(Ottawa native Cody Ceci was the Senators' first-round pick in the 2012 NHL Draft held in Pittsburgh. The Ottawa 67's defenceman will provide readers with some thoughts about his first Senators development camp in a series of blog posts for ottawasenators.com).

Cody Ceci and his fellow prospects at Sens development camp got some instruction in self-defence techniques from Guy Ouellette of Elite Martial Arts and Fitness Centre in Orleans.

Yesterday, we did some self-defence training with a martial arts instructor (Guy Ouellette of Elite Martial Arts and Fitness Centre in Orleans). I’ve never really had that before, so it was definitely a lot of fun. He’s a pretty intense guy. I’d hate to have him for a full workout because we were dying in those 20 or 30 minutes he worked with us, but we had some fun with it.

I don’t fight much, but it’s always good to know how to protect yourself. If the scenario comes up in a game and you need to know how to stick up for yourself or a teammate, then you know how to defend yourself. It was more about learning how to show up for a fight and protecting yourself and just being ready.

I’ve been rooming at the hotel with Robbie Baillargeon, our fifth-round pick this year who is from Massachusetts. We’ve had a chance to talk and get to know each other a bit, but we mostly try to stay off the topic of hockey. We’ll try to talk about a bunch of other stuff. Things like where we live and how we like it. We talk about hockey enough at the rink, so we try to keep the conversation off that.

I’ve met a ton of new people this week and it’s always neat getting to know the other guys. You see them on the ice a lot, but you never really get to see what they’re like off the ice. Getting to know them off the ice is definitely a cool thing and you learn a lot about them by spending time with them off the ice.

I’ve been with Princey (67’s teammate Shane Prince) a lot on our nights off. We tend to just go around and get something to eat and stay away from the hotel. We spend enough time there as it is.

We’re getting near the end of camp and I’d say Thursday was the hardest day so far. That was a really long day, with a workout, a practice and a scrimmage at night. After that, I think things have slowed down a bit. It’s late in the week and we’re getting tired. It’s been pretty high intensity throughout the camp, but I think they realize that and they’ve cut it back lately. They’re doing a good job of that as we near the finish, so we have some energy for the 3-on-3 tournament on Monday.