Halfway through Summer

Feature the star of your collection first. Summer is always a hard time to run a camp as many people go on vacations. But after COVID, it is even more critical for families to get together.   This has resulted in some athletes missing some of the beach training for vacation.  To make up for some of these missed training opportunities we are going to try something new for the last two weeks of training. You can train for up to 20 hours! For the last two weeks of beach training, the athletes can attend all the sessions. (20 hours)  At the very least, the session in which they are registered. (4 hours)  This flexibility will allow the athletes 4 hours a week or up to 20 hours a week of training. The sessions occur from 2-8 pm on Monday and Wednesday and 4-8 pm on Tuesday and Thursday.  That is 20 hours of training, and an athlete can attend all 20 hours or as many hours as they would like for each of the next two weeks.  The last Saskatoon Tournament is happening on August 7-8th, and Provincials is on August 21-22.  The open training for the next two weeks will allow the athletes to make sure they are well prepared for these two events.  Hope to see all the athletes. Please email us to let us  Email us so we know you are aware! The Making the Cut Camps have all been condensed down into a single week rather than the original two weeks of camp.  If you have registered for any one of the four camps, make sure you know the date and time changes.  Let the academy know if the time changes work for you or not. If not, we will issue a full refund and our apology for the necessary changes.  The Making the Cut Camps are as follows now. August 23-26 Elementary school team athletes camp – Grade 6-8 Sessions -  8-10 am, 12-2 pm and 4-6 pm Junior High Schoo Athletes camp -  Grade 9-10 Sessions -  8-10 am, 12-2 pm and 4-6 pm Rookie Senior High School Athletes camp – Grade 10-11 Sessions -  10-12 pm, 2-4 pm and 6-8 pm Returning Senior High School Athletes camp – Grade 11-12 Sessions -  10-12 am, 2-4 pm and 6-8 pm The number of athletes in each of the four camps has been divided in half. If you plan to attend, you might want to register soon as some of the sessions are almost filled already. Please email us to let us  Some sessions are almost full The Making the Cut Camps are as follows now.  Feel free to register in the session in which you would be the most challenged.  Grade 8 athletes who have played one or two years of club volleyball should register in the Junior High School Sessions but are welcome to remain in the Elementary sessions if that is more comfortable for them.  Grade 9 should not register in anything other than the Elementary and Junior High School Sessions.  Grade 10 athletes can register in Junior or Senior sessions.  If the athlete has planned on trying out for the senior team at their school then they should not be in the Junior sessions.  Grade 11-12 should only register in the high school sessions.  The placement of the athletes should be a decision made by the parents and not the academy staff.  It is not good for an athlete to always play up a level as they never learn how to lead and be the best in their group.  Many very talented athletes get pushed up in age brackets for club and do not get that opportunity to learn to make others around them better and learn how to be a leader.  It is good for an athlete's development to be the best on their team or in their group.  It builds confidence.  August 23-26 Elementary school team athletes camp – Grade 6-8 Sessions -  8-10 am, 12-2 pm and 4-6 pm Junior High Schoo Athletes camp -  Grade 9-10 Sessions -  8-10 am, 12-2 pm and 4-6 pm Rookie Senior High School Athletes camp – Grade 10-11 Sessions -  10-12 pm, 2-4 pm and 6-8 pm Returning Senior High School Athletes camp – Grade 11-12 Sessions -  10-12 am, 2-4 pm and 6-8 pm The number of athletes in each of the four camps has been divided in half. If you plan to attend, you might want to register soon as some of the sessions are almost filled already.

Why Canadian Elite Academy?

 

