What is a Hockey Canada Skills Academy?

A hockey academy is an institution that allows young hockey player to take part in a training program during school hours. In many European countries, hockey academies form the base of all hockey development. European hockey academies have been in operation for decades. It has long been known that to develop a talent, ability, or skill to its full potential 10,000 training hours are needed. This translates 3 hours of daily training for over 10 years.

Through cooperative ventures with the Canadian education system, this is now possible. The school system has the ability to create a timetable that will allow the students to participate in daily, semi-weekly or weekly hockey training sessions. A teacher, a coach, or a combination of both, can run the sessions. The school itself or an independent organization, such as a minor hockey association or a private group, can operate the hockey portion of the program. The training that takes place within a hockey academy is very much in line with the role of the school in other curriculum areas; enhance students’ opportunities to learn and excel academically and athletically.

Philosophy of the Hockey Canada Skills Academy Program

At the 1999 Molson Open-Ice Summit in Toronto, the delegation recommended that Hockey Canada investigate ways to support the design and delivery of school-based hockey programming that would make use of facilities during regular school hours.

Recommendation # 10 stated:
“Promote cooperative efforts between school boards, local hockey associations and sponsors, to better utilize ice times and school facilities and move towards the development of sport schools.”

This recommendation is now a major priority for Hockey Canada. For this purpose, Hockey Canada has developed a program philosophy along with guiding principles to support the implementation of hockey skills academies.

The Program Philosophy:

• A HCSA Program must be sanctioned for operation by Hockey Canada and Hockey Canada Branches.

• The program must be designed to compliment/enhance skill development opportunities within the current Hockey Canada Branches and their minor hockey associations.  

• The program must be accessible to male and female students of all ages and all skill levels (designated grade levels) who may or may not be registered in the local minor hockey association.

• Partner with the school system to support individual skill development and academic achievement.  

• Ensure student access by providing aid, through a well defined equity policy, to participants where required.
  
  
• Create an environment that has an exclusive focus on individual student development.
  
  

Participating Students:

• Any male or female student who is attending a school with a HCSA program is eligible. 

• Any student regardless of hockey skill level may register in a HCSA.

• Any student regardless of family income status may register. 

• The school or school board establishes and monitors student behaviour expectations and sets the standard for student participation.

Program Instructors: 

• All HCSA instructional staff must be fully certified in the NCCP at a minimum of Intermediate Level (Development One Level) by Hockey Canada and its member Branches.

• All HCSA instructional staff must undergo annual professional development through the HCSA training program. 

• The HCSA Head Instructor should be trained in the Hockey Canada National Coach Mentorship Program (NCMP) and make themselves available to mentor Minor Hockey Association volunteer coaches.

Curriculum Framework: To ensure that the students receive appropriate and focussed hockey skills training, Hockey Canada has set guidelines for the curriculum. These guidelines are based on:

• A HCSA National curriculum framework as set out by Hockey Canada.

• A HCSA on-ice curriculum framework focusing on individual offensive skills and situational play. 

• A HCSA off-ice curriculum framework focusing on body coordination and skill development.

• A HCSA instructional curriculum framework supported by skill development guides and instructional videos as developed by Hockey Canada.

The HCSA National Committee is an Advisory Group providing leadership in the area of instructional curriculum and resource design. Through frequent feedback and exchange of ideas, participating academies will consistently refine and adjust program design to ensure training matches the needs of the students and takes advantage of the most up-to-date knowledge, technology and teaching methodologies.

One cornerstone in the HCSA curriculum is the on-ice skills tests and the off-ice fitness tests. These tests are designed to measure improvement and also assess a variety of teaching methods.

Within these boundaries there are plenty of room for a hockey academy program to ensure an individual touch. There are also enough areas to cover, to keep any hockey player focused and working hard during a daily training session for several years.

Progress in hockey or a player’s performance is often measured in wins and losses, and since the ultimate goal of the game is to win, that may still be the most accurate way to measure a team’s performance during games. But how is an individual’s performance measured?

Does an increase in goals mean that shooting accuracy has improved or is that the player is just getting more power play ice time? In view of the fact that individual development is the main purpose of youth hockey, it would be advantageous if this development could be measured separate from game results. The HCSA program provides a framework for isolating each important skill and measuring accurate results for each one of them. With precisely identified data of a player’s skating speed, stickhandling skills, etc., one can compare these figures with the results from previous tests and determine the progress made. One can also, measure the power of the trunk, the upper body strength, etc. and compare these results against those of top level players to calculate how far off the elite level a young player is, or to see how rapidly he/she is moving towards this goal.