One Week Left!

We are one week away from our May Shutdown at the Academy.  The idea behind the shutdown is to allow us to stay away during the Variants of Concern.  I do not like the fact that they are showing up in more and more young people.  During May we will allow private lessons only.  This will control the numbers, and I should run most of the private sessions as I do not want to expose our coaches until the vaccines start to help. On the site, there will be a session called "Private Lesson."  This is where you would register an individual or group private lesson. The cost for the session is $149 for an hour-long session. The athlete who registers will be asked:  What is the date you would like to have the private lesson? What is the skill that you would like to work on in your private lesson? What are the names of the athletes attending?  (this is where you would put the other athletes' names coming to the private lesson.  (you can have up to four athletes for the same price.) Is there a coach that you would like to work with? (Please choose me as I do not want to use any other coaches during May)   It is not possible currently for the athletes to pay separately.  The private session is for one athlete.  That athlete is the lead for the sessions and determines the date, time, skill and coach, and then that athlete can determine which other athletes can attend his/her session.  (up to 3 other athletes)  In the past, many groups of athletes have used private lessons to control the date, time, skill and coach for a session. This flexibility allows the group to pick the date and time that works the best for them and get to choose the coach.  The flexibility of the private lesson is good for some groups as the scheduled academy sessions are arranged by the Head Coach of the Academy.  Often groups of athletes may not be able to be in the same group or the dates and times of the academy sessions; as they do not work with other commitments; the skill they need work on is not being offered, or the coach is not the one they like to work with.  The private lessons flexibility allows the group to control all of those factors. In June, we will start our beach volleyball training sessions.  The June – August sessions are mostly sold out.  The Advanced Beach 2's girls session is one of the four that still has space in it.   So if you are a grade 11-12 athlete or are entering your second year of beach training, this session could be for you and your partner. In July, we have a shorter beach volleyball training session.  The July – August session waits until school is over and earlier in the day (2-4 pm).  We have two sections, one advanced and one introductory session. This will allow athletes who play other sports to try their hand at beach volleyball because it should not interfere with other sports practices and games. We offer our first-ever Age 11-13 Outdoor Volleyball Camp on the beach courts on July 12-15; come check this one out.  The sand teaches proper footwork agility and technique as the elements mess with the volleyball. We also have a Setter, Libero and Hitter camp happening on July 19-22.  Sign up for this indoor camp. It is an excellent positional training camp.  We have run it in the past, and it has been well attended and popular. Our Premier Camps Our premier camps are coming at the end of August; check them out.  Making the Cut Camps.  We have a large number of athletes who attend just these offerings at the Academy.  We have so much fun, and it prepares the athletes for their school tryouts. The Artist Elite Academy will be posting live free art lessons on Facebook every Thursday at 6:00 pm.  If you have a tablet come to watch and I will show you how to draw digitally.

What is Happening???

 

The Canadian Elite Academy will be shutting down in May. 

The only sessions we will be offering will be Private Lessons.
Private lessons are more expensive than the regular session, school day academy or camps.  They are offered one hour with the coach that the athletes would most like to work with.
The cost for the private lesson will allow up to four athletes to attend for the same price. The athlete(s) choose a time from the available times listed below, inform the Academy who they would like as a coach and choose the skill they would like to work on.  This flexibility takes some time to accommodate, so the earlier someone decides on the private lesson, the more likely it will happen.
There are limited gym times, limited available coaches and the shutdown during May is to limit the amount of contact for the coaches and athletes at the Academy.  With the Variants of Concern viruses making younger people sick is of concern, we will be limiting the amount of private lessons we will conduct.
The following gym times are available for private lessons at the Ice Box Training Center.  Jump Training can be done almost any time as multiple areas can be used.
Currently, the following court time is available; this can change rapidly 
 

