UE's First Ever PD Day Camp

I just wanted to post a very quick entry about Upper Echelon's first ever PD Day camp that we just completed this past Friday at the Dartmouth Sportsplex.  I learned a lot from the day, and while I think the kids had a great time, I know there are ways we can improve on the experience for everyone.

As a summary of the day, we started with our first hour and half ice session.  The rink was empty so the staff at the Dartmouth Sportsplex gave us a little extra time at the beginning, so the kids could get a little warm-up skate in.  There was some puck passing and net-shooting by the goalies as well.  Since the kids were fairly warmed up prior to the 9:00 am start time, we dove right into our first session's drills.  The theme of this 90 minutes was a Read and React module that I had a basis in a few standby drills of our UE program, but with some modifications to improve the objectives.  It also included a new drill that Roman and I have been trying to develop to improve hand (and eventually foot) reactions.  After performing this drill, I have a few ideas to tweak it and I know I will be using it again.

Head Instructor Roman worked a skating station in the middle for the extra goalies to minimize "standing around" time.  Here we also tried a series of skating drill progressions using tennis balls and racquets.  It was something that I have wanted to use for a long time, but logistics in my association-based development clinics has often limited the opportunity.  I think it was very challenging for all the goalies at all the levels, as it was something they have never done before.  The general idea is to get the goalies only using their legs to perform their basic skating maneuvers and to minimize arm and upper body sway or rocking.  The kids were great with it and handled the strange task with a lot of seriousness.

Our pre-lunch activity was to introduce the kids to a dynamic stretching routine that I think is excellent for goalies of all ages.  They will be seeing this routine a lot in the future as I want them to be able to do it all on their own without guidance.  The objective here is to help them build their pre-practice and pre-game routines.  As Mike Richter says, "Preparation starts long before the puck drops".

Lunch was held in the front cafeteria of the Dartmouth Sportsplex where I was greeted with a most pleasant surprise.  The lady that worked behind the counter asked me if these were my "kids" and I, of course, said "yes".  She then proceeded to tell me that they were the most polite bunch of kids she has served in a long time.  Proud like a peacock was I.  I knew goalies were a different breed and the one thing about goaltending, it does promote humility and respect.  Would she have a had the same experience with forwards and their aggressiveness or defensemen and their blank stares?  I think not! (j/k to all my fellow hockey players).

In the afternoon, we worked on our game-based scenarios.  Again, the Sportplex staff allowed us on the ice a little early, so we started with a goalie-only 3 on 3 cross-ice game.  I was surprised on how well the kids took to this.  I thought that they would be too frustrated and would quickly give up, but at every whistle to change sets, the goalies that were coming off wanted one more chance to go out and try and score.  I will say there were more than a few instances where there was five or six individuals in the net and it looked like a modern NHL game with that many in the crease.

When my extra shooters were ready, I structured the ice a little differently than I usually do and I placed one net in each end-zone and the extra nets in the neutral zone.  I wanted the game-based drills to incorporate the whole zone.  The neutral zone nets were skill based drills to incorporate some of the technical elements of the butterfly cross crease slide with momentum that they would or should be using in the 2-1 drills in the end-zone nets.  There was still a skating station in the middle with Head Instructor Roman to work on small technical issues and give the legs the final burn.  The end zone nets were used to simulate the 2 on 1's and 2 on 0's with a couple of drill progressions.  Unfortunately, by 2:15 or so, most, if not all, the goalies were spent and there was still 20 plus minutes to go.  By the end, any goalie that was not in a station was either on their knee or on their butts.  Mission accomplished, I thought, as the kids were totally drained.

Most astonishingly, once the kids left the ice at the end of the last ice session, all of them opted to go to the pool for 90 minutes instead of attending my video lecture on modern goaltending.  I wouldn't say I was insulted, because how can you compete against swing ropes and waterslides, but I will definitely have to find a better way to get them out to my video clinics. (j/k)

All in all, the kids were terrific, stayed on task throughout the ice and dryland sessions, and represented themselves as respectful and upright young people.  It was a pleasure!

Some photos of the first ice session can be found here