The Canadian Elite Academy The word Canadian is an adjective that means of Canada or its people.   The definition of the word "Elite," according to MacMillan Dictionary, is a noun, refers to a small group of people with many advantages, the best people in a group.  As an adjective, "Elite" means representing the choicest or most select of a group.   The word academy refers to a group of authorities and leaders who attempt to advance by dictating standards, prescribe methods and criticize new ideas when instructing and training others.   That is why we call our academy the "Canadian Elite Academy."   Relative deprivation is the experience of being deprived of something one believes one is entitled to have.  Or the discontentment people feel when they compare their position to others and realize they have less.  People have come to the Canadian Elite Academy (CEA) with a preconceived notion that the academy will only allow the best in the sport to attend or participate. I believe the CEA believes that each athlete can be best in their group of one.  The CEA is designed to welcome anyone who wants to be the best at the sport's skills.   The title of the academy was selected by myself because I have a few fundamental beliefs when it comes to sports.   It was possible to create an academy where it was possible to make a player better tomorrow than today.   The CEA strives to be the best at this; it seeks to be the most elite at this goal.   Create a non-political non-threatening skill-based training environment safe for participants regardless of gender, age or skill level.   Create a training environment where the participants only compete against themselves.   To never create unnecessary barriers which limit participation.   To never have tryouts, to allow parents to select the best sessions for their child.   To never create teams or host CEA teams from academy participants.   The CEA has helped coaches in their team development and train beach two's teams but did not select the make-up of those teams and are only involved in training the skills for said teams.   The CEA never recruits players to create a level of participants or team.  The CEA offers training situations and then adapts the session to accommodate the interested participants.   To creatively offer experiences and sessions in which talented coaches help participants recognize their gifts.      To assist participants in realistically understand their current skill level and avoid a dysfunctional level of relative deprivation when comparing themselves to more advanced athletes.   Many athletes focus too much on the talents of others and seek the social approval of parents, coaches and other players, which leads to distraction to the task at hand.  Athletes should learn to concentrate on their game, perfectionism, fear of failure, social approval, worrying about what others think will hinder a participant's development.  The academy attempts to remove as many of these as is possible and challenge each through individual skill drills.   People's belief that the Canadian Elite Academy will only be catering to the best players in the sport, art or activity is an incorrect assumption. Each player has their own elite level. Our coaches strive to share what is necessary to allow players to move forward in their skills, taking them closer to a level of play that, for them, will be the best they might achieve.     In the past 12 months, we have offered 76 different sessions ranging from a single two-hour session to a 3-month long session to 833 athletes.   The feedback for those sessions was 4.8/5.0 from 372 responses.   The sessions are meant to mix high calibre with lower calibre athletes as they are not competing against each other; they are competing against themselves. A good athlete makes other players around them better.  An elite player is elite because of what they have inside, not who surrounds them.  Players are taught to look inside to find out why things are not good.  They need to learn to excel because of a positive drive inside themselves to be better tomorrow than today.  If they are looking outside themselves for why they are not excelling, they are looking for excuses.

The last two weeks were hectic.  We had approximately 100 athletes participating in the Beach 2 training, the Age 11-13 Outdoor Volleyball camp and the Setter, Libero and Hitter Camp.  Thank you to all the participants, and I look forward to the next couple of weeks as we continue our beach training.   Sask Volleyball is excited to announce BEACH PROVINCIALS August 20-22 in Regina!!!! Youth: 14UM, 14UW, 16UM, 16UW, 18UM, 18UW Registration is $70 per team, and the deadline to register is August 6. Youth Beach Provincials Making the Cut Camp The Making the Cut Camps are rapidly approaching and currently have 50 spots filled.  Register soon; we are offering four different camps.   Elementary school camp – Athletes in Elementary School Junior High School Camp – Grade 9-10 High School Athletes Rookie Senior High School Camp – Grade 10 and 11 High School Athletes Returning Senior High School Camp – Grade 11 and 12 High School Athletes   The Grade levels indicated above are just suggestions. Athletes should attend the group they believe they would benefit from the most.

 

Sweltering Hot Beach Volleyball

Hot really Hot!

Beach Volleyball sessions have been hot, sweltering this past week.  We had to go to the splash park after the first hour to not overheat in the second hour.  The 11-13-year-old outdoor volleyball camp was packed. All the athletes were at every session; the intern coaches of Jaime Waskowic, Brynn Lewis, Ayaka Imamura, Katie Young and Sarah Ha did an excellent job.  Chie Imamura was, as always a great assistant coach.  The feedback from the camp was positive.

• Great coaches. Fun and effective drills! My daughter loved it and learned so much!
• Great coaching! Lots of fun for a first-timer! Thank you!
• Wonderful camp! The kids really enjoyed it. Thank you!!!
• Great location, appropriate and challenging instruction, with skilled athletes coaching and mentoring. The kids were motivated to go even on the last day and in the heat! Thanks so much.
• Such a great camp! And was so good to see how much the kids improved over the week. Wonderful coaches!
• My daughter had so much fun and learned so much. Highly recommended!

Setter, Libero and Hitter Camp The Setter, Libero and Hitter camp starts on Monday.  Toako Chie Imamura will be the setter coach.  David Chuong will be the Libero coach, and Michele McKeown will be the hitter coach.  There is still room if you want to join up.

Don't miss this camp. If you are going to attend one camp this summer.  Making the Cut is the best. Making the Cut Camps are starting to fill, so reserve your spot soon.