• April 20 5-6 6-7
• April  21 8-9 9-10
• April 27 5-6 6-7
• April 28 8-9 9-10
•  
• May 3 - 3-4 8-9 9-10
• May 4 3-4 7-8 9-10
• May 5 3-4 8-9 9-10
• May 6 4-5 7-8 8-9 9-10
• May 7 3-4 6-7 7-8 8-9 9-10
• May 10 3-4 8-9 9-10
• May 11 3-4 7-8 8-9 9-10
• May 12 3-4 8-9 9-10
• May 13 3-4 4-5 8-9 9-10
• May 14 3-4 6-7 7-8 8-9 9-10
• May 17 3-4 8-9 9-10
• May 18 3-4 7-8 8-9 9-10
• May 19 3-4 8-9 9-10
• May 20 3-4 4-5 8-9 9-10
• May 21 3-4 6-7 7-8 8-9 9-10
• May 24 3-4 8-9 9-10
• May 251 3-4 7-8 8-9 9-10
• May 26 3-4 8-9 9-10
• May 27 3-4 4-5 8-9 9-10
• May 28 3-4 6-7 7-8 8-9 9-10
• May 31  3-4 8-9 9-10

June the Activities all start up again.

The following events are happening:

• June- August – Advanced Beach 2's Boys Monday and Wednesday (Full- Sold Out)
• June- August – Advanced Beach 2's Girls Monday and Wednesday (Still Space)
• June- August – Basic Beach 2's Tuesday and Thursday Group 1 (Full- Sold Out)
• June- August – Basic Beach 2's Tuesday and Thursday Group 2 (Full- Sold Out)
• July- August – Advanced Beach 2's Monday and Wednesday (Still Space)
• July – August – Basic Beach 2's Tuesday and Thursday (Still Space)
• July 12-15 – Age 11-13 Volleyball Camp Outdoors (Still Space)
• July 19-22 Setter, Libero and Hitter Camp (Still Space)
• August 16-19  Making the Cut Elementary School Team Camp (Grades 6-8)
• August 16-19 Making the Cut Junior High School Team Camp (Grades 9-10)
• August 23-26 Making the Cut Rookie High School Senior Team ( Grades 10-11)
• August 23-26 Making the Cut Returning High School Senior Team ( Grades 11-12)

Which level should I put my daughter/son in for the Making the Cut Camp? The Making the Cut Camps are high-level camps, and many athletes use the camps to get ready for the tryouts in their Schools.  We have athletes from all across the province coming, and the level played at each of the schools varies greatly.  The choice of which of the camps are for you, you need to ask yourself honestly, if you are a grade 10 student would you make the senior team in some of the better school teams in the province? If not, then go to the Junior High School Team Camp.  If you are a grade 9 athlete, you should not be in anything other than Junior High School Team.  If you are in grade 10, you should not be in the Returning High School Senior team camp.  If you are in Elementary school, you should not attend anything other than the Elementary school camp.  I am not a great supporter of a player moving up; I would rather see them shine at their age group and learn to be leaders.  The camps are designed to be individual in the instructions, and your athlete will be challenged.  It is not an item of pride to play up an age class; it is a missed opportunity to shine and be the best and learn to make the other players around you better.  But in the end, the Academy will not stop a player from joining a camp if they think it is the best place for them.

Why are Private Lessons more expensive than regular sessions? The private lessons are all about flexibility; the athletes can choose the date, time, location, skill to be taught, the coach to work with, and who they would like to train with.  The cost of a private lesson allows up to 4 athletes to attend for the exact cost

Why are a lot of the Beach Programs sold out? The Academy has been running the beach program for three years successfully.  Each year we have more and more athletes who want to attend.  We train athletes to understand the game of beach 2's.  We teach them how to move, use the elements to their benefit and achieve success in the tournament that they choose to attend.  Many athletes use the beach to increase their speed, agility and ball control for the indoor game.  We will not run a tournament this year; we will teach the athletes how to play the game.   This is more in line with the Academy's philosophy, where we teach athletes how to take their skills to the next level. They can then take the skills and compete in the SaskVollyball tournaments and provincials and the VOGO beach tournaments.

Why is each athlete expected to bring their own ball to the Academy? Each athlete is expected to bring their own ball to all the sessions, school days and camps as we believe that if one wishes to become elite in a sport, you cannot do so by only touching the ball in front of the coaches and at scheduled practices.  Elite athletes work on their skills alone and outside of planned practices. We give the athletes activities that they can work on at home to make themselves better, and this can only be done if they have a ball to work with.

