From July 31 and August 11, 2014, The HKAIH brought 34 students to participate in a camp in Beroun, Czech Republic. This hockey camp is a coordinated effort between the HKAIH and Sportsevent, which has been running hockey camps, hockey schools and hockey tournaments in Czech Republic for 15 years.
The coaches in Czech were happy to receive us at the airport and take us to the rink and the hotel where the students stayed for the duration of the camp.
Coaches Barry Beck, Hiroki Wakabayashi and Fellow Mui were present to organize the trip while also monitoring the on and off ice activities. We had several coaches from Sportsevent on ice running their program which concentrated on power skating and stick-handling. The drills were challenging while the dry-land exercises were equally difficult.
We want to thank all the coaches in Czech, the parents who came along and for supporting our camp and all the students for coming out to participate in one of the most unique camps the HKAIH has been to.
Our summer camp this year was held in Beroun Czech Republic. The players worked very hard and got a chance to play against some of the top division Czech teams in U12 and U16.
The Czech coaches were very patient with our players and worked on technical elements as well as positioning. During this camp players also practiced off ice puckhandling and shooting.
Overseas teams are used to getting more ice time during the year so it was a tough camp for our players to manage their physical part of their game. Being on the ice twice a day is not easy and catches up with players quickly if they do not rest and eat properly..
The Czech style is a more finesse brand of hockey but the good skating teams can also play physical. It was tough on our players to go through an ice session in the morning and come back and play games at night. They tried to play hard every shift so the coaches were proud of their work ethic.
Everyone returned safely and I believe came back a better player and learned the responsibility of being a leader on and off the ice.
Thank you to all the parents, players, staff and coaches for making this year’s camp a successful one.
Congratulations to all!!
Barry Beck
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