School day academy and Jump training The September School Day academy sessions are now accepting registrations.  There will be three different groups, elementary, junior high school and senior high school.  Join these twice-a-week sessions. September Jump training will start up again, this twice-a-week training is so much fun, and I am looking forward to coaching it again. See you on the court soon

VLS300 Beach Champ Ball I found a great deal on the VLS300 Beach Champ balls again and offered them for 90 dollars a ball.  I only have a limited number.  Over the last couple of weeks, I could only find them for 120-175 dollars on Amazon.  These are the best beach volleyballs you can buy.

Summer Camps

 

Summer Camps

Beach sessions are full.

All the beach sessions are pretty well full, and we only have the camps left for the rest of the summer. 
We still have limited space left for the Setter, Libero and Hitter camp on July 19-22.  Toako Chie Imamura is our Setter coach for this camp.  The Libero coach will be David Chuong, and the Hitter coach will be Michele McKeown.  Darren Cannell will be in and out every so often during the week, but most of his time will be spent on the beach training the 2’s athletes.

Making the Cut Camps

Then starting on August 16-19, we have the first two Making the Cut Camps – the Elementary athletes and the Junior high School athletes.
On August 23-26, we have the Making the Cut Camps for the athletes trying out for the Senior high School team.  These two groups are the first-time or Rookie Senior players and the Returning Senior players.
The Making the Cut camps are the most popular of all the camps we offer, and with the “return to normal”, athletes will be playing in school this year and will need to try out for those teams.  These camps are designed to prepare you for the tryouts.  Lots of touches, lots of games and lots of fun.

Thursday's Rain

It rained hard on Thursday and we continue to play, after all, you can only get so wet.  Then we do what any normal beach player would do we took a photo in the puddle.  It was so much fun.  Hope it rains again, soon.

 

Summer Heat and Volleyball

Brutal Heat last week.

Last week's heat was brutal on the Beach Volleyball players. Still, the elements are what make beach volleyball such an incredible sport.  The team that learns how to play no matter the elements will be successful in this sport.  I loved watching the Elite Teams play in the tournaments and look forward to seeing them again in the next tournament and in provincials.
The lime green beach elite shirts stand out, and at one time, out of the 16 teams on the court at the last tournament, 12 of them were elite players.  Nice to see them represent.  Congrats to all who took part, and we will continue to offer the training to find success.
Monday, we add another group of beach athletes, bringing our numbers to 56 beach players. 
If you are interested in joining the beach volleyball sessions check out which spots are available or contact us and ask.

First-ever 11-13-year-old camp

Then on Monday of next week, we will have the first-ever Age 11-13-year-old camp on the new sand.  This camp teaches the basic volleyball skills in the sand, an excellent opportunity to allow us to have a six-athlete-to-one-coach ratio.   We have 22 spots filled and only have room for two more athletes before it is full.

Making the Cut camps

School volleyball will be happening in the 2021-2022 school year.  The Making the Cut camps are the best way for athletes to shake off the cobwebs of COVID and a year of no competition before they go into school tryouts.  We have moved the Making the Cut camps back to the Sasktel Soccer Center, so we have lots of room.  We have also extended it over two weeks as the number continues to grow, and we will need the space.   The success of all the academy activities is because of the great coaches. They offer to share their expertise at our events.  A great thanks go out to all the coaches who have helped out to help in building the academy.

Beach Season and Summer Camps

 

Beach Seasons and Summer Camps

The first tournament that I was able to watch in a year happened this past weekend.  It was so much fun seeing past and present Elite Academy Beach players on the courts in Saskatoon at the VOGO Tournament.  The tournament was well run, the weather was fantastic, and the athletes worked hard in the heat.  Congrats to all the winners and participants. The month of June is coming to an end, and it has been some enjoyable weather this past month.  The beach training is going well on the new sand, with the wind has been blowing almost every day.  We start the new 2-4 pm beach training session on July 5.  Leanne McGettigan will be joining us as a coach for the session.  The 4-6 pm and 6-8 pm sessions will start the second month of training, and I look forward to the hot weather that is on its way. If you are interested, we have limited space in the July and August session. Summer Camps July is the start of the camp season at the academy. We offer the Age 11-13 Outdoor volleyball Camp and the Setter, Libero and Hitter Camp. There are less than 5 spots left open in each of these camps The High School team league in Saskatoon Schools will be happening in September.  The academy will be offering the Making the Cut Camps to prepare interested athletes in their quest to make their school teams.  The Making the Cut camp has been moved to the Sasktel Soccer Center on the east side.  Each of the four camps will be 8 hours of skills training and 4 hours of gameplay. We are looking forward to offering this exciting camp on the three courts like we have in the past years.  The Elementary School and Junior High School athletes camps will be in the first week on August 16-19th.  The second week will be the Senior High School team athletes on August 23-26th. One of the most viewed aspects of the Academy website is the photo gallery.  Check it out. Photo Gallery