Player and Coaching Development
As the director of the Training Committee and the Vice President of Hockey, I am very excited to present and offer a great opportunity for all players that are seeking additional ice and development to enhance their skills for this great sport. Kensington Valley Hockey Association has had a long commitment to its players with regards to developing them to their fullest potential. Our travel teams are amongst the strongest in the state. Our house teams historically have done very well in districts playoffs and are a great feeder to the travel teams. Livingston County and the surrounding areas has provided a hot bed of hockey players. That is why I am excited to announce the Kensington Valley Hockey Academy.
This academy will offer your player a station based skill development opportunity under the support and direction of a professional instructor and coaches. Unlike most other camps where you go for a week or two, this camp will consist of 22 weeks on Wednesday evenings running from October through Mid-March.
There will be 2 separate sessions. One from 6:15PM to 7:25PM for Squirts and lower, and one from 7:25PM to 8:35PM for Pee Wees and older. Depending on the response that we get, we may decide to further adjust the sessions to include Mini-Mites and Mites, Squirts and Pee Wees, and Bantams and Midgets. There will be a limit on the number of players that can sign up. The maximum amount we can have is 48 hockey players per session and the minimum needed is 36 per session. This will be a first come first serve opportunity. Parents have until September 30th to register for this program. It will be open to house level players first. If on September 30th there are still spots available, then we will open this up to our current travel players. You must be a registered member with KVHA to participate.
The cost for to participate in this training program is $220 per player, which breaks down to approximately $10 per session/player. An incredible value and opportunity not yet seen before.
The goal of this training program is to further develop your son or daughter in a fun, skill orientated environment that will provide continued instruction and accelerate their development. The KVHA Board of Directors identifies and acknowledges the limitations placed on our players in the house program when it comes to ice-time. The average house player gets roughly 2-3 hours of ice per week, while the average travel player gets 3-4 hours of week, and the average AAA players get 4-5 hours per week. That may not seem like a lot but when spread out over a period of 32-40 weeks, however, that make a tremendous difference in a players development and opportunity.
That is why we are offering a voluntary training program at a very reasonable expense. We, the KVHA Board of Directors, want to give every player every opportunity to further improve their skills and move up to the travel program, or even to move up on the depth chart in their current house program. The ice availability has been a limiting factor toward their development and has forced parents to go to Wixom, Ann Arbor, etc., to find additional ice and coaching.
The program will be supervised and run by Rob Palmer. Please refer to information on him below. He will be working with our current House and Travel coaches throughout the duration of this training program. I have asked Rob to give some information on his background and general thoughts on player development:
Parents and Coaches,
I am looking forward to working with the KVHA Coaches and Players during the Coaching and Player Development Training sessions. When I was approached about a weekly session for House players and Coaches who want to accelerate their development, I was flattered that KVHA believed I could be of assistance and enthusiastically agreed to help. I do have experience at setting up this type of program having done so several years ago with the Ann Arbor Amateur Hockey Association. They continue to run this type of program.
To give you a feel for where I would like the program to evolve to, I will share with you my hockey background so you can see where my concepts originated from.
I grew up and played AAA youth hockey and eventually Jr B in Toronto. Because of the competitive nature of hockey in Toronto I always played in my own age group, I never felt the need to play up. Playing in my own age group I was playing against players of like ability, although I must admit that I was in the top echelon.
I accepted a scholarship to University of Michigan, where I played for four years, the highlight being my senior year when we were national runners-up to Wisconsin. It was also during this time that first worked as an instructor at a hockey school. Starting in the summer before my sophomore year I worked for eight weeks at the North York Centennial Hockey School. North York is the borough of Toronto that I grew up in.
After college I played professionally for 9 years. Five years in the LA Kings organization and for years in the New Jersey Devil organization. I was fortunate enough to play in over 300 NHL games during my career. Every summer I would work as an instructor or director at various hockey schools.
When my playing career was over I returned to the University of Michigan to earn a graduate degree. During this time I served as Graduate Assistant under Red Berenson, as well as an instructor at his hockey school.
