Chinese trio hones game at Rivers hockey school

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This article was published 01/08/2019 (2449 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Derek Laxdal has spent a lifetime in hockey, but there’s a new angle even for him at his annual hockey school at the Riverdale Community Centre in Rivers this year.

The former Brandon Wheat Kings star and current head coach of the Texas Stars of the American Hockey League has three hockey players from Beijing among more than 120 youngsters on the ice for the eighth annual event.

Laxdal noted the young Chinese players, eight-year-old Jingxuan (Raphael) Wu, 10-year-old Shuyuan (Jerry) Liang and seven-year-old Yiteng (Jeff) Ye, are all talented.

“They work with a lot of Canadian coaches in China, and they’re fairly skilled,” Laxdal said, “Chinese people are very detailed, and when they do something, they do it hard and they do it right. You can see with these kids when they go through the skating drills and the fundamentals that they’re very detailed in how they do it.”

Charlie Chen from Brandon and his sons Ethan and Edward play an important role in the story. Ethan plays minor hockey in Brandon, and other parents told Charlie that Laxdal’s camp in Rivers was a good one.

Ethan attended last summer and liked it.

“They think this is one is very organized and has good coaches, and a very famous coach from Brandon here teaching,” Chen said. “Last year we were here and we were thinking it was very good. We have friends in Beijing so when they were thinking about coming to Canada for a camp, we recommended this one. That’s why they came here.”

Wu Tong brought the players over to Canada.

“We are very satisfied with this ice hockey camp,” Tong said. “The coaches are very brilliant and the kids are very powerful and positive. They train positively, and the arena is excellent.”

Tong said hockey is growing in China, which will host the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing.

“China is developing very hard this game, especially in the biggest cities in China, and Beijing, the capital,” Tong said. “It’s the economic centre and you can say the sports program centre of the country. In the (most) recent five years, we have built about 20 pitches (arenas). Now in Beijing there are about 30 clubs being managed. There are about 5,000 young players joining this game, and in Beijing we have two leagues every year, a spring league and an autumn league.”

China hosts a Kontinental Hockey League club, the HC Kunlun Red Star, which joined the Russia-based league three years ago.

Tong said the game is also being played in schools, but acknowledged it has a long way to go.

“It’s not the same as in Canada,” said Tong, who considers Canada the top nation in the world for the game. “In Canada, it’s a country sport, a popular sport. In China, it’s not so popular, but it has become more and more popular.”

Tong said there is a lack of knowledge about hockey with parents and for the kids, which has prompted an influx of Canadian and European coaches to China to teach the game. He also noted that equipment and player fees are expensive, a concept familiar to many Canadian parents.

“At the beginning, they didn’t know about this game very much,” Tong said of the kids. “But during the training, and knowing this game more and more, they liked this sport. They don’t like this game now, they love it.”

They have a Canadian coach in Beijing, Chen said, so they understand hockey concepts in English and there hasn’t been a major language barrier. Laxdal said if there is a more involved explanation, the Chen boys translate to the trio.

“Most times they should be OK,” Charlie Chen said. “Also the drills, they’ve practised them in Beijing as well so they can follow the coaches.”

All of the kids at the camp pay $400 for the week, a reasonable sum in today’s game, and one that’s spawned a lengthy waiting list. They have a morning session on the ice, yoga, lunch, hockey-specific dryland training and then a second ice session.

When Laxdal coached in the ECHL, he ran a hockey school during the third week of August. When he took a job with the Western Hockey League’s Edmonton Oil Kings, he had to go back to work much earlier, so he moved the school to his wife’s hometown.

It’s been a popular attraction, selling out every year and drawing other kids from across Western Canada and the United States.

“The big thing for us is to make sure the kids have a great time,” Laxdal said, “It’s not a babysitting school, the kids come here to work and try to improve in five days, and have something to take home with them and have something they can implement that they learn here that can help them the rest of the season.”

He prides himself on being detailed, and has a high instructor-to-player ratio. The kids are broken into small groups and kept busy.

Brandonite Craig Anderson has served as head on-ice instructor all eight years, with Bruce Helgeson of Rivers heading up the dryland section.

The school is open to youngsters aged six to 14, with the groups split into six-to-nine-year-olds, 10-14-year-olds and then an advanced group.

“For me, it’s about giving back to the game a little bit,” said Laxdal, who noted the town also sees a nice economic impact.

In fact, some families arrive early to make a holiday of the week.

The Chinese group certainly hasn’t had any second thoughts about their choice.

The group went to a hockey school in Europe last year, and wanted to come to Canada this summer. Tong said a big part of the experience comes away from the ice.

“We think choosing Canada as the destination was correct,” Tong said. “We like the children to see more and more of the world, not only including this game but everything, for the eyes, for the ideas. It’s really good for their growth.”

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