Okay, so I’ve been meaning to get my kid into a more structured hockey program. He’s good, really good, but I felt like he needed that extra push, you know? So, I started looking into these “elite” hockey camps. Man, there are a TON of them out there.
First, I just googled “elite hockey camps near me”. That brought up, like, a million results. It was overwhelming. I started clicking through some of the websites. Some looked super professional, all sleek and shiny. Others, well, not so much. Made me wonder what I was actually going to get.
Narrowing it Down
I decided I needed a better way to sift through all this. I started looking at a few things:
- Location: Obviously, I didn’t want to be driving across the country. A few hours, max.
- Coaches: Who were these guys? Did they actually play, or coach, at a high level? Some websites were great about listing their coaches’ backgrounds. Others, you had to dig.
- Schedule: Did it fit with our summer plans? Some were a week long, others were a whole month!
- Price: This was a BIG one. These camps aren’t cheap. Some were seriously expensive.
After a few days of this, I had a shortlist of maybe five camps that seemed like a good fit. I then made the calls to them to gather more information.
Making Contact
Then came the fun part – talking to the camps directly. I emailed a few, but honestly, I prefer just picking up the phone. I wanted to get a feel for the people running the place, ask some specific questions that weren’t on the website.
I asked about things like:
- What’s the daily schedule like? How much ice time do they actually get?
- What’s the player-to-coach ratio? I didn’t want my kid getting lost in the crowd.
- What kind of off-ice training do they do?
- What skill level is needed?
Talking to the different camps was really helpful. Some were super friendly and informative. Others, well, they seemed a little less interested in answering my questions, which was a red flag.
The Final Decision
After all that, I finally picked one. It wasn’t the cheapest, but it had great reviews, the coaches seemed awesome, and the schedule worked for us. My kid is super excited, and honestly, I am too. I’ll let you all know about the progression in future blogs!
It was a bit of a process, but I feel good about the choice. I really hope this gives my kid that extra edge he needs to take his game to the next level.
