Practice

I think it says it all.

Want to Paint the Van

I want to paint my van looking for a talent airbrush or wrap auto painting center willing to collaborate on the project.

The Canadian Elite Academy (which is a training center for high school athletes) is seeking an autobody center who is willing to accept the challenge of designing a one of a kind Ford Transit Van which will be an eye-catching driving piece of art which announces the mandate of the academy. I currently have stickers on it but I would like to go to airbrush instead. I do not want to dictate what the design should be, I want to work with an autobody artist who is talented and willing to coop on design and create something truly unique. After saying all of this I am not sure what it would cost and how much it would cost me to have it done? Basically, this is an exploratory email to see if there is any willingness out there in the facebook world of an autobody will to explore this idea. It might be way past my cost ability or no airbrush or wrap artists who have auto work experience and willing to tackle the partnership challenge. Currently, the academy is into Volleyball, Basketball, and Soccer but will be expanding.

Volleyball Life Lessons

New Coach: Adam Ewart

Introducing a New coach to the Academy. Adam Ewart

Adam was a setter that played high school, club, and provincial team. He left the province and played on various Military teams while in the Canadian Navy. He played one year of college before moving back to Saskatchewan. He has spent the past 26 years coaching at various levels in the province. Highlights include: spending 8 seasons as an assistant coach with the U of S Huskie Men’s Volleyball team capturing a bronze and silver medal at the U Sport National Championships, 2004 NTCC gold medal with Team Sask , 2012-2015 Chaos Volleyball Club 4x Provincial Champions, 2015 SHSAA 5A High School Boys Silver Medalists, and most recently 2019 U14 Boys Div. 1 Tier 2 Western Canadian champs. The first session Coach Adam will be offering is the two days of Serving on November 25 and 26th.  The unfortunate thing is that this session is also sold out, however, it does not have a waitlist as of yet.

A wild week at the academy.

Wild time this week we have five private lessons and four days of sessions and a pickup game on Friday.
The week of volleyball skill session is new this year designed for older athletes and is four days of two-hour sessions. 
It starts with coach David Chuong doing Defense and Freeball on Monday
Then coach Darren Cannell doing transition, hitting and blocking on Tuesday 
Wednesday has coach Michele McKeown doing Serving and Serve Reception
Thursday is coach Toako Chie Imamura focussing on Setting and Hitting
The Friday winding up with a pickup informal gameplay night.

It was well-received and sold out quickly, which is awesome but it also has a waitlist of 14 athletes and with cancelations, there will be 11 athletes who will not be able to attend.
This just reinforces the need for athletes to register early to avoid the disappointment of missing out on a session.

Fantasy Future

Wow, would it be cool for a session on the beach in Mexico?  Answer no way it would be hot...lol.

Fanatic Volleyball Players.

Full-time athletes at the academy is a question I get often.  We are trying to avoid the subscription academy model where you pay X amount of dollars to attend a daily session.  It is not a bad model, I just believe that it attempts to place the sport above everything else in their life.  Family, school, religion, other sports and many other aspects of the busy youth of today should be placed higher than my academy.  Other sports teach skills which are transferable to volleyball, I have found soccer players to have very fast foot speed, tennis players have great spike and serve technique and eye-hand coordination, while dance and gymnastics athletes have good jump training and body awareness and video gamers are good at strategy, communication, and sometimes leadership.  The athletes who select a single sport too early in life tend to be lacking in some elements to make a well-rounded athlete.  For all these reasons, the “come to the sessions” you want model put the ownership in the athlete and their support group to make a skill development plan which fits into their busy lives and into their ongoing skill development.  Only pay for the sessions you attend and only pick the ones that fit your skill level.  The skill level is determined by the athlete and their support group and not the academy coaching staff.  Some athletes will attend every session for a year to try to prepare for a future tryout to a team, some athlete use the academy to supplement the coaching they are getting on their current team, and some athletes just want to hear a different coach’s view on how to do as skill.  Exposure to a variety of different coach styles is important in an athlete”s development.  In short, fill your life with music, arts, sports and people and a well-round human will emerge...too much of one sport, art, Fort nite or any aspect of life will create a fanatic single-dimensional human, variety is the spice of life.

But as a businessman, I welcome the fanatic volleyball players who attend every one of my sessions.