USJDP - Junior Prep Hockey Camps - Junior Prep Hockey Schools

USJDP Junior Prep Residential Hockey Camp

Junior Prep Camp Focus

The Prep Camp provides all participants the complete development, training & exposure program available with a daily schedule consisting of 4 hours of on-ice development, three hours of off-ice training, daily Junior Hockey Seminars, and Showcase Games. Please be sure to review the complete daily schedule provided below for further details.

If you are looking to go to an event with a hundred coaches were you will be seen, this is not the right program for you. If you want to go somewhere where you can train with other high-end, elite players, this is the program for you. The bottom line is this: if you are dedicated to working hard, pushing yourself, and doing whatever it takes to improve, than please feel free to apply for the USJDP Junior Prep Camp.

ON-ICE DEVELOPMENT
The Prep Camps high-tempo, high-intensity on-ice curriculum is designed & implemented each day by our professional staff. Drawing from their countless years of coaching and scouting the NHL, North American collegiate ranks, and multitude of Junior Leagues, these coaches are able to design a program that will best prepare each player for Junior and college hockey.

The Prep Camp is treated like an overall skill development and team camp, and as such the Prep Camp staff view the program as a training camp focusing on speed, intensity, systems, puck movement, small zone games, battles, and competitions. In addition, we include individual skill development progressions for all positions to better allow our players the ability to incorporate their individual skills into the overall development and game situations created in the camp. Proper player development, through the proper development of individual skills and an in-depth understanding of tactical team situations, is the goal of every USJDP Junior Prep Camp.

Both the technical, and the tactical, aspects of each position are covered in-depth during the camp as outlined below.

Technical: A players’ foundation of the game, i.e. his base abilities and skill sets.
Tactical: A players’ hockey sense, hockey knowledge, and overall understanding of the game.

OFFENSIVE SKILLS:
	Technical:	Puck control, puck protection, skating with speed & power, passing, shooting, shot tipping, puckhandling, dekes and fakes.
	Tactical:	Cycling, systems, positioning, movement, playing away from the puck, support, offensive attacks, communication, down low play, breakouts, power play theory and penalty kill theory.

DEFENSIVE SKILLS:
	Technical:	Puck control, puck protection, body play, skating with speed & power, lateral movement, and shooting.
	Tactical:	Positioning, systems, offensive attacks against, playing odd-man rushes, pinching, breakouts, dumping the puck, proper gap control, joining the rush, angling, communication

GOALTENDING SKILLS:
	Technical:	Stickhandling, passing, skating, stance, stops, starts, save types, save styles, screens, deflections, rebound control, and stick play.
	Tactical:	Tracking the puck, movement in the crease, movement away from the crease and ice awareness.

STRENGTH & CONDITIONING
The off-ice training program, designed and implemented by Impact Sports Performance, focuses on the development of good training habits and techniques for all young athletes. These sessions will focus on the proper execution and understanding of the drills and exercises necessary to develop and strengthen the athletes’ core muscle groups through the use of conditioning, resistance training, free weights and stretching. The goal is to develop the hockey players’ power, agility, speed, and balance, while at the same time not compromising the players’ flexibility. The coaches will discuss how to continue this development during the off-season by discussing proper eating and training regiments.

Each camper will be tested on the standard NHL Strength & Flexibility Test, as well as the Nike SPARQ program. The coaches will run the athletes through a number of core muscle strength, conditioning and flexibility drills utilized by the NHL, NFL, and USA Rugby in the free weights room, gymnasium, and pool to achieve the desired results. The goal is to not only improve each player’s overall core strength and flexibility at the camp, but too also properly educate the players on how to properly continue this development training long after they depart the camp.

JUNIOR HOCKEY SEMINARS
Along with the intense Strength Training sessions, each camper will attend a daily Junior Hockey Seminar. These seminars will be directed by the same NHL, Collegiate and Junior A coaches that run the on-ice development and will focus on a number of various topics all related to the Business of Hockey. Topics will include college and junior hockey, recruiting and exposure opportunities, Junior team try-outs, the importance of good grades, successful systems and tactics currently being utilized by collegiate and professional teams, getting along with your coaches, how to get noticed, how to promote yourself, what to do when a team expresses interest in you, mental toughness, what do coaches and scouts look for in a player on-ice, off-ice and in the classroom.

These instructional sessions are conducted by the NHL, collegiate and Junior staff on hand each week and are open to players and parents alike.

SHOWCASE GAMES
Weekly Showcase games are a chance for the players to showcase their skills to the coaches and scouts on hand and allow each athlete to better compare themselves against their peers. As these games are scheduled at the latter part of the week, and on the weekend, this allows additional multiple scouts and coaches to attend the showcase games for player recruiting and placement purposes. All games are 75-minute contests in a standard 3-period game format, with referees, and are played against the opposing team within their group. These games are held during the Specialty Ice sessions on Wednesday and Friday nights, as well as the scheduled game time slot on Saturdays.

SPECIALTY ICE SESSIONS
Each night, all players will take part in a 1-hour specialty ice session. These sessions have become very popular with the players as they focus on specific skills each player wants to work on and are a chance for each athlete to work one-on-one with the coaches on individual skills such as skating, shooting, goaltending, movement, face-offs, etc.