Upon graduation we moved to Minnesota for four and a half years before we returned to southeast Michigan. Upon returning I was asked to join the Red Wing Alumni Association and over the past 18 years have participated in charity hockey games with them.
Around this time my oldest son became old enough to start playing hockey and I became a youth hockey coach. As my sons progressed through the youth ranks I have coached everything from Mini-mite to Midget AA.
In addition, for the past six summers I have spent a week as an instructor at a hockey school in Vail, Colorado that has been run by the Red Wing Alumni. As well as being able to work with fellow Red Wing Alumni, every year we have been fortunate enough to bring in guest instructors. Two years it was Barry Smith, former Associate Coach with the Red Wings. Two summers, it was John Harrington who was a member of the 1980 Olympic team and the coach of St John's University in Minneapolis. One year it was Brad Buetow, who coached both the University of Minnesota and Colorado College, and one year it was Bill Beanie, who is the coach of Middlebury College and is considered the guru of small area games in USA Hockey.
In addition, for the past six years I have been a volunteer for the USA Hockey Coaching Education Program (CEP). Initially I gave a presentation at the Level 3 clinics. However, after I attended my first Level 4 clinic I kept finding ways to finagle myself into the Detroit clinic each year so I could learn from other coaches and interact with them. A few years ago they figured I was going to show up anyway, so they might as well put me to work, and I have given presentations at Level 4 clinics in Detroit, Lansing and South Bend since.
I readily admit that very little, if anything, I teach is original. I have no problem admitting that I have, and will continue to steal shamelessly, from other coaches.
I will tell you that I am a true believer in the American Development Model (ADM). I have had the good fortune of working with several of the people involved in creating the ADM and they are the best hockey minds that I have met. I absolutely believe in the approach that they took to develop the ADM. They identified the most successful associations, from every country that plays hockey, in terms of retention and development, and incorporated those concepts into the ADM.
What they found the most successful associations had in common was they focused on having fun, they focused on skill development, they provided equal opportunity to all participants to develop to their full potential, players competed with and against players of like ability, the size of the playing surface was age appropriate and they focused on age appropriate skill development. Their practice to games ratio was much higher than ours, and their practices involved more drills where players are competing against each other in small areas.
Historically, in North America we have separated our players at a young age and provided a better opportunity to develop, in terms of both ice time and coaching, to those that are early developers. House players have two ice sessions a week, travel players have three and AAA players even more. The "best" coaches are encouraged to coach AAA and Travel.
World-class hockey associations provide equal opportunity to develop to all participants regardless of whether they are early or late developers, regardless of whether they are new to the game or have played for several years, regardless of their abilities. Anyone who is interested in developing their game is afforded an equal opportunity in terms of ice time and coaching.
This is the primary goal of the weekly training sessions. To provide House players access to the same amount of ice time as the Travel players at a reasonable cost. Not every player is interested in more than two ice sessions per week. This is why the training sessions are voluntary. However, regardless of whether a player wants the extra ice session because he/she wants to develop into a Travel player, or he/she wants to move up the depth chart in House, we believe they should be provided the opportunity.
The ice sessions will be conducted in stations and the players will be grouped with players of like ability.
Ultimately the development of the players is dependent upon the development of the coaches. By encouraging the House and Travel coaches to participate as instructors in the training sessions, the interchange of ideas and concepts will be facilitated. One characteristic that all of the great coaches I have had the opportunity to work with is their desire to continue their own development.
In recent years there has been a lot of speculation as to when Red Berenson will retire from coaching U of M. I asked him about this a couple of years ago and he told me he will know it is time to quit when he doesn't have the desire to learn any more. He added he knows there is still a lot for him to learn.
I am looking forward to working with the players. coaches and parents in providing a fun environment where the players are provided the opportunity to develop to their desired level.
Rob Palmer
As you can see KVHA is very excited to utilize Rob's background, experience and commitment for the further development of our players and coaches. If you are interested in this program or have additional questions you can contact myself at vphockey@kvhockey.org. To register for this program please print the registration form below, or stop by the KVHA office.
Looking forward to seeing you out at the rink!!
Best regards,
Jason Valente
VP of Hockey, KVHA
