By Phillip Goodman
April 2, 2024
Reno Ice Raiders’ play-by-play broadcaster and team writer Phillip Goodman takes a look into the Battle Born Hockey School's new features for the 2024 camps coming to Reno, Utah, and Roseville, CA.
Entering its third season of summer hockey camps, Battle Born Hockey School continues to evolve to meet the needs of today's adult leaguers by adding even more experienced coaches and value-added elements. BBHS is offering three different camps for 2024: Adults, Power Skating, and Shooters & Scorers.
"Many individual NHLers have their own private skills coaches," said BBHS Coach and Ice Raider Simon LeBleu, who will also be an instructor at the CA and NV camps. "It's the direction the game is going so we're pushing for skills. We're sharpening the sword at every turn."
The Adult Camp will dive deep into skating, shooting, passing, and situational play with intensive on-ice sessions spread over three days. Between those on-ice sessions, there will be one-hour mobility session led by certified massage therapist Bobby Baum. This helpful session will enhance your flexibility, prevent injuries, and boost your overall performance.
"Adult camps will still incorporate positioning and breakouts for the adult leaguer needing to learn the flow of the game," said Le Bleu. "The Coaches' Corners videos will be watched by peers so that everyone can learn together."
The Power Skating Camp is dedicated to elevating your speed, agility, power, and edgework with the goal of guiding you to explosive starts and more agile maneuvers.
The Shooters & Scorers Camp is designed to break down and enhance your technique for various shots: wrist shots, slap shots, snap shots, backhand shots, and one-timers. This camp is designed for both forwards and defensemen, so if you want to launch a Jeff Jiron Bomb or fire top-shelf lasers from the blue line like Andrew Peterson then this is the camp for you.
"I'm looking forward to the Shooters & Scorers Camp to have different looks and different drills that hopefully people haven't seen before," said Andrew Peterson. "Not that we're doing anything super crazy, just getting those types of reps and drills in with those skill sets."
The slate of scheduled instructors for the camps (subject to change/availability) are Ice Raiders Weston Nash, Adam Barba, Jeff Jiron, Jon Sobieski, and Team Captain Andrew Peterson. This year's camps will also include American Hockey League Hall of Famer and Ice Raiders' Head Coach Tim Tookey. Coach Tookey expressed elation in being added to the Battle Born coaching staff.
"The way our Ice Raiders are playing hockey right now everybody wants to be taught by these guys," said Tookey. "They've got a lot of experience and value things they can teach. I'm just happy to be with them."
How does Tookey, who put up 974 points in 824 AHL games, plan to dispense that type of scoring knowledge into adult leaguers?
"You try and teach the basics," said Tookey. "Give the simple things, shooting especially. They don't teach them early enough to grab the stick tight or the puck won't go where you want it to go. We'll give them the simple things first. I think the nicest thing to see is when the light goes on for them and they lift the puck off the ice then you've done your job by making them a little bit better than when they started."
For the two skills camps, there will be cameras on the ice capturing each shooter and skater then there will be a video tutorial of each.
"It's a really good thing to do in all sports, not just hockey," said Peterson. "I've been doing [video breakdowns of myself] since I was super young. It's better to see yourself up on a screen so you can tweak some stuff just by seeing your form. This will be a beneficial thing to have."
In the days following all of the camps, from the coaches you will receive a personalized feedback report card including two video tutorial sessions focusing on your individual skating and shooting techniques. Participants also get to provide feedback to the coaches, and that feedback gets taken to heart and applied for future camps.
"The groups will be better organized and have a more strict pace throughout each session," said Peterson about 2024 changes based on the feedback from the 2023 camps . "I think before we tried to cram too much stuff into the camps now I think we're going with a less-is-more approach."
BBHS is also offering some sweet deals for the May, June, and July Camps. If you sign up within at least 45 days prior to camp start date, you'll get a free BBHS t-shirt.
If you sign up for more than one camp, you get to take 10% off your total camp purchase.
Reno Ice Camp Dates:
NV Adult Camp May 17th - May 19th, 2024 $450
NV Power Skating Camp June 22nd - June 23rd, 2024 $330
NV Shooters and Scorers Camp July 20th - July 21st, 2024 $330
Roseville, CA Camp Dates:
CA Power Skating April 6th - April 7th, 2024 $330
CA Shooters and Scorers July 27th - July 28th, 2024 $330
(Goaltender Justis Gyori will help with mobility)
Provo, UT Camp Dates:
UT Adult Camp August 23rd - August 25th, 2024 $330
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