How are the coaches at the Academy selected? The Academy believes that the success of skill training is totally dependant on the coach's ability to work with the age class of the athletes.  Coaches are not selected because of their certification.  Coaches are chosen because of their reputation, knowledge of the sport, their ethical approach to coaching and their ability to work with individualistic successful drills and challenges, which will assist the athletes in being better tomorrow than they are today.

Why is it not essential to tier athletes according to skills or gender at the Academy? We are not competing at the Academy.  We are training the athletes to better understand their skills; they should compare themselves to no one other than their past selves.  The athletes need to try to be better today than they were yesterday.  They need to strive to better themselves; they need to learn to motivate themselves, learn to compete to better their skills, not to be the best, but to be better.  There are so few who are the best, and athletes should learn to challenge themselves to do the best they can with every contract, not because of a coach, parent or teammate, but because that is what he/she should expect of themselves.  Motivation has to be from the inside if you are going to be elite.  It makes a player elite, the inner confidence, the inner drive to be better, the inner voice that motivates them, not the comparison to others, not playing with older athletes.  The Academy will teach this and tries to be better at this every day.

Newsletter Volume5 Issue 13

 

As the Weather Warms Up

As the weather warms up, we are starting to look towards volleyball outside.  On March 17, 2021, the cancellation of all Sask Cups ended the Club season in Saskatchewan.  All the training teams hoping that things would improve in time to have some club tournaments have stopped team practices with this announcement.  The academy sessions' enrollment has declined as the weather improved and the volleyball for this season canceled, so the academy has decided to cancel all the indoor sessions in May and June.   
The appearance of the variants in Regina lends pause to continue with the sessions, but the April sessions will continue until Saskatoon infections begin to increase.  We will continue to follow the guidelines and keep an ear to the announcements.

Private lessons

In May, we will be open to running private lessons for the athletes who would like to continue to train in that month.  These private sessions will not be placed upon the calendar and are requested via email by the athlete.  These private lessons can have four athletes in them for the same price, and we should be able to find time in the IceBox Facility if we are given a little advanced notice to schedule time. 

Free Pick up Games

If the weather is nice in May, we will attempt to schedule some free beach sessions.  An announcement of the dates and times of these sessions will occur a few days before they happen. The number of participants will be kept within the guidelines by having people register before they show up to play in the sand. 

Beach Volleyball

The good news is with the nice weather we can start looking towards the outdoors and beach.  We are lucky enough to have Leanne McGettigan willing to coach one of the groups that will delay its start date until July and run until August. 
We are fortunate to have Leanne willing to do sessions as she is an experienced beach player.  Darren Cannell will be the coach for most of the other sessions.  There are two delay groups with a start date in July rather than in June and recently added to the calendar.  All the other beach sessions will begin in June and run until August. The four sessions that run from June to August are all Sold out except for one.  Darren Cannell is coaching all of the June to August Sessions.

Setters, Liberos, and Hitters

In July we have a great camp called the Setter, Libero and Hitter Camp.  Each athlete registered in one of the three positions and matched with the best coach we could find for the position.  The last year when we ran this session, it sold out and was so much fun.

Making the Cut Camps

In August, we run the Making the Cut Camps.  We offer:

• Elementary School,
• Junior High School,
• Rookie Senior High School
• Returning Senior High School camps. 

These are very popular, so do not wait too long to register for these camps as I feel we will have school volleyball next year, and this is the preparation camp for the school tryouts.

A Big Thank You

In the end, the most important is a big thank you to all the participants who considered the academy for their volleyball training during the pandemic. 

From March 1, 2020, until April 10, 2021, we have had a total of 897 registrations. As we continue to grow, we are open to suggestions and comments, so do not hesitate to contact us. 

About the Academy

 The Canadian Elite Academy, founded in March 2017, was designed to fill the holes in traditional coach and teaching of sports, academics, and the arts.  The advantage is the dedication of time to individual skills instruction by the best available coaches or instructors.  The skilled coaches attempt to achieve the goal to offer sessions that are individual in the instructional methods, which allow participants of all skill levels to train in the same group.  The gender and age tiering system found in traditional sports and schooling in most academy sessions does not apply.  As the sessions are not team building or competition focus, allowing a mixture of talents, gender participants to dedicate time to a single element or skill, enabling them to apply it to a future team, competition, test, or challenge.

