Quote:
Originally Posted by Rich
Philosophies change, mechanics and how to take plays change subtlly all the time. If you're not learning anything, it's not a good camp or the clinicians are poor.
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This is the most important reason to go to camp - it's to stay current. The pace of change may not be fast, but if you let it go for more than a year or two, you're going to be behind and a little out of touch (and maybe more than a little the longer you don't go). Camp's where we start to set the tone for the year to come; it's where we get some common understanding of things that we then all go use in our pregame in the next year, etc. So in pregame, we're not explaining new topics, we're referring back to prior learning.
Last year, my third child was due the week of the camp run by the supervisor in my highest league, and ended up being born (2 weeks late) the weekend of the other major camp in our area. So I didn't go to camp in 2017, and let me tell you:
I felt the difference. Just 1 summer of not talking the talk and running the floor with everybody for 1 or 2 weekends, and I could tell I was behind. It worked out fine, but you have to stay current.
I'm likely never going to climb higher than I am today, because the places where I'd get seen by next-level supervisors are places I'm not willing to spend my time, money, or spousal indulgence to go. I'm in no way bothered by that; if I went for it, maybe it'd work out, maybe not, but my choices mean my life isn't cut out for that chase! And that's fine!
But I WILL keep going to camp as long as I'm trying to referee, because the feeling this fall of not having that edge, of not being on top of everything, SUCKED.