This past January, ex NHL Oilers Development Director and current USA Hockey Development Director, Bob Mancini, hosted the USA hockey level 1 & 2 coaching course in Cape Town at the Strand Towers Hotel (host hotel of last years IIHF Div3 athletes).
Bob arrived on the Friday late evening, just in time for the commencement of the seminar starting bright and early Saturday morning at 9am. The attendance was made up of Cape Town's core players and officials, who were looking to further develop their coaching & management skills.
Day 1 was a 6 hour intense focus lecture on the USA level 1 covering topics such as Overview, Role of the coach, Comunication, Creating a World Class Hockey Program at 8u and Ice Utilization, ending off with a Q&A session which always seemed to be rather informative and comical.
Bob was then guided through the V&A Waterfront by two of the players where he learnt about Cape Town and more about local hockey, which Bob found rather facinating as it is varstly different from hockey in the States.
Day 2 began with a morning skate, before heading back to the hotel for another 6 hour lecture however level 2 was alot more interactive and 5 minutes into the session everyone was paired up and working on drill development and presenting their ideas to the rest of the class.
Level 2 focused on Creating a World Class Hockey Program at 10u/12u, Communication, Goaltending, Checking and Teaching through small area games. Overall a great success and Bob was pleased with the past two days.
As Bob will be joining the Mens national team as an assistant coach, he joined them on the ice both Monday and Tuesday night working on various elements and restating systems and plays from head coach Ronnie Wood.
This weekend Bob and Ronnie are currently in Gauteng hosting the same level 1and 2 course and working with the rest of the Mens national team in preparation for the upcoming IIHF tournament.
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