Highly skilled leaders key to Oval summer camps’ appeal
KIDS LEARN FROM SOME OF THE MOST QUALIFIED LEADERS AND COACHES IN B.C. IN WORLD-CLASS FACILITY
Kids can’t wait : the school year will be over before we know it. For parents, that means figuring out how to keep their children active and engaged during the summer months.
Will it be dragon-boating, golf, hockey, rowing, fencing or dance? Those are some of the options for summer camps at the Richmond Olympic Oval.
Diversity is one aspect that sets the Olympic legacy facility’s summer programs apart. Kids can spend their days power skating, playing baseball or badminton, or climbing the Oval’s 44-foot rock wall, with its 45 different routes. Or they can take part in camps that take them off-site, camping at Golden Ears Provincial Park, biking park trails throughout Vancouver and Richmond, or paddling the waters near UBC.
The Richmond Olympic Oval offers camps geared to everyone from beginners all the way up to highperformance athletes. They all benefit from the most qualified leaders and coaches in B.C.
“All of our leaders have a sporting background: they compete in highlevel sport or coach for local schools or sport teams,” says Loren Dillane, Richmond Olympic Oval sport camp programmer. “They’re motivated to inspire a passion in a sport they grew up playing.”
“One of our focuses is physical literacy, helping kids build confidence and competency in a wide variety of movements and environments,” he says. “The overarching goal is to create lifelong activity and movement so they understand the benefits and will be able to continue on when they’re older.”
Certified in first aid, Community Sport camp leaders are trained through the National Coaching Certification Program’s Fundamental Movement Skills course. The Coaching Association of Canada program gives the leaders strategies to help campers improve skills such as throwing, hopping, skipping, jumping, kicking, striking, balancing, catching and agility. Leaders also explore themes such as fair play and safety. Add in their enthusiasm for sport, and you could say they put the “fun” in fundamentals.
“The kids have a great time while learning lifelong skills,” Dillane says. “We get kids who’ve never touched a soccer ball or picked up a badminton racket before, and we get others who compete. Our leaders are able to adapt, teaching our youth physical literacy and helping athletes improve.
“The people who lead our camps, with their sporting experience, provide that extra level of customer service,” he adds. “Our staff are the backbone of why we think our camps are the best.”
Then there’s the fact that camps take place in the award winning 512,000-square-foot Oval. With an indoor rowing tank, two Olympicssize ice rinks and six hardwood sport courts. Some campers get to go to the Olympic Experience (ROX), the only Olympic Museum in Canada. There, they can experience state-of-the-art sport simulators, which give a sense of what it’s like for world-class athletes to compete on the international stage, whether it’s flying off an Olympic ski jump or riding along the Whistler bobsleigh sliding track.
Registration is now open, with earlybird savings of 10 percent for all camp registrations in April. For more details, visit richmondoval.ca/camps