of Calgary and yesterday the 1A road to Banff was closed. A good alternate route is to drive the Cowboy Trail Highway 22 to Rocky Mountain House and then West on Highway 11 on the David Thompson Trail until you get to Highway 97 which heads throught the Columbia Ice Fields to Jasper.
It takes about 90 minutes longer. My daughter and husband and Ava and Aidan are heading that way today. Jim and I go tomorrow.
It is always a great camp and when you have the building blocks of proper skating and puck handling technique the game is a lot more enjoyable.
My daughter who is on her way to the camp in Jasper but plans on camping tonight just texted me. They decided to try to 1A highway and the mud has been cleared and they are past the mid slide. So as long as it doesn't pour rain tonight the 1A West from Calgary and 97 North to Jasper is open for driving.
Registration is Sunday evening at the arena and we start on the ice. A fun week of skating, hockey, plyo's, white water rafting, biking, skate boarding, swimming and camping lies ahead.
We got here after a beautiful drive through the mountains. Had dinner at the Recreation Centre where Shirley always does up a great meal. It is warm and sunny out. Lots of bears around on the other side of the river so I don't think I will bike there. So much snow last winter that they came down to the valley.
Camp starts tomorrow. 3 ice sessions a day. Right now there are about 25 hockey players and 5 figure skaters. One of the boy's who came to the camp the first ten years got drafted by Anaheim this year. He won't be at this camp anymore.
Kid's grow. Another boy who is still U15 -98 is now 6'2". He plays AAA in Calgary.
Nice to renew aquaintances with everyone.
Would like to be there. Will you record any video?
We have 25 hockey players ages 7-16 and 7 figure skaters. Players had three one hour ice times and one
Dryland. They are now swimming.
Gaston did sriding and turning in the two skating sessions. I did
Puckhandling for 30 minutes and the we played two pass in
Five groups. Two one net games at each end and one cross ice game in the middle. First
Game with a puck and then eacharea had a different kind of ball or ring. Froups rotated
Every five minutes. Good session playing soccer, ringuette, ball hockey.a real challenge to the nervous system.
I am typing on my iphone. Some immature person was posting random things and in the process of banning the offending ip
I accidentily banned the ip of the house I rented for the camp.
It is the last day of our camp. The hockey playes are going on the ice right now for the seventh and last skating session with Gaston and after lunch we have our last hockey session. Today we will do a quick review and then do a full ice scrimmage with the three ability gooups getting one minute shifts and then change on the go when I whistle. The lines will play each other and keep score for each game..
This is a great camp because we have a narrow focus. Skating, puckhandling and good playing habits is that focus. We touch on passing and shooting technique for about 30 minutes each and the older players become coaches and help small groups of the younger players. We use cross ice, one net games in one zone and today full ice games. for at least half of each practice. These games always have rules to teach technique and good habits.
Some of the rules teach skating to open ice; you must take at least 3 hard strides before you can pass or shoot or you must make an escape move..
Some teach good habits like goals only count after a give and go.
Passing is practiced with games that require 3 passes or you can only have the puck for 2 seconds.. Technique games like only forehand or only backhand passes are allowed cause the players to practice these techniques under defensive pressure. they also teach plaers how to get open for a pass which is a very important skill in itself.
This kind of practice has the players moving about 80% of the time instead of the driill model practices that have players move about 20% of the time. Result of this is that they automatically are getting fit and they are also having fun.
We are teaching players to PLAY the GAME and the motto of the ABC model is:
"Enjoy the Game" with the other motto "The Game is the Best Coach"
TomM
We finished with a full ice scrimmage. The scoreboard clock was used and the players got one minute shifts and changed on the go. A short buzzer sounded and they had to pass me the puck and I put it in a neurtral place. We had on goalie and one small net. With two goalies I would have them pass to their goalie on the whistle and he/she practices making passes.
There were three groups 4-4, 5-5 and the little one 3-3. I was going to move the small net up when the U8's came on but they were skating so well that I left it on the goal line.
We played games to 5 and then switched ends so everyone got to shoot on the goalie. They had to be in the slot to score on the small net.
There were young players playing in the older groups because they were too dominant in their age group. i.e. my grandson who is 10 played with the older kid's. There was no hitting so it was safe.
Great camp, 7 skating and 7 hockey sessions and one white water rafting trip. The kid's and parents loved it and I got in lots of bike riding in the mountains. Saw bear, wolf and elk.
Terrific week.
Jasper Skating and Hockey Camp July 22-27, 2012
We are having our camp in Jasper again next month. Registration is Sunday evening July 22. Hockey players get three one hour ice times a day alternating between 2 skating and 1 hockey and 1 skating and 2 hockey for a total of 14 ice times. Every day there is an off ice plyometrics session before supper. Wednesday morning there is a white water rafting trip.
Players can just attend the day camp for $350. Day camp and great meals for $450 or stay in the dorm, day camp, meals for $750.
This is my favorite camp to do. It is in beautiful Jasper National Park and the players skills and skating can improve substantially.
Gaston, Curtis Brackenbury (NHL player and coach) and myself do all of the instructing. My son and Gaston's son will be helping on the ice.
We really focus on puck handling, passing and decision making and many players who regularly attended have gone on to play junior and one of our original players expects to be taken in the NHL draft next month.
Figure skaters have a similar schedule with the three ice times and dryland and Gaston is the former Swiss champion, feature skater for Ice Capades and Holiday on ice, national team coach in figure skating and fitmess coach for speed skating as well as having a Doctorate in Body Mechanics.
It is possible to pay on line with Paypal using the Donate button on the top right of this sites homepage and email the registration form to Gaston.
https://www.paypal.com/ca/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_flow&SESSION=KUFneHsbrK4zsAXSr8PdWiXxMJnuyxNk7AvZG3TXF0XNt5Mwi3HK7BT5KYW&dispatch=5885d80a13c0db1f8e263663d3faee8d0288a7fd2903afb85a5540fd44243d03 is a link to paypal.
'Enjoy the Game'