Bram playing for her NCAA team, the Mercyhurst Lakers

Roughly 40 U22 female hockey players took part in a Hockey Canada strength and conditioning program early in May.

Ste Anne's Shelby Bram was amongst them, and although she has taken part in around 12 Hockey Canada camps since grade eleven she says it's always exhilarating to be selected to participate in them.

"It's always an honour to be selected to these camps and represent your country.  There aren't many people who are chosen to partake in these camps, so it's always an honour to wear the maple leaf on your chest every chance you get.  There's no way to explain how you feel."

Bram notes the program tested them on strength, speed, power, agility and fitness level.

"They're short camps, it was only about four days but it's non-stop testing, meetings and workouts.  It's very intense.  It shows you how to train like an Olympian and to prepare for the Olympics in 2018 in Korea.  It gets very hectic and it's tough, but it's a lot of fun as well."

While many Hockey Canada camps are tryouts for certain teams, strength and conditioning camps are meant as both an opportunity for players to show off their skill and for Hockey Canada to teach them how to become a better athlete.  In this specific camp Hockey Canada was looking to find who could perform at or past an Olympic level of fitness, and Bram says she fared quite well in that regard as she was one of only a few players asked to attend an on-ice camp in August.

Despite the intensity of the four-day period, Bram explains Hockey Canada still found time to let all of the participants have some fun.

"We went to an altitude tower, which is a 100 foot rope course.  It kind of took our mind of all of the testing.  It was a lot of fun and all of the girls had fun, but otherwise it was pretty tough.  Every chance we got we were sleeping because we were pretty exhausted."

She adds knowing Hockey Canada is keeping an eye on her is always something that serves as a little extra motivation when she is playing.