Game On Magazine - April 2017 Game on Preview Edition | Page 50

be elite level athletes with a drive and
determination to be the best.
One of the most important partners
in the new Centre is Hockey Manitoba.
Decker and his staff are now delivering
Hockey Manitoba’s programs to all parts
of the province.
“Over the years we’ve naturally had
a great relationship with the Sport
Manitoba performance department,
helping us improve our development
program delivery in several areas,” said
Kyle Prystupa, Hockey Manitoba’s
Manager of Development and
Communications.
“Jeff Wood has been a strength and
conditioning consultant for our U-16
Male and U-18 Female Program of
Excellence for several seasons so we’re
very excited to see him become a part
of the newly expanded Canada Games
Sport for Life Performance team. The
enhancement of the new facilities and
expert staffing will significantly help us
push the growth of our development
programs and high performance athletes
from across the province.”
This past summer, the first summer
session at the brand new Canada Games
Sport for Life High Performance Centre,
trainer Jeff Wood had a large, active
Professional Group that included Nolan
Patrick (Philadelphia Flyers), Adam
Brooks (Toronto Maple Leafs/Marlies),
Brendan Shinnimin (Astana KHL), Chase
Harrison (Regina Pats grad), Bailey Bram
(National Women’s Team), Ryan Kubic
(Vancouver Giants), Chris Driedger
(Ottawa/Binghamton Senators) and
Adam Hughesman (Bordeaux, French
League). Along with those athletes,
players like Cody Eakin and Brendan
Leipsic of the Vegas Golden Knights have
taken part in the on the ice sessions.
“I’ve been trying to get in as much
yoga, ice time and strength training as I
can before heading to Europe (Bordeaux
in the French League),” said Hughesman.
“It’s just opened up and there are so many
more athletes here already. It’s great to
see a facility like this. It’s so much fun.
There is more space to work out and it’s
right downtown. The only issue? There are
too many things to do in here – too many
choices. That’s a great problem to have.”
“I love this place, it’s an awesome
training centre and more importantly,
the training environment is competitive
but fun at the same time,” said Wood, a
pretty quiet guy who just can’t hide his
enthusiasm for the Centre. “We have a
great group of athletes training here and
it’s really outstanding having all that
space.” The Performance Centre is made
up of three separate rooms including
the Strength & Conditioning Room,
Movement Prep and Assessment and the
Flex Space. The Flex Space is a unique
area that is netted in for hockey players
to shoot pucks or baseball players to
hit or throw balls. It can also be used
for a variety of jumping, running and
quickness drills.
Within the Performance Centre, the
coaches have the ability to be creative
and use a variety of training tools to get
the most out of their athletes. Because
the athletes that train at the Centre are
motivated to improve constantly, it is
not shocking to see training sessions
turn into mini competitions – athletes
competing with themselves trying to
beat their previous personal bests and
competing with each other to get pushed
to their limits. Either way, the results they
get because of the training environment
are noticeable. For Decker, the new
training facilities are a dream come true.
“Perhaps the most important part of
the new Canada Games High Performance
Centre is the culture,” he said. “The
culture is now so great. It’s just so much
fun and you can tell, after some very hard
workouts, how our athletes socialize and
have fun in our brand new lounge. This is
simply a great place to train.”
Canada Games Sport for Life High Performance Centre is helping to make moments like these.
Brendan Shinnimin, Barys Astana