We had a short interview with Vladimír Babic, the man behind Europe Summer Camp about the first camp, experiences and about the goals for the future.

Where did the idea of Europe Summer Camp come from?

V. B.: - For twenty years, from 1998 I have been going to summer camps as a head or assistant coach. Among others I have been in the camps of Jan Filc, Marián Gaborik and even in the camp of Miroslav Satan in 2007. I've seen for 20 years how an event like this works, how can you organize a camp like this. It's not a secret that I wanted to utilize this knowledge for a long time and organize my own camp.

What was the main goal of the first camp?

V. B.: - I've had three main goals. Firstly in a camp like this it is necessary to have experienced coaches in the staff who'd worked with all age groups and who can not only draw the drills on a board but show the kids on the ice what and how to do. This was an emphasized expectation from my side and I am happy that I could achieve it. The second goal was to have an outstanding venue. I was paying attention to have the camp at a venue where everything is there: pool, wellness, hockey rink, gym and soccer pitch. It was important so we didn't have to waste 1-2 hours every day with travels. Hotel Altis fit all the above purposes exceptionally. The third aspect was to give the participants as much usable hockey knowledge as possible both on and off the ice. We tried to put together the schedule so that it'd give the players a big push for the upcoming season, and help with their career in the future.

The staff was amazing. How was the selection made?

V. B.: - As I mentioned before I've been going to camps for a long time. I got to know many great professionals during these years and I contacted the ones that are outstanding in their own field. The skating technique coaches, the Czech Ondrej Smrz and the Slovak Branislav Bendik have unbelievable backgrounds for example. They are working individually with players like Stanley Cup and World champion Michal Handzus for example. It is a huge thing that we could bring such experts to the camp.
Or there was the strength coach, Filip Kosecky. He has 17 different coaching degrees and papers and I can honestly tell that we, the coaches could learn a lot from him as well. One of the coaches told me that he could sit in to a 10-day coaching course and still couldn't learn as much as he could from Filip in these six days. And probably this is also an important part: in the camp not only the children improved but the coaches could learn from each other.

The first camp went down without problems. What are the experiences? What are the short and long-term plans with the camp?

V. B.: - We set the bar really high and started the first camp on a really high level in every aspect. Nevertheless, I feel that everything went as smoothly as if we were organizing the 10th camp. Of course, next year I would like to raise the standards again. This year there were children from seven countries and coaches from three countries - and even though we couldn't bring for example Scandinavian coaches this year, that doesn't mean that we won't be able to bring them in the future. I have a lot of ideas on how to make the camp even better, but the participants will only see how we are going to raise on the level and what we're going to do next year on the spot in the 2018 summer with their own eyes - for the time being it is still a secret. But what I would like to say is that we are very grateful for all the coaches and helpers, and of course we are very grateful to the sponsors, Marczi Skate, Transport Munkaerő-kölcsönző Nonprofit Kft., Metal Solutions Kft. and Corner Hotel és Kávéház, without them the camp could not exist!