Many of the athletes who attend the sessions are very physically talented, coordinated athletes who are naturally good at most tasks put before them. The school day academy and Jump training have created a situation never seen before. The athletes are just skill training, strength, agility, and jump training and not applying it to their volleyball games. It has allowed me as a coach the opportunity to push them past their comfort zone and watch them respond to the lack of gameplay. Typically as coaches, we train our athletes for the following games, but we are just preparing to get better skills over the last couple of months. The only competition is comparing their talent to the mastery of the other athletes in their group. Not comparing oneself to other athletes in groups with the opposite gender, older athletes, and physically taller and stronger athletes is a challenging concept for young participants. Each athlete responds to this differently.

Some athletes have problems accepting this lack of gender, age tiering which is present in the traditional game competition. Many respond with a lack of focus and drive to get better when they do not have games to measure their success. As I coach, I can see the growth, but as young athletes, they do not have the benchmarks to compare themselves against without games.

Athletes feel they cannot compete against others and cover their lack of confidence or success in skills by altering the activity to make it easier for themselves, talking or using humor or playfulness to hide their inability to achieve the objective. This response is not abnormal or strange. We all do not want to look like we cannot do something. Understanding where the origin of the behavior and developing in the athletes a mature approach to competing against themselves, motivate themselves and strive to be better each day.

My son and many other athletes respond the same. It is a coping mechanism to cover their inability to achieve a task and not be the best. Like many of the athletes, my son's natural athletic ability allows him to be very good at most sports almost immediately. Until recently, he did not have to put in a lot of effort to be seen as an outstanding athlete. Now he is considering playing at the next level (University) and has matured to the point where he is putting in the necessary effort to achieve this goal. It has come with maturity and age, but it was not always there. It is a significant part of the Elite training. Many academy athletes have the natural talent to be good athletes in almost any sport they choose to tackle, but they have to accept the challenge that some skills take time to master.

Athletes placed in a group of older, more talented volleyball players or opposite gender become embarrassed and don't feel they belong working with the group. An athlete loses focus and covers their lack of success with talking, not following instructions, not working to attempting to change their approach to the skill, joking, and behavior that was not in line with the activity.

A natural and normal reaction to being the only person in a group who could not achieve a task is not to like the activity; it was stupid, it was someone else's fault for the failure, excuses, and a hard-to-coach attitude. Last year the academy had 400+ participants, and the move to internal competition, motivation, and confidence is a big part of what we attempt to promote.  Athletes need to learn to compete against themselves and no one else.

Working hard on the mental aspect of achieving the next level can only be done with the removal of coping mechanisms and excuses when faced with a lack of immediate success when attempting a new skill. Internal self-talk promotes embracing the challenge and mastering the task. Working on the things that do not come naturally to the participant; focusing, accepting mistakes put in the effort, and hard work, are all part of the growth.

Many academy participants have gained their self-image from their sports success and confidence by being better than most other athletes. When good athletes stop comparing themselves to others, stop attempting to please a coach, and work on being better today than yesterday and challenging themselves, significant athletic growth happens. They need to learn to push themselves, with no excuses or coping mechanisms to cover failing and believe the challenges are something they can do; they need time, effort, and hard work to master them; this will be when they enter the Elite athlete level.

I have been lucky enough to work with and coach, National caliber athletes. They all have the natural athletic ability, mental toughness, and the belief that they can achieve anything with effort. They accept mistakes, and learn from them and continually challenge themselves. They never accept defeat;  never make excuses;  never deflect; put their energy into mastering challenges. They do this for themselves, not for others, teammates, family, or coaches. This maturity takes time and a perfect storm of friends, peers, family, coaches, learning, challenges, self-talk, self-confidence, and opportunity.

The academy will continue to work with your daughters and sons to push them to accept the challenges, focus, and help them mature into athletes who strive to be better tomorrow than they are today. Academy athletes are great kids, good sense of humor, confident, and seek to please people around them. The academy will enhance these positive attitudes and challenges and help the athletes develop the sport's mental aspect to achieve their goals.