The Hockey Alberta Alternate Season Development Sanction
A 5 year collaborative effort between the SLHC and Hockey Alberta through the 'Long Term Player Development' initiative has culminated with the sanctioning of our program as one that properly delivers age and skill appropriate training. We have worked hard to obtain this recognition and the SLHC will continue to access all the latest training and programming information provided through Hockey Alberta Development.
What Does That Mean?
In 2011 Hockey Alberta started investigating the possibility and effects of expanding their off season development programs from their "Program of Excellence", which targets elite athletes 14 years and up, to a more grassroots approach. It was determined that the membership of HA wanted some form of shoulder season programming. It was also determined that it was happening in environments that were not in keeping with Hockey Canada's LTPD program which very specifically outlines the process of proper age specific player development.
With the opening of HA's sixth and final Regional Development Center the opportunity to begin the implementation of appropriate programs through these centers was realized. It began and continues to evolve with various non-competitive spring and summer "skill camps" and 3 on 3 Tournaments. Once those programs were up and running thoughts of exploring private sector partnerships to expand the message of responsible player development were being considered. The Sylvan Lake and Jasper Hockey Camps have always held the values of proper development and have always tried to upgrade our on ice and off ice programs to the most up to date training information and we feel privileged to help Hockey Alberta expand their delivery of the message of Proper age specific long term player development.
What Does This Mean To Our Customers?
This initiative gives the SLHC/JHC staff and instructors access to the very latest developmental training material, equipment and advisors to help ensure that we deliver the BEST product to our customers. The fact that SLHC/JHC have informed Hockey Alberta of our commitment to the delivery of their programs, gives our customers the assurance that we are accountable to the governing body.
Basic Goals of Long Term Player Development
- Age appropriate training and development…on and off the ice.
- Focus on age appropriate training to ensure the participant develops as an athlete and acquires the skills necessary to play and enjoy hockey.
- Encourage hockey leaders(coaches, parents and other champions) to understand and value the importance of all-round development…delivering hockey specific skills at the right time in a young players career.
In accordance to the above:
We are dedicated to providing skill development to our participants to strive to be the best they can be; ensure the development of self-esteem and skill development in a safe and fair environment.
More To It Than Just Hockey. Parents, this is Important!
In 2016 the SLHC DEVELOPMENT Team undertook a complete review of our off ice program. They realized that the on ice program was more readily able to be updated each year because of the training resources available through Hockey Alberta. Realizing the same could be done with the off ice program through information and programming available through schools and other sport camp models the Team started to think ‘out of the box’ to build a vision that would make the off ice program as valuable and enjoyable to the students as the on ice version.
To achieve this more complete program, one that is age specific in nature and maintains the appropriate physical training but also includes team building, respect of team mates friends and new acquaintances, we sought the advice of many social agencies including schools and alternate recreation experts. We wanted to come up with age appropriate programming and supervisory measures. We came up with a model enlisting the services of education and recreation programming leaders to oversee our Youth Leaders who are affectionately known as Rovers within our team.
Since these programming upgrades were implemented, the results have been more than satisfactory! The model is now built and we just have to make yearly updates to keep the program relevant.
